by Robyn Bennett | Blog, Goal Planning
Last week I shared with you how I set myself up for success when it comes to planning my goals, and I shared with you how my main goal for 2020 is to buy a house! But this week, we’re going to switch things a bit and talk about setting your business goals.
I think that setting goals and developing a plan to achieve them is what sets successful businesses apart from unsuccessful or sedentary ones. Regardless of your business’s age, history, location, industry, or profitability, goal-setting helps you stay focused, motivated, and on track.
Goals prevent stagnancy. I believe goals set the stage for success.
I want to share with you 5 goals you need for your business to have a successful 2020!
1. Increase traffic to your website, blog, and/or social media pages.
The more traffic you get to your platforms, the more opportunity for your sales and customer loyalty to improve. In order to accomplish this traffic increase, you need to first increase the quality and perhaps quantity of your content marketing strategy. Understanding social algorithms and your website SEO, or consulting with a professional who does, is a great first step! Developing a valuable, relatable content strategy for 2020 will help you drive more targeted traffic and build a warmer audience.
2. Delve into new networking opportunities.
If you are not actively networking your business, then you need to set a goal to start. Get yourself and your business in front of more people and start making more genuine connections. This might come in the form of attending conferences, more online networking, sharing your expertise at speaking events, or hosting events yourself. Whatever the case, get outside your comfort zone and start talking about your passions. The more people you know and who know about what you do, the better for your business!
3. Schedule in times of rest.
This might be hard for some, but it can be as simple as dedicating one day of the week where you will not work on your business. It might be as extravagant as planning a couple of weeks in the year where you’ll go on a vacation with your family. Whatever the case, making sure you have time to rest, reduce stress, and get a bit of space from work, this will help you avoid burnout, and it will also help improve your productivity overall. Hopefully you’re passionate about what you do, and you actually enjoy it, but you must be sure to get some downtime where you disconnect from work completely to not get overwhelmed.
4. Perfect your personal brand.
Often when we start a business, we’re focused on gaining clients and starting work, leaving a lot of other important details untouched. We start having some real success, which forces us to leave these details on the sidelines for longer than anticipated. However, there are certain things you should be doing for your business to make sure you stand out from your competition. Branding is one of these things. If you haven’t determined your brand yet, laid out your vision and mission statements, decided on your colors and brand “personality,” then this is the year to do it. Become memorable to your clients. Boost your credibility. Represent your brand for how unique and amazing it is!
5. Increase productivity!
This goal is pretty broad, so you’ll want to break it down into more achievable goals for yourself and your own business needs. Analyze your business and determine places where you’re slacking on productivity. Maybe you need to get more organized to get more done in a day. Maybe you need to automate some processes. Maybe you’d do better to outsource some tasks so you have more time to do what only you can do. Whatever your areas of poor productivity are, identify them and come up with goals to solve the problems.
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I’m releasing my Goal Setting Bootcamp; It contains 4 content filled modules along with a workbook and checklists to help you stay organized. This home study class fits easily into your schedule and there’s no pressure to finish it by a certain date. Simply work on it as your schedule allows. If you do this planning work, you’ll be set in the new year to make massive strides in your business! Click here to get the Goal Setting Bootcamp
Have a great week! Robyn
PS: If you’re ready to dive deep into goal setting and set yourself up for success in 2020, then the Goal Setting Bootcamp is for you. You’ll be guided step by step though the process of making goals that are important to YOU and help you create action plans so your goals will become a reality. Get access here
by Robyn Bennett | Blog, Goal Planning
Is it just me? I’m seriously looking forward to the holidays. This has not been my favorite year for different reasons, but I don’t want to wallow in that feeling, I rather concentrate on what’s ahead for me and my business in 2020.
I’ve been working on a few things to get ready for the coming year and I’m excited. 2020 promises to be a great year! I’ll be launching a new course in January that will help you make a huge impact in your business, but I’ll share more about that in a future email.
Keeping with the New Year’s theme, it dawned on me recently that we’re not only starting a new year but… a new decade!
Today’s post is about goal planning for the new year and what I do to make my goals happen.
I have a method when it comes to goal planning… I start writing them down in broad terms.
For example, in 2020 I want to buy a house. Then, I start breaking the goal into chunks…
How much do we want to spend on the house?
What neighborhood do we want to live in?
How many floors do we want?
We need a backyard for the dogs.
The list goes on…
I try to get as clear as possible because when I’m clear things happen…
When I’m not clear things don’t happen, they just stay in my head…
For instance, maybe I like the idea of owning a house BUT… I rather rent because…
Less responsibility.
More money to travel.
I can leave when the lease is up and change neighborhoods.
You get my point.
As long as I’m clear in what I want and break it down, I can work towards making that goal happen.
I can go on and on with examples about goal clarity and its importance. If I’m not clear stuff doesn’t happen, plain and simple.
Naturally getting clear on your goals is not going to automatically make them happen, once you get clarity, you have to work towards them and that’s when I do my second set of chunking, I look at what are the things we need to do to make this goal happen.
Making sure we have a deposit to put down towards the house.
Get pre-approved for a mortgage.
Start visiting houses in different neighborhoods.
and the list goes on…
There’s one more thing I do… I imagine myself living the goal… I’ll use my new house as an example.
I close my eyes and imagine how it will feel when I’m there in my new house sitting on the patio outside on a sunny summer morning, the birds chirping and my husband and I are eating breakfast laughing while the dogs play outside and the cats are sleeping in the sunroom.
or… I imagine what it’s like to sit on the porch at night with my husband talking about the day’s events and hearing the crickets sing.
I could go on… but I think you get my point…
Get clear on your goals, make sure you really want them, break it down and take action… and envision what it would feel like if you had attained that goal…
That is how I make my goals come true…
Have a great week!
Robyn
by Robyn Bennett | Blog, Goal Planning
The end of the first quarter is nearing and maybe you failed to meet your goals. You’re feeling disappointed, and a little overwhelmed, but it’s important to remember that just because you failed at a goal in no way means you’re a failure.
It means something went wrong.
You might need to change your strategies.
It’s possible you need a new approach.
A failed goal doesn’t mean your business is failing or you’re incapable, but it does mean you need to change the way you do things and try again. Believe it or not, failure is often what catapults people into success!
Think about it. If Walt Disney had never been fired from his job as a newspaper editor (due to his lack of imagination), then Mickey Mouse and Disney would never have become what we know it to be today. If Steve Jobs had never been fired, he would never have purchased Pixar and revolutionized Apple after returning to the company. If Colonel Sanders’ restaurant had never failed, then there would never have been KFC. Failure opens the door to new opportunities.
Rather than fearing failure or allowing it to crush you, welcome it and then learn from it. Understand that it’s part of the journey, a necessary experience before you’ll be able to achieve your greatest success.
So here are 4 things to do now to kick the failure-blues:
1. Complete a post-mortem so you can properly learn from your experiences
A post-mortem is simply an analysis or discussion of an event soon after that event has occurred, mainly to determine why that event was a failure. If you’ve failed to achieve what you set out to do, it’s a sign that something went wrong! Similar to how a doctor will examine a patient who is seriously ill, examine your failed goal to figure out what exactly went wrong.
2. Take some time away
Failure often causes a lot of emotions, many of which make it harder to continue to do things. More importantly, they often block the ability to do things well. If you’re only able to think about your failure, then you won’t be able to make forward progress and will likely end up making the situation worse. So, take some time away! Do something different. Clear your mind. Start thinking about the big picture and don’t let yourself be stuck in the rotation of failed thoughts.
3. Pose honest questions, learn from other experts, and reignite your desire
Is what I’m doing enough to generate the results I want? How are other experts in my field doing it? Why do I want to do what I’m doing? Sometimes when we fail, we just need to take a step back, get our head out of the sand, and look around. Don’t be afraid to question your strategies, methods, or product. Learn from credible sources, peers, and experts. Remind yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing, what the real goal is, and why you love what you love. Help yourself refocus by questioning things brutally, learning abundantly, and regaining your passion.
4. Restart!
So, you’ve failed at a goal, but now it’s time to start again! Reboot and restart with a fresh goal, fresh strategies, and fresh inspiration. Remember that failure doesn’t define you. Rather, it’s a learning opportunity to improve you and your business by offering you experience and challenges. Believe in your ability to succeed, work hard, and learn from failure.
Tired of not hitting your goals? Ready to make some real progress? Sign up for my Goal Setting Bootcamp if you’re craving a big change in your business or life, it’s time to learn how to set goals like a pro so you can get your dreams out of your head and into your daily life!
Have a great week!
Robyn
PS: If you want to learn how to set bigger, better and more achievable goals for your business then register for the Goal Setting BOOTCAMP today and let’s do this!
