It is natural occurrence for business owners to reflect on their businesses once per year as a special day approaches - perhaps a birthday, business anniversary, or the start of a new year. Some business owners, however, only make that reflection once per year. That makes for a long time in between to really consider their businesses and contemplate whether they took the direction they intended for them one year ago. Its a long time to look back to determine whether they accomplished what they set out to accomplish, whether the risks they took worked in their favor, whether they made the contacts they anticipated, the profits they hoped for, and whether their goals were met. For many people, only doing this once per year allows for that melancholy, regret, even surprise, to set in. Perhaps they anticipated the business would be at a different level one year later. Maybe the realization set in that their business and marketing plans werent followed as closely as they had been initially. Undoubtedly, some folks will have the I wish I had statements; I wish I had set regular goals as I intended, I wish I had gone to more networking events. To avoid the regret, and I wish I had statements, it is important to take quarterly and monthly stock of your business as well as those once per year reviews. I dont mean going through weekly and monthly goals or to-do lists and seeing how many have been met and accomplished. I mean - take stock of your business as a whole, whether it has had forward movement, what has happened in the past quarter/month, how your time has been spent. Block out appropriate times in your calendar to do this. It is that important! At the end of every month, spend 30 minutes considering the month. Consciously think about where your business is now, in relation to the start of the month. Consider your business in the way that you do at the end of each year or each anniversary. Have you stayed on track with your business and marketing plans? Did the business move in a forward direction? Do any I wish I had statements come to mind? Are you moving toward finalizing long-term goals? Was your time spent productively? Have sales, client-base and engagements increased as planned? Consider what didnt work as you would have liked. What can you do differently the next month that will keep you in forward momentum? What do you wish you had done this past month that you didnt? Dont have the same regrets. Make changes. Spend an hour going through the same process at the end of each quarter as well. Putting this process into practice will eliminate any regret and surprises as those anniversaries and birthdays approach. |
