By Susan Guillory
Every year, I make New Year’s Resolutions, both for my personal life and my work life. I’ve written dozens of blog posts encouraging small business owners to make their own goals — really detailed, actionable, and achievable goals — so that they can grow their businesses.
But this year, I’m forsaking tradition and making only one resolution. I’m a little shocked myself. Why am I bucking my own system?
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Aligning Goals with Where Your Business is in Its Lifecycle
I’ve run my marketing firm for 10 years. I’ve gotten to the Mature or Established phase of my business’ lifecycle, which means I’m not sweating quite so hard to attract business and get a foothold in my industry.
In years past, I’ve made goals about how much I wanted to grow sales, or how many new clients I wanted. This year, I just want to keep doing what I’ve been doing to have a thriving marketing company that people hear about and want to work with. I want to continue to give my amazing writing staff more challenging assignments. In sum, nothing is broken, so I don’t have the need to set up goals to fix issues.
There’s nothing new about my New Year’s resolution. It’s simply to continue doing a good job with my company.
What about you? Where is your business in its lifecycle? If it’s in its infancy, you probably do want to establish goals for the year that drive the direction you take the company. Or if you’re in the Growth stage, maybe you want to set your intentions for finding the capital to expand your office or staff.
I see the benefit of establishing business goals, whether they’re in January with the fresh slate of a new year, or any other time, that match your place in the business lifecycle. Needs change, and goals should too.
The Simplicity of One Resolution
I also rather like the idea of having one single goal to focus on. Just like you, I can forget that long list I created 12 months ago, and then it feels like failure when I realize I haven’t accomplished any of my list.
But having one goal keeps things pretty streamlined. After all, if I can’t remember to continue to do what I’ve been doing in 2017? I don’t deserve to have my own company!
This year, try setting just one goal. Keep that goal in mind with everything you do in 2017. Then at the end of the year, see how you feel about your results.
