Don’t Give Up On Those New Year Resolutions
According to a study conducted by Strava, January 19th is the day people are most likely to give up on their new year’s resolution. They even went as far as deeming the day “Quitter’s Day”. While this study was focused on health and fitness goals, I think it’s safe to assume that a lot of folks have given up already on their goals from all kinds of categories this year.
So why do people give up on their resolutions? From what I’ve seen, the reason is one of two things; Either your goal was too big/unrealistic or it wasn’t specific enough. If your goal this year is to become the richest person in the world, you’re going to have a really hard time meeting that goal when it took Elon Musk 22 years of building his net worth in order to get that title. Additionally, if your goal in 2021 is to make more money, what satisfies that goal and how are you going to quantify it? You can get a second job, save money in a jar, or have every person in the USA donate a dollar to you.
Regardless of the reason, you will most likely end up overwhelmed. You’re putting a grand resolution up on a pedestal without a concrete plan or idea on how to achieve it. You’re doomed to lose motivation and quit before you’ve even started. So what can you do?
Tips for Creating Goals for 2021
Setting goals for the new year, both in your personal life and small business, doesn’t have to be complicated, overwhelming, or stressful. There is a great tool you can use that has been proven to help anyone in successfully creating and completing goals. Have you heard of S.M.A.R.T. goals?
There are a myriad of articles, studies, worksheets, etc. that explain in depth the whole process of how to create a S.M.A.R.T. goal but I’ll go ahead and give you a quick TL;DR.
S pecific — Your goal should be specific in the actions that need to be taken in order to complete the goal. Example: Instead of saying “I want to read more.” say “I want to read a book a month.”
M easurable — Your goal should have criteria in order to determine whether you’re on track to reaching your goal. Example: “I will read for at least 15 minutes every day.”
A chievable — Your goal should be challenging but doable. In our example, 15 minutes is manageable but it would be difficult to fit in 2 hours of reading every day.
R ealistic — Your goal should be able to be realized. Reading 12 books a year by reading 15 minutes a day is realistic but reading 366 books is not.
T imely — Your goal should have a starting and finish line. In the case of new year resolutions, January 1st is the starting line and December 31st is the finish line.
See how you can turn “I want to read more.” to “I want to read 1 book a month for a total of 12 books this year by reading at least 15 minutes every day.” When you expand a goal, or any idea for that matter, it starts to feel a lot less overwhelming and way more doable.
Some other tips, from personal experience: Don’t set out too many goals at once, even if they’re “SMART”. Just work on one thing at a time or whatever is manageable for you.
Small Business Resolutions
So now that you have learned how to create sustainable goals, it’s time to apply those skills to your small business and create 2021 resolutions that will stick. And what’s a better way to start than with marketing your business?
It’s your turn to fill in the blanks:
By December 31st, my company will reach {number} {metric} every {day/week/month/quarter}.
Reaching Your Marketing Goals
Here are three things you can do to jumpstart your 2021 resolution:
1. Create a Marketing Plan
Sit down and think about what you want to do in terms of marketing your small business and what you need in order to do it. Research your audience, competition, and industry. Who is purchasing your product/service? Who is your ideal audience? Do you have competitors? Is your pricing competitive? Questions like this will help inform what marketing tactics will be the most effective for your business.
2. Build a (Simple!) Website
Whether you’re just getting started or have been around for a long time, a website is a critical tool for your business. Think of your website as the 30 second elevator pitch you give at networking events; it gives people an idea of what your business is and what it offers. And just like an elevator pitch, your website shouldn’t be large and lengthy. To start out, at least have an about us/team page, a product/services page, and a contact us page. People want to get to know you, know what you offer, and how to contact you if they want it.
3. Be Active on Social Media
There are a lot of social media sites and it would not be practical, nor useful, to have an account on all of them. Figure out where your potential customers are and go there. If you don’t have the capacity to continuously post original content, don’t. Share, retweet, reblog, ask questions, post memes, whatever. As long as it’s relevant, use social media in a way that’s useful to your business and your audience. If you can put at least 30–60 minutes into social media every day, you will see the connections you can make to prospective and current customers.
Get Started Now
Just because we’re almost through with the month of January doesn’t mean you can give up because it’s a month into the new year. January 1st is a soft start time and now you have the tools you need to create and complete your goals.
Originally published at https://eidvisions.com on January 29th, 2021.
