What I’m listening to: Hardliners by Holcombe Waller
Happy Sunday! I hope your weekend is going well. I had most of my shopping for the holiday done weeks ago (and I’m a cyber shopper), so today for me is about relaxing, reading, and wrapping.
But it’s also a good time to think about how to improve the business in the weeks ahead. Hey, it’s always a good time to think about that. Every business has room for improvement.
Ready for today’s business-building strategy?
Grab some coffee or tea. I promise this one will be easy. It’s the weekend, after all.
December 18: Build a Quick, Goal-Reaching Plan
Those goals you dreamed up yesterday? Today is the day you put a bit of a plan around them. Again, I’m well aware that it’s your weekend, and I know firsthand how precious that time off is.
It’s going to be easy. Here’s your two-step plan for reaching your goals:
- Decide how you’ll spread word
- Hold yourself accountable
The first one isn’t as tough as you think. Decide now if social media is your poison, which form, and how many messages you want to get out on a daily basis. For example, you can shoot for three Twitter messages a day, one LinkedIn update every two days, interacting on LinkedIn forums three times a week, sending four letters of introduction per week, following up once a week on letters/emails, or mailing brochures once a month to 10 prospect.
Write them down as bullet points. That right there? That’s your new marketing plan. See? Not tough at all.
The second one if you don’t even intend to stick with the first point, stick with the second. Accountability is a strong tool for reaching goals. The minute you have to tell someone what your results for the month were, the minute you become laser-focused on the goal.
Don’t think so? I told everyone on Twitter that I was blogging all month about the 31 Days of Freelancing. Guess who has to finish what she started?
Believe me, accountability is a powerful tool.
So how are you going to be accountable? You can’t necessarily rely on yourself to just stay on point. We as humans tend to let everything get in the way. So that’s not going to work.
Let’s do this instead:
- Find a buddy: Another writer is ideal (hell, for years I was accountable to all of you every month), but it can be a friend, your partner/spouse, or a relative. Just find someone who will agree to receive your monthly “report.”
So what do you tell your buddy every month?
- Repeat the goal
- Share your results
- Note what went right/wrong and what you’ll do next month
That’s it.
So today, think about two or three ways you’ll spread the word (and tomorrow, open your calendar app and schedule those ways).
Find a buddy to be accountable to.