In my last post we talked about using intentions rather than resolution in planning for 2014.
But how do we set our intentions and where do we go from there? I like the list, or procedure, for setting intentions as published on Handmadeology:
Step 1: Take a Look at History
Step 2: Create a DREAM Vision For Your Business
Step 3: Get Your Head in the Right Place
Step 4: Set Goals to Support Your BIG Vision
Here are my adaptation of the four steps above:
STEP ONE: Every year end (or about this time of the year) I look over my stats, my previous goals and intentions, to see what worked and what did not. For example, in our gourmet food industry, the 10% off sale we ran in early November generated lots of orders; whereas, the 35% off sale in early January did not!! (NOTE: These are my observations about OUR business and may not translate to your business and/or customers)
STEP TWO: What is the big picture dream you want to create for 2014? Handmadeology describes this as “your business vision board!” One of our big dream goals is to have a local commercial processing kitchen to produce our own line of products. (Currently, we would need to travel 4-5 hours in any direction to find a processing kitchen big enough to use). We also want to generate more sales on our two gourmet food websites.
STEP THREE: This step can be the most important step for most people! You NEED to get your brain behind your vision. Writing something down on paper does not get you there unless you truly want the vision and are willing to work towards it. In our case, having a commercial kitchen close by will be useless to us if we REALLY don’t want to go back into processing our own line again. Maybe you would like to hire someone to perform certain tasks in your business. If you fear having employees, you will never full embrace this goal! I am a big believer in positive prayer, so if you are a spiritual person, lots of positive affirmations or prayer will help in this area.
STEP FOUR: Setting your goals to reflect your vision is the last step in this process. Goals can be smaller steps to attain in reaching your big vision. Using my example, in order to generate more sales from our gourmet food business, I will be switching our website template service to 3DCart. Our current provider does not include all the bells and whistles I want to attain my goal of more sales. For example, 3DCart as an automated system for following up on abandon orders. I can also set up a blog on my new 3DCart website….
Hopefully, you get the idea.
Now, have your gone through this process to help set your goals and intentions for 2014?