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Productivity: How to Stay the Course

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Here we are at the top of the year. You may have made New Year’s resolutions and you’re now looking them over to assess, prioritize and incorporate them into your workflow. Although the year is young, it’s not too early to figure out how to maintain the enthusiasm and discipline it takes to achieve your goals. I think it’s imperative to avoid feeling overwhelmed because for me, at least, that’s the gateway to giving up. Maintaining motivation is what I must do and once in a while I need a flotation device, or something, to prevent me from sinking and keep me swimming toward the shore.

To that end, I suggest a strategy that I discovered that will show you how to break down the huge task that is your goal and will perhaps at times feel insurmountable or even unattainable. This strategy, experience tells me, is especially useful for Freelancers. We are a one-person team. Who’s to know whether or not you achieve what you’ve planned, unless you have a business coach or mastermind group to check in with and report your progress?

As a business owner, I’ve learned that maintaining focus and productivity requires discipline and motivation. One powerful tool that has transformed report on your achievement of your A-level, that is, your most important tasks. I was new to full-time work and my sales manager gave me a very useful book to read—How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life by Alan Lakein (1973). In his book, which also influenced Brian Treacy, a very simple and effective planning method helps prioritize high-value activities, ensuring that the most important tasks are addressed each week. On Sunday evening or Monday morning, you can envision what your workweek will look like and get yourself in the frame of mind to do certain things. Lakein proposes that you rank your projects and goals into A, B and C tasks to implement your strategy, enhance your productivity and drive your business forward. He also recommended the development of SMART goals—Specific, Actionable, Measurable, Realistic and Timely. He understood that success stands on the shoulders of productivity, that is, getting the right things done and feeling in control and not overwhelmed as you do.

What’s in it for you

  • Improve focus: By identifying your top priorities each week, you can maintain a clear focus on high-value activities and avoid getting sidetracked by less important tasks.
  • Improve time management: The big rock report helps you allocate your time effectively, ensuring that important tasks are completed on schedule.
  • Improve workflow: Breaking down your tasks into manageable weekly priorities reduces the feeling of being overwhelmed and helps you tackle your workload more effectively.
  • Improve productivity: Focusing on high-impact tasks ensures that you are making the best use of your time, leading to increased productivity and better results.

Get started

  • Identify and rank tasks: At the beginning of each week, identify the one to three high-value activities that you need to accomplish. These should be tasks that directly contribute to your business goals and have a significant impact on your success. For example, on Monday, it may work for you to identifying/ confirm/ discuss your A tasks in an email, phone, or video call to touch base in strategic planning / critical meetings with key clients, or roll up sleeves and jump into your front-burner A level major project milestone task.
  • Prioritize A-level tasks: Block out dedicated time in your calendar for each of your big rocks. Treat these appointments as non-negotiable commitments to ensure they receive your full attention.
  • Plan your week: Once you’ve scheduled your A tasks, plan the rest of your week around what is of high priority. Schedule medium-value B-tasks and low-value C-tasks in blocks of time where they will fit and your focus and energy allow. B-level tasks probably deserve your attention; C-level tasks might be somewhat worthwhile to you and your business, but they fade in comparison to A and B level responsibilities.
  • Monitor progress: At the end of each week, review your progress on your big rocks. Reflect on what you accomplished, any challenges you faced, and what you can improve for the following week.
  • Adjust as needed: If you find that you consistently struggle to complete your A tasks, reassess your approach. You may need to adjust your schedule, outsource certain tasks, or reassess and recalibrate your A level priorities.

Celebrate achievements

  1. Be realistic: Choose a manageable number of big rocks each week. Overloading yourself with too many high-priority tasks can lead to burnout and decreased productivity.
  2. Communicate: Share your big rocks with your client contact or team to ensure alignment and support. This helps everyone understand the top priorities and work together towards common goals.
  3. Be flexible: While it’s important to stick to your schedule, be prepared to adjust if unexpected high-priority tasks arise. The key is to stay focused on your top priorities while remaining adaptable.
  4. Celebrate achievements: At the end of each week, take time to celebrate your achievements. Recognizing your progress can boost motivation and encourage continued focus on high-value activities.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: r/aviation•5y ago AIRdomination

Cockpit Photo Landing in Seattle

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8 Year-End Checklist Tasks To Keep You Organized

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The sun is setting on 2024 and telling Freelancers and all business owners that it’s time to close out the waning year and prepare to welcome the New Year. To make sure that no important matter gets lost in the shuffle during what may be a rush to tie up loose ends, you may appreciate the practicality of a year-end checklist. The checklist is simply a to-do list that keeps you organized as you attend to the many tasks and responsibilities, business and personal, that arise at this time of year. Taxes and other financial responsibilities rank high on the checklist; identifying business (and personal) goals for the New Year run a close second. As you work your way through your checklist, you’ll discover a perhaps unexpected bonus—the checklist also provides an objective assessment of where your business stands as of December 31 and can indicate useful goals and benchmarks for 2025.

Before you become immersed in holiday preparations and celebrations, block out four to eight hours to devote to getting your entity’s house in order. That’s your strategy to eliminate holiday spoilers, like anxiety resulting from uncompleted responsibilities. Call on your discipline and power through the administrative tasks listed below, so you can truly enjoy dropping into parties and celebrating the season with friends, family and colleagues.

  1. Make business purchases. The end of the calendar year is your cue to buy equipment, services, or other necessities for your business on or before December 31, to add to your 2024 tax deductions and lower business taxable income. What expenditures are on your wish list and what does your budget allow? If you’ve had business goals on your mind (and I know that you have!), certain software-as-a-service subscriptions could be on your must-have list. Or maybe you’ve thought of updating business equipment, or items to make your workspace more favorable? Do you need to pay an insurance premium, or upgrade a policy? Maybe you can make an early payment and let the expense be recorded as an asset on your 2025 Balance Sheet. Think also about initiating professional services, for example, a business attorney, or even bringing in a Freelancer to help with projects such as bookkeeping or social media management? Now is a great time to make those purchases, which will result in lowering your taxable income.
  2. Send Form 1099 to your Freelance workers. First, verify that Freelance team members you’ve hired have completed IRS Form W9, so that you will be ready to send to those who provided services of $600 or more an IRS Form 1099NEC . Tax statements must arrive, by USPS or email, no later than January 31, 2025, as required by IRS regulations.
  3. Get your bookkeeping up to date and schedule tax appointments. Before the holidays dominate your focus, bring your books up to date. If you maintain the business financial records yourself, get busy now and review the year’s financial records, receipts and accounting so that documents are organized and closed out for the end of the year and ready for tax preparation time. If you’ll hire a bookkeeper or a tax accountant to handle business taxes, schedule an appointment today to ensure that you’ll 1.) get on the calendar of whom you want to see and 2.) improve your chances of getting an appointment date that’s good for you.
  4. Consider your business legal entity and tax election changes. As a business grows and evolves, it may be beneficial to change your business entity classification or change the tax category. In many cases, forming an LLC or corporation, both of which change the entity’s tax status, can be more complicated when the change occurs mid-year and is sure to complicate that year’s tax returns. Furthermore, changing your tax status (e.g., converting your entity to an S-Corp) is time-sensitive and must be completed before the May 15th due date in most cases. Year-end is a good time to assess whether or not your current business entity type and tax status election are the best choice for your business. Incidentally, making this decision is ample motivation to upgrade your professional services by bringing on a business attorney and/or business accountant (or a very savvy bookkeeper) because you’ll want the guidance of a certified professional such as a CPA, financial planner, or attorney and to help you plan any major changes to have them effective for the start of the new year.
  5. Add dates for taxes, registrations and important filings to your new calendar. What with quarterly taxes, business registration or certificate renewals and other important records filings required of a business, you absolutely want to be ready and not caught unawares by any due dates. Record in your new year calendar all important filing, payment and renewal dates so you can keep your business compliant and in legal operation without incurring costly penalties and fees.
    • Business license renewal
    • Estimated income tax payments
    • Sales tax return filings and payments
    • LLC tax payment
    • LLC Statement of Information filing
    • Business insurance premium payments
  6. Contribute to your self-employed retirement account Investing money in a self-employed retirement account, such as a solo 401k or SEP-IRA, is 100% tax-free and lets you save on three tax categories that would otherwise pay. Instead, money invested in your self-employed retirement account enables you to avoid the federal and state self-employment tax – and book significant savings! Self-employed professionals can contribute up to 25% of annual net earnings, up to $66,000, to a self-employed retirement account tax-free (for 2023). Make your payment on or before December 31to lower your 2024 taxable income.
  7. Cancel any unused memberships and subscriptions. Oh, the best of intentions! You may have signed up for subscriptions, memberships, or other services that renew monthly or annually, which may have been helpful at one point in your business but are no longer useful—or IRT, you found that can’t find a role for them. The end of the year is a great time to review automatic payments charged to your business checking account and verify what is worthwhile and is actively being used.
  8. Plan your goals for the New Year. What next big steps to promote business growth do you see? What might be the next strategies you’ll implement to create a sustainable, profitable business? The possibilities are exciting and yours to pursue, guided by a good plan. In the October 15 post, we explored how you might scale your operation—maybe the new year is when you take actionable steps to do that? To avoid feeling overwhelmed, consider dividing your goals into short-term and long-term projects, breaking your larger goals into smaller, actionable steps you will need to plan ahead. Consider also tasks that can possibly be outsourced by hiring a Freelance professional like yourself? Start your new year goal setting by examining the current state of your business and then think about where you would like to be at the end of next year. What actions appear to be needed to get to that point? Next, break those goals into smaller projects and create a plan of smaller goals for each month of next year. When you start the year with smaller, actionable goals that seem easier to reach, it will seem easier to consistently take those smaller steps that can add up to big changes over time. Setting micro goals in advance can motivate you to develop strategies and implement action items that drive achievement.

Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers! To everyone, thanks for reading.

Kim

Image: © ProHow

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Build A Budget, Build A Business

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Fact of life—if you run a company, even as a Freelance solopreneur, you’re going to have to suck it up and put together a business budget every year. If you fall into avoidance behavior and tell yourself that you’ll do it “next month,” it is almost certain that 1) you won’t do the budget anytime soon; and 2) your business could eventually slide into financial chaos, taking with it the money and time you invested. Failure to mind business finances is business sabotage.

For many people the mere thought of budgeting brings a sour feeling to their stomach, but the fact remains—budgeting supports business success and your organization is unlikely to thrive, and may not survive, unless you do it. You may find budgeting to be an onerous task, but there is a silver lining—a budget is empowering!

Budgeting is integral to effective financial management and allows you to make informed decisions and take calculated risks that can move your company into a stronger position. Budgeting brings to light the reality of your company’s fiscal health and performance. Problem areas will be recognized and you’ll be able to propose and implement remedies designed to rectify the lapse. You will be positioned to develop reasonable, reachable, goals.

The budget is your buddy

While budgeting often brings to mind thoughts of scarcity and sacrifice, saying no when you want to say yes, you’ll feel much better when you reframe your thinking about budgets; budgeting need not always result in cutbacks. Instead of focusing on limitations, why not flip the script and think about growth? It is reasonable to view budgeting as a pathway to business success, a tactic that enables your entrepreneurial ambitions. Rather than obsessing over cutting expenses, utilize your budget as an element of your strategy to manage expenses and drive growth and profitability.

In fact, only when finances are in order can you operate from a position of strength and make good decisions. When the cash-flow and business reserve fund are healthy, you can demonstrate business savvy—you might hire one or more employees, whose productivity will positively impact sales revenue; you might move the company into a larger space; you might upgrade office or manufacturing equipment that introduce operational efficiencies that benefit anything from your marketing campaigns to the customer service and customer experience your company offers, enhancements that reward your business with loyalty, good word of mouth and returning customers.

Build the budget

Your primary goal will be to ensure that there will be enough money to operate the business, from covering selling and marketing expenses that generate revenue to meeting fixed expenses such as payroll, rent, utilities and insurance. Among the projected expenses you’ll calculate will be those specific to acquiring or creating your product or service, that is, the cost of materials or the time involved in crafting what you sell. You’ll budget for the year, so it will be necessary to make reasonable projections of future expenses and sales revenue. You also want to set aside funds you can invest in business growth, whether to carry out specific initiatives or maybe take advantage of an unexpected opportunity as well.

You will be wise to structure your budget to predict somewhat modest sales revenue and anticipate expenses that are somewhat higher than the previous year. Planning for a less than rosy scenario is the safest strategy, giving budgetary wiggle room by encouraging you to trim expenses where possible to help you build up the business growth fund.

Once you make revenue and expense projections, you can run different potential scenarios and refine your estimates of likely cash-flow and sales revenue income, to enhance your trust in your estimate of how much will be available to finance marketing and business growth.

Create a spreadsheet

A spreadsheet is one of the most powerful tools available to create a budget, not only to make it easy to view and analyze your data, but also to make it easy to change your projected data and evaluate different business scenarios. You can do the same when reviewing projected costs and sales revenue associated with carrying out a proposed business goal.

Get comfortable with the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and learn to call up different combinations of projected revenues and fixed and variable expenses that will enable prudent decisions in every aspect of your business, from pricing to hiring additional employees. Take a Microsoft Excel for Beginners tutorial .

Monthly budget reviews

Your budget will be useful only if you review it regularly, to assess your company’s performance. Get ready for the big reveal when you discover whether (or not) actual spending aligns with the amount budgeted. If certain expenses are consistently higher than anticipated, you may need to revise the budget to reflect reality, or find ways to reduce those costs. Likewise, your budget will also reveal if sales revenue projections are either too optimistic or too conservative.

Responding to changes in your business environment ensures that your budget functions as a useful tool for financial planning. Finally, the budgeting process will, over time, become a repository of company performance data and provide an important historical overview that could be useful when anticipating seasonal fluctuations or other patterns that support your projections of future business performance.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Mee Ko Dong for Shutterstock

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8 Hacks to Make 2024 Your Best Year!

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At the top of the year many of you—working or retired, seniors or teens, traditionally employed or self-employed— will develop a list of goals you’d like to pursue and achieve over the next 12 months. You know that identifying a purpose that inspires, motivates and gives direction to your professional or personal life makes you feel confident and is a cornerstone of how you define success.

To get started on your annual plans, dedicate a block of time and use it to make an objective assessment of where you are now and where you’d like to be at this time next year. Commit to writing the rough draft of your emerging goals and begin to flesh out the proposed actions and time lines to carry them out, whether you scribble on the back of an envelope or record your ideas on a white board at a company meeting. You’ll find it useful to include monthly or quarterly milestones as a way to document your progress and perhaps make adjustments as you observe the impact of your action plans on the strategies you’ve developed.

Below are a list of hacks (the good kind!) that I hope will nudge you in the right direction and serve as a general road map for your 2024 annual plans.

1. 5:00 AM wake-up

In the cold, dark winter even those who love early morning can struggle to greet the day before sunrise but you’ll soon learn that the sacrifice will be quickly immediately rewarded with a noticeable spike in productivity that will encourage you to maintain the habit. Here’s the earlier riser secret—as the days gradually get longer and brighter throughout late February and early March, set your alarm to wake up 30 minutes earlier than usual. Every week or two, change the wake-up call to half an hour earlier until you’re waking up at 5:00 AM. Whether you prefer to start the day with a mug of hot tea and a review of email or with exercise, you’ll be off to the races and you’ll win every time.

2. Define your success

Goals help you focus your time and energy and it’s wise to spend adequate time determining the business results you’d like to achieve, followed by creating strategies, action plans and a timetable that serve as the engine to move your plans forward. It’s useful to revisit the previous year’s goals and objectives as you define what success could look like in 2024—you can perhaps build on previous successes or modify that which remains relevant but could benefit from a re-calibration. Your challenge will be to identify reasonable, ambitious, achievable goals for your company and to understand the purpose, impact and ROI of each goal. Finally, you’ll need objective measures for determining success and experts agree that SMART goals are still the best—Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.

3. Follow the money

To properly manage your business you must understand its financial metrics and heed what those metrics indicate. You don’t have to be an accountant to understand the numbers, but I’ve found that my best and most profitable clients know their numbers. They monitor sales revenue weekly or monthly; they analyze cash-flow reports weekly or monthly; they calculate costs associated with client acquisition; they determine profit margins for their products and/or services and price accordingly. Furthermore, those who operate a service business will calculate the hours devoted to billable and non-billable work that’s performed each week or month. It will also be a good time to reconfirm or reconfigure the metrics, i.e. the KPIs, that will most accurately reflect the performance of any new goals or other initiatives you’ll put into place this year.

4. Nurture client relationships

Clients are the lifeblood of your business and it is obvious that cultivating and nurturing client relationships is of utmost importance. Video meetings, telephone calls and emails are the easiest contact methods available and each has a place in a comprehensive client outreach strategy; however, the most impactful relationship-building activity is a face2face visit. There is nothing like the warm and friendly rush of a big smile and a handshake. You may have had innumerable phone conversations with a client or prospect, and a video call or two as well, but can you say you’ve met him/her until you’ve met and talked in real time? You may find that you develop deeper and longer-term relationships when you meet people face to face.

Online meetings absolutely serve a purpose, but humans (and animals) respond most intensely to physical contact. That psychological fact should give you the motivation needed to attend business and professional association meetings, drop into networking events, or simply invite a client or serious prospect to meet for lunch or coffee.

5. Skills development

Ensure that you have the wherewithal to evaluate and, where appropriate, utilize resources offered by emerging technologies and leadership practices that will benefit your business. You can pay to take professional development courses and/or attend conferences but if keeping costs low is a priority, you have other means to keep your skills current.

For starters, make it a ritual to peruse at least weekly the business section of your local newspaper, so that you’ll obtain information that pertains to your local marketplace. Read also at least one national business-themed publication to keep yourself apprised of national trends and happenings that might eventually impact how you do business or influence how your clients might respond to your products and services.

In addition, promise yourself to read at least two business books in 2024. Improve your understanding of financial management and how that knowledge can be applied to grow your business when you read Financial Intelligence (Karen Berman, Joe Knight & John Case, 2006) https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/financial-intelligence-revised-edition-karen-berman/1110913346 . You’ll thank yourself for reading Good Charts: The Harvard Business Review Guide to Data Visualization (Scott Berinato, 2016) https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/good-charts-scott-berinato/1122655992 when you learn how to design and present charts and graphs that enhance your next client meeting or speaking engagement. Last, here’s an international list of 25 top-rated consulting themed podcasts for your edification https://podcasts.feedspot.com/consulting_business_podcasts/.

6. Exercise

Numerous studies demonstrate that regular vigorous exercise contributes to a healthy body, greater energy and stamina and sharper cognitive skills. You might play a sport and make a date to play once or twice a week and visit the gym on other days. Or, you might swim, bike or run twice a week and lift weights once or twice each week. If the weather interferes with outdoor workouts, you can always find an online class. The point is to exercise regularly. Early morning workouts are an unbeatable way to wake up and get your energy and creativity flowing. Since you’ll wake up at 5:00 AM, why not start your workout of choice at 6:00 AM?

7. Embrace AI

Exploring how to most efficiently use Artificial Intelligence will probably dominate the technology strategy of most of you this year. You may get some insight from the marketing automation and bookkeeping/ accounting software that you use. Expect a continued rollout of AI tools that will save you time and help business productivity. You will be wise to devote a significant amount of time researching and staying up to speed on these very fast-moving developments. Keep an eye on Microsoft, they are in the lead.

8. Strategize growth with your accountant

Your accountant is uniquely qualified to counsel you on ways to promote the stability and profitability of your business entity. All you have to do is ask. Moreover, if you’re percolating an idea of making any major capital investments, or if you envision growth and expansion as goals you’d like to kick-off in the next 12-18 months, a face2face talk with your accountant is your first step. Make it a tradition to meet twice a year with your financial guiding light; May and September seem like good months for a money talk.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©️ Getty Images. Jennifer Capriati won the women’s singles title at Roland Garros/ French Open in 2001

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A Buyer Persona is Your Best Customer Intel

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Because you understand that good outcomes derive from good decisions and good decisions flow from good information, I wonder if you’ve thought of tapping the customer data you already have and using it to create a most useful document known as a Buyer Persona? You’re likely familiar with the term, but do you know why they’re useful, how and why a Buyer Persona helps your business?

In short, a Buyer Persona is the ultimate customer profile. It describes a company’s ideal customers and the motivations that bring those customers to your door. The Buyer Persona confirms the business solutions your customers and prospects seek, the goals they want to achieve and problems they want to solve or avoid when they contact your company. Smart marketers recognize that a Buyer Persona increases the effectiveness of their marketing strategies, improves the ability to develop and nurture brand loyalty and can positively impact sales revenue.

The simple and elegant logic behind the Buyer Persona is that it’s much easier to promote and sell your products and services and build a favorable brand when there’s a handy reference point to remind you of who the customer is and what s/he wants to achieve when doing business with you. Utilizing your in-house data to create a Buyer Persona is an act of resourcefulness. You create the profile by recycling and recombining data you already own to produce a new resource that you can use. A Buyer Persona is the delicious meal you can make from what’s already in the fridge.

Who Buys From You?

The better you know target customers, the easier it becomes to reach them. To market and sell effectively, it’s best to learn as much as possible about your prospects and structure marketing campaigns that directly speak to them. Collecting customer information and then distilling it to formulate a Buyer Persona will be useful in numerous ways, from the marketing strategies you devise to the marketing channels you choose, the content you create, the blog or newsletter topics you publish, the case studies you write, to the products and services your company offers.

The profile should contain information that reinforces the understanding of your ideal customer’s priorities, pain points and buying patterns. Another benefit is that the Buyer Persona keeps you focused on addressing customer priorities instead of your own. The Buyer Persona for your typical customer will include his/her job title, education level, age range, industry, desired outcomes for using your category of products and/or services, goals, fears, budget range and potential for repeat business.

Also include in the profile experiences that stood out when performing project work, insights you’ve learned when negotiating a sale, info from customer invoices and other data that adds to the understanding of your ideal customer. Other helpful details are the job title of the usual decision-maker for the sale, the end user of the product or service, the average length of the sales cycle and the busy and slow seasons.

For many companies, the sales process remains the same regardless of the customer’s industry. The industries are different, but they approach finding and evaluating B2B vendors in the same way. Keep in mind the buying style of your customers as you compile and organize the information to include in the Buyer Persona. It may, or may not, make sense to to align with job titles, rather than industries, when addressing your marketing approach and sales process.

Most frequent goals or problems

You want a clear understanding of the motivations of prospective customers when they find your website and accept your call-to-action to, for example, read your blog, listen to a webinar replay, or read a case study. When you’ve documented the usual customer pain points, goals and/or motivations, you can address them. Create a Buyer Persona that will guide your website messages, marketing content, upselling offers and after-sales support. The idea is to consistently showcase your company’s expertise in providing the solutions that target customers need, always demonstrating how your product or service can solve problems.

Top level priorities

The easiest way to guarantee a sale is when your prospect is shopping for a solution that’s needed to reach a time-sensitive goal or resolve a big problem. However, there will be members of your target audience that have a problem, but are not necessarily ready to pay for the solution. As you collect data for the Buyer Persona, it’s useful to consider the prospect’s organizational imperatives and the decision-maker’s take on circumstances that would make him/ her willing, or unwilling, to allocate the resources necessary to do business.

The subtle art of qualifying prospects, e.g., recognizing window shoppers from serious buyers or learning what may worry your prospect about moving forward with your product or service, might be addressed with a list of three or four questions that can be asked when a prospect requests a consultation to obtain more information about your solutions.

Cultivating a powerful ally who is an end-user of the product or service and/or developing a relationship with the decision- maker can also move a sale along but ultimately, timing, urgency and budget are the best enablers of a sale and they are factors beyond your control.

Most common objections

Are there concerns that make prospective buyers think your solutions are not the best fit for their problem or goal? Customers may become reluctant to buy as a result of discouraging feedback from a colleague or the memory of a negative experience with a similar solution.

Diplomatically move to uncover the source of that hesitation, which may be based on a misunderstanding of some sort. Way back in the 20th century, I learned the Feel, Felt, Found method of handling objections and found it to be effective.

  • “I understand how you feel.”
  • “There have been others who’ve felt that way also.”
  • “Let me share with you what those who’ve had good luck with this solution have found”.

From there, address how your product or service will deliver the desired solution and ensure that the goal will be achieved and problem solved.

Discover trusted information channels

When they expect to make an important purchase, from which information channels do the members of your target market get recommendations? There may be numerous channels consulted and it’s a given that you cannot have impact or a presence in all of them. Instead, establish a presence in those media outlets where you’ll get visibility and credibility at an affordable price.

Knowing the social media platforms that are trusted and utilized by your target market when they investigate your category of products or services is essential. Also essential is to SEO optimize your company website to ensure it contains popular search terms that help your company appear in searches. Your website is the primary source of information about your products and services. Make sure that you post and call attention to inbound marketing reources— e-books, case studies, white papers, blog archive, newsletter archive and earned articles in which you and the company have been featured.

 Identify their buying process

Also known as the buyer’s journey, in the Buyer Persona you can detail the steps that prospects take to evaluate product or service options as they decide what will be the best fit for their needs. So that you will maximize the power of your inbound marketing resources, that is, the case studies, links to a webinar in which you appeared and other relevant information, investigate which resources that prospective buyers require at every step of the evaluation process.

For example, newsletter and blog posts may be persuasive at the midpoint of the journey but a case study or an especially persuasive customer testimonial may be most helpful in the final stage of decision-making. To correctly identify your target customers and reach them with compelling messages and content, know the reasons why they choose your solution, the perceived barriers to purchase and how your solution will improve their lives.

 Craft Your Message

Once you can see in your mind’s eye your ideal target customer and therefore know who you’re talking to, you can align and personalize your company’s brand voice and marketing messages with that vision. Your marketing campaigns will feature content that feels authentic and will resonate. When you know who your Buyer Persona and understand your customer’s goals, organizational imperatives, priorities, worries, itrusted nformation channels and buying process, you can develop sales and marketing strategies tailored to just those people who you know are an excellent fit for your company.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Il viturno (The Vitruvian Man). Drawing by Leonardo da Vinci circa 1490.

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Fix the Flaws in Your Tactical Plan

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Look at it this way—if every time you and your team develop goals for your organization all of the goals are achieved every time, take it as a sign that you should be more ambitious. Goals should challenge! Working toward goals should test you and make you grow.

But if the opposite happens and it becomes clear that your strategies and actions are not moving you toward success, you’ll need to stop and discuss. You must understand why things aren’t happening and decide what you can do about it. For sure, a change will have to be made, but how might you figure out what to change?

Today we’ll break down the elements of working toward goals — the actions taken, the strategies, which are pathways, and finally, the goals themselves. Our objective is to recognize what part of the plan is fatal and what is fixable. Spoiler alert–everything is connected. Each component of your plan must support, and be supported by, the other components.

Actions and strategy

It makes sense to start by examining actions—closer to ground level. Every action you or your team takes should be devised to align with and support a specific strategy. All actions should have a purpose that is readily identifiable as a cog in the wheel that carries out a strategy. So if the wheel stops turning, it will not be too difficult to pinpoint the problem and make whatever necessary adjustments.

You may also benefit from rethinking the metrics used to monitor the efficacy and progress of the actions. Are you tracking and measuring the right data? Does the data provide an accurate picture of how your action items contribute to reaching the goal? If not, reevaluate and substitute more meaningful metrics.

Strategies and customer priorities

What matters most is that customer preferences and priorities are tied to and reflected in your strategies. If you’ve analyzed your team’s performance and your actions are on target as regards the plan, then the problem may well lie in the strategy, the wrong path. Perhaps it’s no longer viable?

Or maybe you’ve overlooked other data that indicate customer needs and interests are evolving? If that’s the case, you’ll need to update to ensure that your strategies align with what matters most to customers. You may not need to revise your goals but rather, revise strategies.

Verify the alignment, or lack thereof, between your tactics and strategies. Remember that your actionable tasks are designed to further a certain strategy. It is therefore essential to confirm that you’re using the right tactics to impact the strategy.

SMART Goals

If you’ve taken a cold, hard look at both the strategic and the tactical plans without pinpointing an opportunity for making a timely and productive shift, then it’s time to reconsider your choice of goals.

The problem with your goal may be situational — i.e., what was a valid, realistic goal has lost its luster. The world has turned and now you need to play catch-up and align with the current environment and market. Or it could be that there’s nothing wrong with the goal itself; you just haven’t fully identified, defined and fleshed it out. Reality test your goals by asking yourself the following questions:

SPECIFIC: Specific means “Show a revenue increase of $X and growth in profit of Y% by the end of the current fiscal year,” and not “show an increase in revenue and growth by the end of the fiscal year.”

MEASURABLE: What are the metrics you’ll use to document your progress (and why are they relevant)?

ACHIEVABLE: Is your goal attainable and realistic both in the absolute sense and within the resources—-time, expertise, money—-you can devote to its achievement?

RELEVANT: Does your goal make sense? Does it align with your values and mission of your organization? Does it get your company closer to where you want it to be, in market penetration, referrals and repeat business, revenue earned, or profits made?

TIMELY: Is the time right to pursue and benefit from the attainment of this goal? Also, do you have a clear starting point and metrics targets or deadline date to assess the final result of your initiative?

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©Winslow Townson, Associated Press. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in the huddle at the December 17, 2017 game against the Steelers at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, PA

Business Plan, Business Strategy, Professional Development Leave a comment

Goal Setting Guidelines

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Happy December! Here we are in the last month of the year and like the two-headed Janus, we’re simultaneously looking backward to count our successes and forward to finish the year strong and decide which goals appear to hold the most promise for seeding a successful 1Q2019 and beyond.

There is traditionally much talk about goal-setting at this time of year and many of us climb aboard the train out of a sense of obligation, or even guilt. But maybe we should first spend some time vetting the goals we choose to pursue? For starters, our goals should be tied to benefits that substantively improve our personal or professional lives.

SMART Goals—Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely—are the accomplishments we’d be wise to pursue.  SMART Goals are worthy of the planning, money and other resources that we expend to achieve them. We owe it to ourselves to confirm that the goals we choose are within our capacity to reach them and that they will further our agenda to build a fulfilling professional and personal life.  Ensure that the goals you choose are right for you.

SPECIFIC   Increasing your client list is a worthwhile goal and you’ll have a better chance of achieving it if you define the industry, type, or size of the organizations you’d like to add to your roster.  For example, rather than randomly looking to work with larger not-for-profit organizations, specify your mission. You may elect to pursue not-for-profit organizations that have 100 or more employees and/or an annual operating budget of $1,000,000 – $5,000,000.

MEASURABLE   Identify metrics and milestones that will monitor your progress and inspire you to continue on your path.  The measurements need not be complicated. If you are able to meet with a coveted prospective client, that’s a milestone.  The size of your client list, the number of billable hours and the amount of sales revenue from quarter to quarter are also easy-to-follow and relevant metrics, if they document your progress.  Just be sure to measure that which demonstrates achievement. The last day of each quarter is a good time to examine and evaluate your milestones and metrics.

ATTAINABLE   If earning more money is your goal, give yourself a realistic figure to reach for.  If your average monthly sales revenue is $5000, think about how you can add $500 – $1000 /month.  Expecting to earn $10,000 /month is probably too steep, unless you have one heck of a competitive advantage or you’re about to sign a very big client who will give you game-changing billable hours.

You may be able to eventually earn an additional $500 – $1000/ month with a savvy new marketing plan that’s combined with other strategies, such as a new client acquisition plan, an exciting new product or service that seems to have good sales potential, or an initiative to win back certain lapsed clients.

RELEVANT   Your goals should make sense for your life and business. Keeping up with or surpassing your perceived rivals is not a valid reason to set a particular goal.  Acknowledge the objectives behind the goals and be honest about why you want to pursue them.

TIMELY   The desire to retire at age 50 is still in fashion, but it will be more realistic to start planning no later than age 40, to give yourself a decade to get in touch with what might make you feel fulfilled in your post-working life and understand how you’ll earn enough to make it possible.

What might retirement mean to you? Maybe it means you’ll leave your traditional job and start a home-based craft making business that will see you selling your wares on Etsy and at local Christmas Village markets. Or perhaps it means you’ll not work and instead devote yourself to volunteering and taking long winter vacations spent on the ski slopes? whatever your choice, you’ll need to plan your retirement money carefully. Should you buy investment property that will give you a steady stream of rental income, or invest more aggressively in the surging stock market?

The process of setting goals for yourself and/or your business enables you to define and recognize what success looks like and means to you.  You’ll learn to think strategically about how to grow your business and the resources needed to achieve that growth.  You’ll calculate the money needed for an expansion plan or new equipment, make notes for a first draft of the marketing plan you’ll need to devise, consider the relationships you may want to renew or develop and/or estimate the new staff you may need to hire.

“If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up someplace else.”                   –Peter “Yogi” Berra, former NY Yankees catcher and Baseball Hall of Fame member

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Academy Award winning actor (Best Actor El Cid, 1961) Charlton Heston (center) as Judah Ben-Hur in Ben-Hur (1959)

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Coaching Guide

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Have you ever worked with a business or life coach? I worked with a business coach as I built the foundation of my consulting practice and the experience was useful.  When a significant life goal is on your agenda and you’re unsure how to achieve it, or you recognize that you’ll need some expert assistance to help you make a plan, consider checking in with a business coach.  Also, if you find yourself thwarted as you attempt to move forward in life and achieve goals that you find meaningful or essential, but now you’re stuck and at a loss for a remedy, seeing a skilled business or life coach may be beneficial.

If you’re not the type of person who feels comfortable sharing intimate information in a counseling situation, or if the necessary time or money are restricted, it’s possible to coach yourself.  The ability to coach (yourself or others) to success is a powerful professional development skill.  We’re all capable of giving ourselves and others a pep talk.  We’re all capable of creating a list of goals, with timetables for completion.  We are also capable of asking ourselves eight insightful questions that when we answer them truthfully can help propel us out of a rut and put us on the path to achieving our most treasured goals.

The Difficult and Troubling Situation Exercise questions below were developed by Jack Canfield, corporate trainer, motivational speaker and author of The 25 Principles of Success  (2007).  You can use the questions to either self-coach or partner with one or more friends or supportive colleagues and conduct a group coaching session.  When a question is asked, answer thoughtfully and honestly, but without elaborate explanations or equivocations.  Let the questions do their work.  What is the difficulty or troubling situation in your life?  How and when will you overcome it?

  1. What is the problem or troubling situation?
  2. How are you contributing to the problem, or allowing it to continue?
  3. What are you pretending not to know?
  4. What is the pay-off for maintaining the status quo, for keeping things as they are?
  5. What is the cost of not changing the situation or your behavior?
  6. What would you rather be experiencing in your life?
  7. What actions will you take and what requests will you make to bring the conditions or experiences that you want into your life?
  8. When will you take those actions and requests for guidance or support?

Question 1 asks you to state the problem, or if working alone, to write it down.  Admit the problem or obstacle out loud or in writing.  Acknowledge that you have a troubling situation on your hands—a roadblock or obstacle, a significant disappointment, or a run of bad luck that is thwarting your desire to attain certain goals and live a life that would make you happy and proud.

Question 2 asks you to accept responsibility for the existence of the problem, or  ignoring it, perhaps enabling it and at the very least, prolonging it, or allowing it to continue.  This question helps you pull the plug on playing the victim, poor pitiful me.  If the roadblock or bad luck in your life remains there for a while, it’s likely that you’ve played some role in bringing it there or keeping it there.  Here is your mindset switch.  Let yourself know that just like you’ve allowed this obstacle to appear or linger, you can remove out.  You have know-how and power.  You are not incompetent and helpless.

Question 3 shakes loose the denial that surrounds your difficult situation.  In every seemingly intractable problem, it’s likely that s/he who is mired in the mess is pretending not to know why the matter exists.  So if your daughter hasn’t spoken to you in 5 years, don’t pretend that you don’t know why she’s cut you out of her life.  It’s just that you find it inconvenient to admit to yourself that you know.  You find it easier to hide your head in the sand and deny what you know because if you admit to yourself that you know, then you’ll have to do something about it—and you’re probably afraid to do that.  There is some seemingly greater difficult situation that you’ll need to confront and resolve.  Oh, no!

Question 4 requires that you recognize and catalogue the benefits you receive from allowing the roadblock to remain in place, for the problem to fester.  Maybe you run from responsibility?  Do difficult conversations make your skin crawl? Might the probable solution to your obstacle cost more money and/or time and commitment than you think you can muster, or cause you to stand up and take charge of your life in a way you fear you cannot?

Returning to school to earn an advanced degree or certification is daunting.  There are classes to attend, exams to take, papers to write and all are uniquely costly, in some way.  Ugh, why do that when you can go shopping when you feel frustrated about not advancing in your career? Shopping is fun and so is going out drinking with your friends.  Many of us prefer to just settle in and become “comfortably uncomfortable,” as my late friend Chris Nieves used to say.

Question 5 compels you to calculate the losses that have piled up as you allow the problem to continue,  through your lack of action— a stunted career, diminished income, an apartment that’s not in the part of town that you’d rather live,  the inability to provide certain extras for your children, an estranged relationship?  Refusing to act has  consequences.

Question 6 urges you to love and respect yourself enough to envision the things in life that would satisfy you—a fulfilling relationship with a worthy significant other, a home that makes you feel comfortable, a healthy body, a business or employment that showcases your skills and pays you at a rate you find acceptable, the ability to travel.  What conditions or experiences do you want in your life? Verbally paint the picture.

Question 7 reminds you that the resolution to any problem or obstacle demands that you get out of your comfort zone and take action.  The action might require you to reach out and request physical help or advice.  It’s OK if you cannot take on the problem alone.

So if someone is violating your boundaries by doing any number of things that make you feel uncomfortable, then you must speak up and put a stop to that behavior and apply impactful consequences to those who disrespect you.

Question 8 requires you to establish reasonable target dates to move forward with your actions.  Develop a timetable, add milestones and chart your progress.  Success is waiting for you!

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Telemachus (l) and Mentor (who in the coaching of Telemachus was actually the goddess Athena, who disguised herself as the wise old man). Illustration by Pablo E. Fabisch from Les Adventures de Telemaque (1699) a book based on Homer’s Odyssey by Francois de Salignac de La Mothe-Fenelon (France)

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Freelancers Need a Mission Statement

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Mission statements are often associated with not-for-profit organizations, but they are not exclusive to 501(c)3s.  For-profit ventures may also have a mission statement.  A mission statement is useful for any type of organization and that includes Freelance consultancies.

Like all other organization leaders, Freelancers periodically need help to focus on our organization’s purpose, especially as we readjust business models and pivot and do whatever else it might take to stay relevant and solvent as the marketplace ground shifts beneath our feet.  Keeping the company mission statement in mind guides leaders as we make decisions and adjustments along the way, ensuring that the soul of the organization remains viable.

Further,  the mission statement shows company leaders and staff how to concisely communicate the purpose of our organization to potential clients.  There is a close parallel between the mission statement and your elevator pitch.

So what exactly makes a mission statement? The company mission statement explains the organization’s purpose and intentions, usually in two or three short sentences.  The mission statement concisely sums up what the organization is about for the public, for its customers and target markets and for the executive team, board of directors and support staff, who will be reminded that the products and services provided must reflect and advance the company mission and achieve its goals.

  • What the organization does
  • For whom the products or services are intended
  • Why the organization provided its products and services

The mission statement differs from a vision statement, which in one or two sentences describes how the world will look when the company mission is achieved. The vision statement is inspirational and aspirational.  The mission statement gives an overview of how the company will realize those intentions.  The company’s (mission-critical) fundamental goals are actions the company takes to enable the mission and realize the vision.

So Freelancer friends, I respectfully suggest that another worthy item for your summer to-do list is to write a Mission Statement for your consulting practice.  Should you decide to also write a Vision Statement, the inimitable Sir Richard Branson recommends that brevity is key and that you keep in mind the 140 character Twitter template to help yourself create an inspirational statement that you can keep real and make memorable.  Branson also recommends that you keep in mind both internal stakeholders (employees) and external stakeholders (clients) when writing either statement.

OXFAM  (Oxford, England)

  • Vision Statement  “A just world without poverty.”
  • Mission Statement  “To create lasting solutions to poverty, hunger and social injustice.”

AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS  (New York, NY)

  • Vision Statement  “That the United States is a humane community in which all animals are treated with respect and kindness.”
  • Mission Statement “To provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the United States. “

SONY CORPORATION (Tokyo, Japan)

  • Vision Statement  “Our vision is to use our passion for technology, content and services to deliver kando, in ways that only Sony can.”
  • Mission Statement ” To provide customers with kando, to move them emotionally and inspire and fulfill their curiosity.” (Kando translates as the power to stimulate emotional response or emotional involvement.)

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Photograph courtesy of the Boston Public Library                                                                         The William Vaughn Tupper Collection “Cairo (Egypt) Streets and People” circa 1891-1895

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Launch 2017 With Strategic Planning For Your Business

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Happy New Year! My wish for all my readers is that 2017 will be filled with good health, good choices and prosperity and a year where you recognize opportunities and successfully move forward to attain what will benefit you.

Part of the process of realizing your goals may involve strategic planning. The process of strategic planning encourages business leadership teams to ask (the right) questions about the value that the business creates and sells at a profit, which is a reflection of its vision and mission.  The goals, objectives, business model and guiding principles (that is, culture and values) are likewise impacted by the organization’s vision and mission. Below are six strategic planning and positioning principles to enhance your planning.

Principle 1:  Sustained profitability

Economic value and the conditions for generating profits are created when clients value your product or service enough to pay more than it costs the business (you) to produce and provide it.  Strategic planning is all about Defining  business goals and objectives and devising strategies and action plans with the thought of ROI, in particular long-term ROI, in mind.  Assuming that profits will be inevitable when sales volume and/or market share are the most accurate measurements of success is not the best way to approach the matter.

Principle 2: Value proposition

First, be certain that what you consider to be the value proposition—that is, the most desirable benefits—matches what clients consider to be the value proposition. Be aware that strategy is not about offering services or products that will be all things to all prospective clients.  Businesses are in need of strategies that allow the venture to compete in a way that allows it to effectively and efficiently deliver what clients consider the value proposition.

Principle 3: Competitive advantage

The unique and desirable benefits that sustain the value proposition must be reflected in and supported by strategy that shapes them into a sustainable competitive advantage.  The successful enterprise will differentiate itself from competitors through the products or services offered, how those are packaged and/or delivered, customer service practices, branding, pricing and so on; those unique features and practices will matter to current and prospective clients.  Still, the company’s business model will likely resemble that of its rivals.

Principle 4: Choices and priorities

Resources are inevitably finite and choices about your products and/or services must be made, in order to define what is necessary and possible and therefore, a priority.  Some  product or service features will not be offered, so that the benefits (priorities) that clients have chosen as highly desirable can be optimized.  These priorities are what sets the business apart from competitors and define the brand.

Principle 5: Flow

Choices and priorities must be baked into the strategies that you and the leadership team devise, to enhance and enable the consistent  delivery of the value proposition. These strategies will be both stand-alone and interdependent, like dominoes.  Choices made to define the target customers that the business will pursue also impact product design and by necessity will impact choices that determine the manufacturing process and its cost.  Choices that determine what will be included in a service will be influenced by the expected target customers and will impact how that service is delivered and priced.  Choices about product positioning and branding will impact where the product is sold and the marketing strategy.

Principle 6: Direction

The late style icon Diana Vreeland, who served as editor-in-chief at both Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar Magazines, once said that “elegance is refusal.” A company must define its unique value proposition and that will eventually cause certain potential choices to be declined, because they are contrary to the brand.  The product or service lines can be altered to satisfy customer demands over time and business models can be adjusted to reflect current or anticipated market conditions.  Nevertheless, the vision and mission must be upheld to maintain brand awareness and trust. Strategic direction will guide that process.

Thanks for reading,

Kim