by 
I know you have heard the old saying” If you are not growing, you are dying” I do believe there is a lot of truth to this statement.
At the beginning of each year, there is a little nervousness and excitement as to what is going to happen in a new year. Do you remember all the anticipation that was made about Y2K , (The year 2000). Last year, I started out the year very nervous about the changes that Google was making. I was actually feeling good about this until September and then (Google Hummingbird) pretty much changed my thinking again.
Some other concerns I had were in the area of new accounts, brand exposure and growing professionally. I am happy to report that with a little planning and execution each one of these areas grew and as a result the company grew more than the previous year. I really credit this success to refining my planning and focusing on specific items.
The following list of quesitons helped me last year and I plan to use a similar list and add some more items. Here are some of the areas I plan on focusing on in 2014.
- How will you grow your company in 2014?
- Are you going to offer new services or upgraded services to current clients?
- Will you need to cut costs to keep prices at the same level?
- Will you need additional resources internally and externally?
- How will you collect client input?
- How will you improve service to clients?
- Are you goint to go after a new target market?
- Are you going to integrate social media more into your marketing mix?
- What are you going to stop doing in 2014?
- Are you going to look at growing revenues by 10-20% or higher?
- How many new clients do you expect to add in 2014?
Each of these items listed above require planning, execution and a need to measure. It is one thing to ask questions, it is another to take action.
Some actions I am considering based on information gathered from the quesitons above.
This year, I am going to step up my game and give more people responsibility. Some the areas I see this working are in the areas of content development for the website and posting information on social media sites.
Look for ways to look at data from a high level and then use that information to connect directly with specific target markets. I am still in the process of developing this process.
Use my office whiteboard more and more and make sure I write more thoughts and notes. Often, I keep too much informaiton in my head and I will have a good idea, but I know it will take time, instead of recording it, I forget it. I need to change the way I generate new ideas and collect information from articles and others. Pen, Pencil, iPad, iPhone
Continue to grow in 2014 and look for ways to separate yourself from your competition.
Good Luck and stay tuned for more thoughts in 2014.
“Image courtesy of pakorn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net“.
