Early January is a time to celebrate your 2012 successes, take stock of where you are and map out your strategies for going forward.
We tend to focus on what we failed to accomplish vs. our progress and actual accomplishments. Take a moment to write down those things you’re most proud of accomplishing in 2012, both business and personal. The new clients you’ve acquired, the new skills you’ve developed, new systems you’ve installed, the weight you’ve lost, the special family vacation you took this past summer etc. Take time to smell the roses and celebrate your successes!
The economy appears to be improving, the elections are over, we are getting more clarity on health care reform and now is the time to focus on what do we want to accomplish in 2013 and going forward? What got you here probably won’t get you to where you want to go. Now is the time to develop a realistic business plan for 2013. This process could be as simple as the following:
FINANCIAL OBJECTIVES
Gross revenue objective
New business revenue objective
Net profit objective
These can be coupled with whatever operational objectives you have for 2013. The last piece would develop implementation strategies for each of your objectives. These must include who will do what, how will they do it and by when will the tasks be completed.
Additionally, you should evaluate what you are doing that you should continue doing. Those are the things that can’t be delegated to others within your organization and are central to your unique abilities (per Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach). Depending on your position would dictate what those things are.
More importantly, you must stop doing those things that can be delegated or aren’t key and unique functions of your position. How often do you find yourself involved in activities that have no meaningful relevance to your position or the organization? You do them because we’ve always done them!
This is the time to complete a thorough self-analysis of what you do and get rid of all those things that don’t directly contribute to the success of the organization and your position. Either eliminate those particular tasks, delegate them to someone within the organization or outsource them.
What got you here won’t get you there. We must continue to morph, change and grow otherwise we will wither and die! Best of luck and continued success in 2013.
Torelli, CLU, ChFC, MSFS is president of Newport Beach, Calif.-based e3 Financial.
