Planning for a new month
In an ideal world, we would plan ahead months in advance and simply execute on that plan. In reality, small business owners are stretched for time, so these planning activities may not always happen well in advance. That’s okay. The last few days of the month are a great time to look ahead and make sure you are ready to meet the demands of the month to come.
Revisit priorities. Spend time reviewing your key priorities. These should not change from month to month, but often in the busyness we lose sight of them.
Set your month goals. What do you need to accomplish this month to achieve your year-end goals? For example, if you have a goal of expanding the products or services you offer to five existing customers or clients by year-end, what steps do you need to take in order to accomplish that goal? How many interactions will you need to have with them? How will you showcase your product or service? How are you addressing their current needs such that they would even consider giving you additional business? Have you identified a number of touchpoints for the month? What will those look like? Do you need to establish a process for follow-up with existing customers that can make some of the activities more routine and less time intensive?
Be ambitious and realistic about what you can accomplish in a 30-day period.
Break it down into daily tasks. Each priority informs a set of goals. Those goals result in quarterly, monthly and daily sub-goals. Breaking the big goal into smaller actionable steps makes it less daunting.
What do you need to do daily over the next 30 days to accomplish your monthly goal and ultimately your goals for the year? Let’s take our previous example. You want to expand your offerings to at least 5 clients/customers by year-end. That means that over the next 30 days, you need to have consistent, sustained contact with these customers/clients through a number of channels.
What does this require you to do each day? Do you need to make calls? Do you need to send emails? Do you need to arrange in-person visits? Do you need to send them a physical reminder via UPS of FedEx? Do you need to set aside time to write content? Do you need to secure speaking opportunities to put yourself in front of those customers/clients? Identify at least one core activity for each day of the month that will help you get closer to your ultimate goal.
Here’s to more business birthdays!