You’re days away from the holidays. You made it through the rush of seasonal events and you’ve popped the cork on your last bottle of champagne. It’s time to relax.
But not so fast.
Before you close up shop to attend your own celebrations and before you head into a new year of planning new events for others, set aside some time to review. Have a look at where you’ve been and where you’re going in your business for the coming year.
Re-Cap and Review
In order to know where you’re going, you have to know where you’ve been. Taking stock of the previous year lets you know what worked, what didn’t and how best to move ahead based on your findings.
Here are some questions for consideration when doing your review:
- Did you reach the yearly goals you set for your business?
- If so, what did you do that got you there? If not, where did it go off track?
- Perhaps there are some goals that no longer fit with the direction of your business. Decide what you want to take with you moving forward.
- Did your business grow last year? If so, what growth occurred and what decisions worked to get you there?
- If the status quo was maintained, what would have made the difference to see forward movement?
- Were setbacks experienced? If so, what systems were put into action to ensure the same thing would not occur again?
Don’t forget to celebrate yourself when you are reviewing your year. What did you achieve and what major wins did you have? How did you make those wins happen? How did it benefit you? And how can you recreate more of that in the future?
Celebrating your successes for the past year increases your confidence and puts you in a position to pull yourself up when you’re having a downward turn. It makes it easier to recover from challenging circumstances and reinforces how you react to situations when they arise. This, in turn, will give you the courage to take on bigger and better projects in the future.
Take the time to reflect on your year: celebrate your success and make a plan for what must change in the new year. Click To Tweet
Plan and Prepare
After taking an honest look at what occurred in your business throughout the year, it’s time to decide where you want your business to go in the future.
You need a clear picture of where you want to drive your business and how you will make that happen.
- What goals do you want to reach in the year ahead?
- What benchmarks will you put in place to help you determine if you are successful?
- What tools and systems do you need to implement to enable you to meet those objectives?
- Schedule dates throughout the year for follow-up of goal progression.
- Are there any partnerships or joint ventures you want to make in the coming year?
- Can you brainstorm any out-of-the-box business opportunities to propose to referral partners in the coming year?
- Do you have a mission statement? If so, does it accurately reflect your core values and what your business stands for? Is it in line with the image you wish to project to the members of your industry and the public?
Acknowledgement and Appreciation
In the midst of your planning and events, don’t forget about those who make you look good every day. Whether it’s large or small, having a celebration to honor those who help you achieve success in the first place has many benefits.
It’s important to show your team that you value their contributions. Celebrating them serves as a good morale booster and motivation for continued success down the road. It has been proven that team members who are routinely recognized and appreciated for their good work go above and beyond for their employers compared to those who don’t. It creates unity and a sense of family among your employees.
Similarly, don’t forget to acknowledge those loyal vendors with whom you work side-by-side every day. Hosting a small celebration to honor them is a great way to connect with them outside of a stressful work environment. Fostering a sense of loyalty with vendors is important in this business because you never know when you’ll need to call in a last-minute favor because something has gone sideways.
While you’re at it, don’t forget to attend a few parties as a guest. Becoming successful isn’t a solo journey. For that, you must build community.
Attending holiday parties provides an easy atmosphere in which you can do that. It allows everyone to relax and get to know people on a more personal level, expanding your relationships to build strong connections with others.
Building a network based on relationships rather than what you can get from someone puts you in a position where you can call on them in the future for guidance should you require it and they can call on you as well.
No matter how long we’ve been in business there are times when we aren’t sure of the direction to take and building relationships and community with others gives us an alternative opinion to call on when we need direction from someone we admire and respect.
And with that, another year comes to a close.
In the spirit of recognition, we want to thank all of you for your support and sharing our content this past year.
From our family to yours, we wish all of you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and prosperous New Year.