For anyone who’s had a baby – you are intimately familiar with the nesting instinct. It’s that time just before baby arrives, when you go into hyper-plan mode to make sure everything’s ready for your new bundle of joy. The meals get made and frozen. The mobile gets hung. The onesies get organized. The hospital bag gets packed and waits by the front door.
This is driven from an instinctive need to prepare for imminent change.
As one of my best friends prepares for her new babe, I thought about how I’m deep in nesting mode in preparation for 2013. Not for any new babies (2 under 4 is perfect thank you), but for my business. I’ve got a planning afternoon slotted this Thursday with a friend and business colleague, I’ve started to brainstorm what I want to bring to this community next year and how I’ll uplevel my value and service to you.
It’s an exciting time – filled with hope, possibility and perhaps the chance for a few do-overs.
Have your nesting instincts kicked in?
Over the next few blog posts I’ll share some ideas I have about how you can enter into 2013 with confidence, clarity and a sense of renewed purpose. Because I know that by the year’s end we can all feel a little….well….tired. I feel it, my clients feel it, and I’m betting you might too.
And while we all need time to recharge (so please allocate some time over the next 1.5 months), I also know the power in starting a new year inspired and motivated for action.
So today, before we move to next steps, strategies and planning details, I want you to take stock.
Tomorrow I’m speaking at a local Chamber of Commerce luncheon on how to SuperSize Your Profits – and one of my key recommendations will be to do more of what works and less of what doesn’t.
Sounds simplistic, but the truth is, business isn’t that hard – we just make it hard. WAY harder than it needs to be.
Your first step to move into 2013 with confidence and clarity is to understand what worked this year, and what didn’t. Not to self-congratulate or judge your ‘failures’, but to objectively evaluate from a leaderful position, what your company really rocks at and what you may want to either reconsider, ditch or redesign.
We have a tendency to keep pushing the boulder up the hill – to keep trying and trying to make something work, despite how hard it feels. It’s in these times that I’ve learned to take a step back and say, “Is this not working because I’m missing a key step, or is it because it’s not the right thing in the first place?” Often it’s the latter.
Sometimes it’s not the right thing because we’re doing it for the wrong reason – solely for the money, or because our competitors offer it so we think we should too. Or, even more commonly, we’re doing it because it worked once – even though we’ve lost our passion for it, thereby directly impacting results.
What worked last year does not always work this year. As multi-passionate beings, we change our minds. We get excited about new ideas. We stretch, grow and outgrow what once felt oh so right.
Don’t beat yourself up about this – embrace it and work with it to create a new business reality. That is the joy of entrepreneurship – we are always in choice and able to redesign.
Back to your 2013 planning. Today, grab a recording device of your choice and answer these questions:
- What worked well this year?
- What didn’t?
- What projects / offers / strategies excited me and delighted me?
- What projects / offers/ strategies drained my energy and left me feeling tired or frustrated?
- What brought in the most revenue? Why this? (e.g. was the offer really aligned? did you spend the most time promoting it? Get to what made it successful.)
- What brought in the least? Why?
- Take a pulse test – how has this year felt to me? (tiring, thrilling, slow, frustrating, powerful, up and down, etc)
- Where did I get in my own way?
- Where did I rise to the occasion?
- My three biggest wins this year were:
- The five key lessons I learned this year were:
- The word that best describes this year in business is:
Taking some time to evaluate your experience in 2012 will set you up powerfully to plan out a fulfilling 2013. If you gloss over your recent history, you miss out on an opportunity to understand and learn what’s needed next.
In the next post, we’ll explore what you want to create in 2013 and what you’ll need to put in place (or get out of the way) to make that happen.
P.S.
It’s the ONE question I get again and again – especially at this time of year – “How do I create a marketing calendar I can actually USE?” So, watch for a special workshop invitation soon where you’ll get all the tools and support you need to craft a kick-ass 2013 marketing plan!
