keep targeting your weakest links.
by sandi leyva
if you’re ready to have your best year ever, then your first step is to plan to do something different. you won’t get to the next level doing saly – same as last year.
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here are seven things to consider doing differently in 2020 that will help take you to the next level:
- move from reactive to proactive. work on fine-tuning your project management during busy season so that your results improve at each step of the way: getting new clients, onboarding them easily and systematically, delivering the service, getting paid and retaining the customer. if you don’t have a plan, then the first place to start is to get one, even if it’s not perfect or not complete. you can always improve, and when you take the first step – even if it’s a baby one – you’ve made a tremendous amount of progress toward your goal rather than if you just stood still in inertia.
- look at one part of your firm and make a small improvement. identify a weak link somewhere in your business and fix it. it can be small, but if it’s your weakest link, you just raised your firm to a higher level. keep identifying and fixing your weakest links, and your entire enterprise will be much better for it.
- systematize something that’s worked in the past and repeat it. no need to reinvent the wheel if you’ve found the magic formula. do the magic formula over and over again, perhaps more often, and you’ll increase your results.
- listen to your clients and roll out a new service offering that they are asking for. a huge part of the battle for getting new clients is getting people to trust you. why not leverage the people who already trust you – your current clients – and serve them in a new way? increasing your revenue per client is a great way to help your clients even more and to boost your bottom line at the same time.
- hone your skill. we spend a lot of time working on our core competency – the service we deliver to clients – and getting better at it. why not get better at a marketing skill? or project management? or listening? in order to move from technician to ceo, we need to broaden our skills a great deal.
- measure. how do you know something is working unless you measure it? add procedures to measure your business through metrics called kpis – key performance indicators. only then you can begin to see where you need improvements. when you do this you’ll naturally be able to improve your revenue and your profit margin.
- celebrate. stop for a second when you reach a goal and celebrate all the hard work you did that paid off and got you there. give yourself a reward, practice gratitude for what you received and then set your next goal.
which one of these tips speaks to you the most? mark your calendar right now to take one step toward working this tip into your business so you can envision a brighter 2020.