There are only a few weeks left in 2022
This time of the year, with the holidays upon us, many of us take a close look at what we set to accomplish back at the beginning of the year, and whether or not we reached our revenue goals. And sometimes we don’t like what we see.
We start out strong in January as we set out ambitious goals and we get enthusiastic about what we can do with a whole year ahead of us as a blank slate. But the end of the year can be disappointing.
If you’re realizing you didn’t meet your revenue goals for the year, what can you do now to stop feeling like a failure and actually enjoy the holidays?
There are three things you can do to get your mind in the right place while getting in some actions that will move you forward and set you up for success in the new year.
The Reality Check
So you didn’t hit your revenue goals. Look at them and ask yourself, what were they based on? Maybe they were unrealistic, or not tied to your circumstances. For example, you wanted to hit $1 million in sales and started at $100,000. That might be too ambitious to achieve in a year, but not impossible.
So the next question to ask yourself is, what actions did you take to achieve them?
I know this was my big issue. Not taking the necessary actions.
Oftentimes the reason why we don’t achieve our goals is that we didn’t have a plan to work on those goals. So we ended up going down the rabbit hole of the day-to-day busyness of working in the business without doing much of the things we needed to do to reach those goals.
We’re always busy, it feels like we’re doing a lot – always thinking about the business 24/7, but we didn’t take the actions to move forward toward our goal.
Looking at this reality opens the door to the opportunities in front of you if you take the actions. So instead of beating yourself up, decide to take the actions that will move you toward that goal. There is a valuable tool that helped me a great deal: The 12 Week Year Plan. I explain how I implemented it in this short video.
Are You in a Better Position Today?
Maybe you didn’t hit your revenue targets, but you worked on your business this year, building your foundation.
For example, you invested time and money in developing your brand and improving your message. Or you worked on improving the skill sets that will allow you to be competitive, building the systems that will save you time in the future, and implementing marketing that will get you inbound leads.
These things don’t show an ROI because it’s a long-term proposition. So it can be hard for some to invest in these things because you are not guaranteed immediate results, and investing time and money in that can seem risky.
But those who are scared of investing in their business, tend to face constant ups and downs, keeping very busy with whatever work that comes their way and little in the pipeline once those orders are delivered. So they take any order and tend to be priced-shopped. They also don’t charge enough for added services that are so much in demand now, so they end up losing money in work that can be profitable. Year in and year out.
If you invested in improving your business, you are in a better position to compete, so if you didn’t reach your revenue goals, give yourself a break. You are on the right track.
Make a Plan.
You need a map to achieve your goals for the year.
As Abraham Lincoln said: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
Every year in October, we at Action take 15-20 hours over the course of a week to work on our yearly plan. It’s a lot of extra work, but it’s energizing. And it makes all the difference in knowing where you’re going and walking down your chosen path with certainty.
A plan sets the actions we will take and how we will take them. It sets priorities and assigns responsibilities.
In this evolving promotional products world, the distributor marketplace has become highly competitive, commoditized and saturated with sameness. Your digital-first customer is exposed to a lot of noise, so standing out is a must to attract new customers. Having – and most importantly, implementing – a plan will help you take the necessary actions. Even if you fall behind or face drastic changes, you can pick up where you left off and stay on course.
If you need help in creating a plan, or don’t know where to start, our free Marketing Plan Webinar will help. If you happen to be reading this after the live event date, you can still catch the replay.
Set yourself off for success in the new year and beyond!
The point is that, at the end of next year, you’ll have advanced your business toward your goals and feel good about your progress.
This article was first published in The Action Marketing Blog.
For more marketing articles, free webinars and guides, specific to the promo business, visit the Resources section of ActionMarketingCo.com.
