By Gini Dietrich
I’m back! Did you miss me?
I missed you!
I have to say, I could have used just one more week.
Ann Handley posted on Facebook last night, “Sunday night, post-holidays. I know I’m supposed to be ready to go back…. I’m not. Who’s in for ONE MORE WEEK…. ?”
Considering the number of comments on that post, I would say she and I are not in the minority.
But new business meetings, speaking, and a trip to upstate New York beckon.
So here we are, 2015. Let’s do this!
2014 Business Goals and a Recap
My business goals for 2014 were: Focus, coach, and productivity.
Based on the numbers I set for myself, I did exceed the goals…with a big but.
Yes, I was hyper-focused. Way more than I expected to be because life threw me a curveball.
I didn’t get riled up when someone posted something I disagreed with on the social networks. I even calmed down a bit when organizations made big PR snafus. I said no to meetings that didn’t help us get to our goals and I even got really good at turning down business that doesn’t fit our niche. And everything I did—from the book launch and speaking engagements—had meaning.
I spent a lot of my time (15 hours a week) coaching and working with my team. And I definitely stopped working 16 hour days.
BUT…
We missed our financial goals. By a lot.
In fact, 2014 was a great, big lesson in what not to do: From HR issues and client service challenges to blog growth and speaking engagement feedback.
I was very happy to see the door close on the year and am very ready to start with a clean slate.
That said, I did fairly well with my personal goals.
I wanted to average 20,000 steps per day (actual was 18,077). I wanted to read two books a month (averaged three). I wanted to ride 6,000 miles (I rode 7,172). And I wanted to cook five nights a week (average was four).
Unfortunately, though, those things don’t make payroll so this is the year of the business.
Preparing the 2015 Business Goals
The clean slate is here and I am definitely ready to work with my team to have an outstanding 2015.
I mentioned a few months ago that I read Traction, which helped me put a plan in place for scale.
It’s funny. I’ve been talking about how to scale Arment Dietrich for a few years now and hadn’t quite figured out the magic bullet.
I read this book and suddenly it was very clear. We now have a two page business plan that will help us scale and exceed our business goals.
On the first page is our 2015 plan, our quarterly rocks (the things we have to accomplish), and our list of issues that need to be addressed in every executive team meeting.
On the second page are our core values, our core focus, our 10-year target, our marketing strategy, and what the business looks like three years from now.
Of course, this will evolve and change as the business grows and as we add new team members, but this gives us focus.
2015 Business Goals
Our 2015 business goals are:
- Launch a new Arment Dietrich website by March 31;
- Hold our first Spin Sucks conference;
- Develop a process manual that teaches all employees the Arment Dietrich way of doing things; and
- Sell, sell, sell (we have a very specific financial goal).
It’s pretty simple and we have tactics to support each of the four goals. Every, single internal meeting we have will focus on where we are with these four goals.
It’s a make or break year so I’m focused solely on the business (of course with my normal exercise and fiction reading and creativity through cooking thrown in) and its growth this year.
While it would be super nice to have just one more week, it’s time to to go kick some 2015 butt!
Are you ready?
photo credit: Shutterstock