It’s finally a new year! Which means it’s also time to start setting goals and planning ahead to find ways to help propel your business forward into greater success. The New Year is a great time to start but it can also feel a bit daunting when you have so many things you’d like to achieve and so many directions that you’d like to go. That’s why it’s a good idea to break it into a few smaller steps and to get organized. We’ve put together these 5 tips to help you get moving on making 2015 the best year yet for your business!
1. Plan Ahead
This is one of those tips that is mentioned over and over again when it comes to any sort of goal setting advice but it’s for good reason. If you don’t have a clear cut plan of action it is very unlikely that you’ll succeed in your goals. If you’re not the type to plan ahead, the New Year is a great chance for a fresh start. Figure out if it’ll be more helpful for you to have your goals on an app, online, or hand written in a planner. Whatever it takes to get a fully formed plan in the works get that out of the way first so that you can move on to actually accomplishing your goals in the new year.
2. Get Organized
This goes right along with the idea of planning ahead. Making a firm plan is a big help, but if you don’t keep your plans organized you’ll rarely accomplish them in a timely manner. Once you have a plan, break it down into smaller steps so that you can keep everything all together. Small, organized steps will help you accomplish even the most daunting of tasks that you have in front of you.
3. Challenge Yourself
It may seem tempting to just make goals that are easy to accomplish so that you can at least accomplish something, but this gets old very quickly. Most entrepreneurs and small business owners thrive on challenge. In order to keep yourself and your business moving forward it’s best to set challenging, but realistic, goals.
4. Reward Yourself for Meeting Smaller Milestones
Setting challenging goals is a smart idea but it’s also a good idea to set smaller, more quickly attainable goals that can help keep you motivated along the way. If you need extra motivation, set up a system of rewards for meeting your smaller milestones. Maybe a nice dinner out or a small gift for yourself will help you look forward to meeting your self-imposed deadlines. This will help keep your stress level down as well because it will help you to not leave everything to the very last minute on your larger, more challenging goals.
5. Push Yourself Outside of Your Comfort Zone
This is one of the most important ways to help you succeed in any endeavor but especially when it comes to your business. Pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone allows you to propel your business forward and accomplish things that you never thought possible. Most of the time our comfort zone is simply a mental block and it’s not anything that is actually risky or dangerous. Take some time to assess what steps make you a little uncomfortable and decide if the benefits outweigh any perceived risks.
Following these 5 simple tips will help take your business to the next level. Make 2015 the most successful and best year yet for your company you’ll be glad you did!
