If someone could give you a crystal ball and allow you to see yourself on December 31st of this year, what do you envision that day will look like? Will you be happy with what you have accomplished throughout the year? Proud of your business success and growth? Will you be motivated to keep grinding and working towards your goals in the year ahead? Or perhaps relieved that you overcame challenges and setbacks?
While we can’t exactly predict what the end of the year will look like, we can do our best to set ourselves up for success both in business and personally. One of our main focuses at the beginning of each year is to set up our business plans and projects to support our goals for the year while simultaneously helping us shape the future of our business. We ask ourselves, “Will this help us feel accomplished or reach our yearly goals on December 31st of this year?”
Having tried this for a few years now, we wanted to share our biggest takeaways and steps for setting up our business for success at the start of a new year. What works for us might work for you and set you on a business path that makes this your greatest year yet!
3 Ways to Make This Your Most Successful Year Yet
1. Review Your Highs and Lows of Last Year
In most instances, we will always advocate for looking forward and progressing towards your future with optimism and hard work. However, it is important to take a moment to assess the highs and lows of the past year to help guide you through future decision making.
Perhaps you had a great year of sales, marketing, or new clientele. However, maybe your engagement was lower than you wanted, you often worked more hours than you planned to, or you didn’t accomplish one or more of your long-term goals.
While we can appreciate the highs and learn from the lows, the biggest takeaway with this step is to recognize where you can improve moving forward and how to avoid repeating a past mistake or setback.
Take a moment to write out at least three of your biggest wins from the past year and similarly three things you wish you could have avoided. By writing these down, and internalizing them, you can better set your year up for success.
2. Map Out Your Year by Month
An organized business babe is a thriving business babe! (Isn’t that what everyone says? ;)) We believe that mapping out your business plans, goals, and projects by each month of the year at the START will help to set you up for success AND keep you more on track than if you only know your business plans a few weeks out.
Of course you can still have unexpected things come up or even learn of new opportunities and add them to your calendar. However, this step will help you to prioritize what is most impactful early on in your year and similarly help you see your long-term progress as you plan things to help your business succeed all the way through December.
Take another moment to physically write down your plans, projects, promos, and events for January through the last day of December related to your business. By physically writing them down, you are creating a visual representation of your year that you can then look at and internalize to make sure each item will bring you optimal success month after month.
3. Reconnect With Your Long Term Vision
When you first started your business, what were you hoping to achieve? If you have already accomplished what you set out to do, what are your long term plans now? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? 15 years?
Your long term vision for your business is something you should always keep in mind and use as a compass towards making big business decisions. In fact, Katharina Schmidt of Inspiration & Discipline said that, “Neuro research shows that when we envision future possibilities, we activate different brain networks than when we work on short-term goals and solve problems. Having a vision is the big predictor for achieving meaningful change. We overestimate what we can do in a year; we underestimate what we can do in ten years!”
If your ten-year goal is not something you think about every working day, you may want to re-evaluate that goal and make it more important in your daily life! By reconnecting with your long term vision at the start of the year, you are more likely to feel closer to accomplishing it by the end.
BONUS: Prioritize Self Care and Avoiding Burnout
Listen close everyone. If you’re reading this post, you obviously have the entrepreneurial spirit and want to be the best in your trade or as successful as you possibly can. However, you cannot run at a speed so fast that you burn yourself out too quickly. A tip for setting yourself up for success this year is to prioritize taking care of yourself and NOT letting yourself overdo it.
This doesn’t have to mean that you schedule weekly pedicures or take yourself on a spa weekend every other month. But you should be mindful of your abilities and the hours you pour into your business. Schedule breaks. Schedule a trip or two. Make time for breathing, recentering, and resting. Your business will succeed more when you are well rested and not burnt out!
2024 has success written all over it as you take a moment to look back, plan ahead, and reconnect with your vision. Are you ready to make this your best year yet?
We share tons of other business tips and advice on these other posts! Check them out!