Three Steps to Make 2012 a Better Year

There’s something motivating about a fresh start. That must be why each year we think about what resolutions we will make for the New Year. We list our aspirations and resolve with confidence to realize these goals. For many, just weeks into the new year we fall back into our old ways and the resolutions seem to fade away until the next new year when we once again make resolutions.

Even after a few weeks into January, it’s not too late to start anew and resolve to make positive changes. Those who achieve success are the ones who apply a structure to their efforts, assign accountability to the goals, and define measurable milestones to ensure progress is being made.

In the absence of these check points it becomes difficult to witness movement towards your goal and all that motivation evaporates. Don’t let that happen to you. Apply the following strategies to your efforts and undoubtedly you will notice positive changes occurring.

Have a Plan

If you don’t have a formal business plan, I encourage you to make one. If you do have a plan, make sure that it includes what I call “Strategies Into Action.” This is a detailed document laying out all your goals and the activities you plan to implement in order to achieve those goals. It’s a to-do list of sorts, from a business standpoint.

For example, if you have a goal to increase distribution and you are seeking to pitch a major retailer to achieve this goal, you might have the following action items: conduct research on the various major retailers, identify a retailer with the best fit for your product, locate the buyer for your product category, contact the buyer for a meeting, prepare a presentation, and attend the meeting.

It’s quite the to-do list for only one of the action items: to pitch a major retailer. A good plan will have multiple action items with several strategies running in parallel to address several parts of your business.

Be Accountable to the Plan

Since a good plan will have a laundry list of activities to be completed, it is best to be practical in your approach when implementing it.

For example, so as not to be overwhelmed by the long list and to ensure that the items actually get addressed, it’s good to assign accountability measures to each item. This means distributing the responsibilities among the leadership in your business. It means allocating financial resources to each item that requires more than just someone’s time. Finally it means choosing realistic deadlines for each item. By having an end date for each activity it assigns a priority to the items.

Without such measures, other strategically less important yet nonetheless pressing issues will distract, if not completely hijack your time, along with your chances for achieving long-term success.

Track Your Progress

After all your efforts creating a plan, assigning responsibilities and determining deadlines, you’ll certainly want to track your progress –– measure your successes. For each effort noted in your plan, determine your expectations and measure your actual results against your expectations. By doing this you will catch any stray issues early on and have time to adjust and correct them.

An example of this for the line item: “Identify a retailer with the best fit” might mean finding a retailer that shares the same target consumer, ensuring the retailer has a portfolio whose products are complementary and who overall has a similar brand position. Once you do this, you will have your short list of retailers that you can check against your expectations to make sure you ultimately choose the one that best fits your business. You may have been thinking retailer A but after looking at all the criteria you might decide retailer C is a better fit.

By tracking your efforts and progress you can steer clear of pitching the wrong retailer and possibly see greater success by pitching the one that’s truly the best fit.

Realizing Your Resolution

With each new year, we have new desires and goals and some old ones still to be realized. For those resolutions, new and old, our best hopes for success hinge on our commitment to make them happen. Evidence of this commitment and the foundation for future success will depend on your plan. This thoughtfully created document that takes an objective look at your business and its goals will guide you. Some additional time and effort distributing responsibility and setting deadlines will keep you on track. Finally, tracking your tasks and measuring them against expectations will keep the momentum.

If you keep in mind these three strategies: have a plan; be accountable; and track your resolutions, you should realize a greater level of success in achieving your goals in 2012.

Happy New Year!

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About Insights Discovered

Penny Redlin is a regular contributor to the “Business Sense” feature on The Giggle Guide^®, sharing insights about business planning, effective communications and marketing strategies.

Based in Las Vegas, Nevada, Insights Discovered was founded by Penny Redlin in an effort to share her professional expertise within the children’s product category. The company’s mission is to give every mompreneur an opportunity for success. Insights Discovered exclusively services children’s products brands. The specific industry focus demonstrates a strong dedication to the unique needs of children’s products companies. Insights Discovered offers strategic planning, market research and traditional marketing services.

For more information, visit www.insightsdiscovered.com or call 702.218.5707.