I’m not like most business gurus. You know that by now. I think differently. Feeling happy and confident in your business is the success measure that I treasure. It’s equally as important as being profitable.
The whole ‘end of the year planning’ thing is stressful for many of us solo entrepreneurs. We have to look back and then look ahead to the future. Awkward.
Read too many plan for 2012 articles and you could easily come away feeling sad about what happened (or didn’t) this year, overwhelmed by what needs to be done and fearful of how to effectively change things for next year. Brutal.
I totally sympathize. After all, I run a small business, too. And, I’m still haunted by all those hours wasted in planning during my corporate life. The process stinks. However- planning is absolutely necessary if you’d like to succeed.
Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. Period.
Make a plan
I walk my talk, as the saying goes. I’m doing my 2012 planning now. So, I started thinking about reframing the idea of business planning from something that, frankly, ties my stomach in knots to something that feels simple & hopeful to me.
Because there is copious amounts of information about business planning already available I’m not going to talk about how to do that. You just have to google and read articles until you find one that resonates with you.
I read and liked this post by Syndi Craig-Hart which offered some very specific action steps to help you set goals for next year.
Syndi lists 3 steps for creating a strategic marketing plan, otherwise known as your big picture:
- Evaluate last year. Ok, this is tough, especially if you didn’t write your goals down or had too many or they changed as the year progressed. I say evaluate from a more friendly perspective. Remember the childhood game where someone hides an item and you find it while people yell directions like colder, warm, piping hot? How about we use that scale? Who doesn’t want to be warmer? LOL Personally, I’d say that my 2011 started off a little chilly but I got lots warmer towards goal of finding the right knowledge topics to serve you.
Has your year been cold, warm, getting hot, piping hot in 2011?
- Fill in gaps. That doesn’t mean do every new marketing gimmick that comes along. It means pick a couple of marketing ideas, make sure they’re connected and support each other (i.e. like social media and blogging support each other), then do them consistently. My guess is that you’re probably doing a little online and a little offline to reach your market. That’s great because you need both channels. When one isn’t working, the other one will be. Use a calendar to schedule in your daily tasks. (Successful entrepreneurs with 6 figure businesses routinely spend up to 2 hours a day increasing exposure and awareness. You could start with 30 minutes.)
Which of your daily marketing tasks makes you happiest?
- Write down your plan with help. This is the yucky part. Something cruel happens to great ideas once they go from my brain to paper. So, it’s useful to have someone help you capture your plan on paper and turn it into a step-by-step action bible. Studies suggest that writing down goals makes you 80% more likely to achieve them. Cool, huh? Luckily, there’s a wealth of great wedding professionals to help you. Check out awesome wedding marketing folks like Natalie Bradley, Kathy DalPra, Christine Dyer or Stephanie and Jeff Padovani. Want a different planning approach to creating a money map- try Syndi.
Who is gonna help you dominate in 2012?
Comment below to answer one or all of these questions. 
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