I love a new year. Although I realize that, technically, every day is the beginning of a new year, there’s something about the New Year that makes me both reflective and optimistic about what lies ahead. As a pretty goal-oriented person, I enjoy the process of looking back, learning, and looking forward. It’s the basis of strategic planning, after all, a personal passion of mine. Each year I spend time to commit my goals to writing and I track my progress throughout the year. I don’t achieve every goal, but I do belief that I’m more effective than I would be if I didn’t take the time to plan. I had some great successes in 2012 and a lot of very rewarding experiences–both personally and professionally. But there’s always room for improvement and, regardless of what I achieve, I always want to achieve more. So, in 2013, there are a number of things I’d like to do better:
- Continue to perfect a system for keeping my, and my clients’, social media activities running smoothly and efficiently with an efficient combination of activities that draw from third-party research, proprietary knowledge, blogs and presentation materials and personal promotions. The ability to track and analyze results is a great way to measure and monitor success with an eye toward continual improvement.
- Document my strategic planning process more specifically to include not only the steps, but the exercises, examples, forms and documents that I’ve used with various clients. While each client engagement is slightly different, the basic process is very much the same. I could save myself time “reinventing the wheel” each time by being more purposeful about the process–and, the resulting documentation, could be the basis for another book on planning.
- Develop a process/method for turning my content into ebooks and webinars that could be replicated with my clients. I have a lot of content that exists in the form of articles I’ve written which I still retain rights to, blog posts and eletters that could be repurposed in some meaningful way. So do my clients. I’d like to do a better job of creating a process for recreating that content.
- Capture the content I create through my class lectures, media interviews, presentations and consulting sessions to be used in some other form–e.g. articles, ebooks, webinars, client services, etc. I have a plan “in my head,” I just need to implement that plan.
- Leverage my ability to serve more clients by effectively utilizing interns, freelancers and other contractors to expand my production. I’ve realized that, to generate more revenue in 2013, I don’t have the capacity to take on more work. My options are to raise my rates or find ways that others can help me achieve my objectives.
- Help those around me achieve more success in 2013–that includes my family, my clients and my students.
- Take time for myself that does not involve working on some new project or generating more clients or activity.
Very much looking forward to a great 2013! Happy New Year!
Tags: Business development, client development, Customer Service, Innovation, Marketing, marketing strategy, personal development, planning, professional development, resolutions, Sales, Strategic Planning, Strategy