How To Tuesday: Making Business Resolutions You'll Keep
Written on January 5, 2010 by Susan Payton
I find creating actionable business resolutions extremely useful for Egg. Have you tried it? Don’t make them unattainable, like “make a million this year” (when you’re at $30k the previous year). Make resolutions you can meet, and determine how you will achieve them.
I’ve always been big on making resolutions, whether it be personal or business related. Every year on this blog, I list my resolutions and see how I stacked up. Let’s look at this year.
1. Attend more conferences on blogging, marketing, etc.
I attended Type A Mom and IZEA this year, so I met this goal, but I then realized it would be better for me to attend conferences where my target audience, consumer product companies, are present.
2. Start speaking at conferences.
I did several online webinars as well as spoke at the Hispanic Business Expo. Later I determined that speaking wasn’t a good use of my time (in other words, wouldn’t make Egg money) right now.
3. Further establish myself as The Marketing Eggspert.
I started guest blogging on Mashable.com, which helped get me more recognition as The Marketing Eggspert. This increased traffic to my blog and site significantly.
4. Grow blog traffic by 30%.
Ahem. My traffic actually went up 165%, so I pat myself on the back.
5. Grow Egg revenue by 30%.
I didn’t quite grow Egg’s revenue this much, but since there was a recession, I have to cut myself some slack.
6. Truly stop doing all the work in Egg. Delegate more.
It’s up and down. I have a few freelancers, but if I’m feeling controlly, I do most of the work.
7. Take more days off without feeling guilty.
I planned to take every Friday off. Didn’t happen.
8. Become well known in social media circles.
I’d say I did fairly well at this, but again, my goals changed and I realized that wasn’t where my focus should be.
9. ALWAYS make clients sign agreement prior to starting work.
Heh. Had a few instances where I didn’t do this and regretted it.
10. Remember I’m doing this so I have a better quality of life.
Running Egg has always been about loving what I do. Now I’m focusing on making more money to enjoy that quality of life.
Keep reading to see what I have planned for this year.
I’ve worked a lot these past few months to hone in on Egg’s niche, so I want goals that will reflect that.
1. Attend consumer product shows (2 this year).
2. Build strategy to grow the Marketing EggSchool.
3. Continue to build reputation for blogger outreach and PR.
4. Increase Egg revenues by 40%.
5. Get 10 new clients this year.
6. Keep clients longer (average has been 3 months).
7. Increase fees.
8. Bring employee on full time.
9. Write a white paper each quarter.
10. Finish work at 3 every day.
