No matter how well you planned for 2020, the events of this year probably knocked your business off course. Most disaster response plans and contingency goals didn’t take a global pandemic into account. Now we’re at the midpoint of the year. The shock is mostly worn off and we’re all just trying to do the best we can in the circumstances.
Now is the time to plot a new course, or maybe adjust the old one. Here’s how to assess how far you’ve come and set new business goals for the next six months:
1. Review your goals
Look at your financial goals, growth goals, and any other plans for your business that you hoped to achieve in 2020. These could be quarterly, half-year, or overall goals. Look at whether you reached each one. For the ones you haven’t achieved, try to quantify how close you were. Give yourself partial credit wherever you can. Maybe you wanted to sign 10 new clients and you only signed six, that’s still progress. Take a moment to congratulate yourself on a job well done.
2. Check your methods
What worked and what didn’t? What circumstances, tools, processes or habits helped you make progress. What got in the way? It’s easy to blame everything on the pandemic, but that’s a circumstance, not a reason. What specifically caused an obstacle for your business? Were people not buying because of economic uncertainty? Were employees unable to work because of stay at home orders? Identifying the specifics can help you adjust for these circumstances in the future.
3. Assess your resources
You may have less money or more. A bigger team or a smaller team. New insight, or more questions. Write down everything you have available to you that can help you achieve your goals, or mitigate the circumstances you identified in the step above. Include new contacts, new ideas, and any insight you’ve gleaned since the beginning of the year.
4. Set new goals
Your goals for the rest of 2020 should be realistic and flexible. This doesn’t mean you can’t aim high, but it does mean you should take the situation into account. Holding five in-person experiential marketing events probably isn’t a reasonable goal for these times. However, reaching x number of potential customers through online events is more realistic.
Your goals must also be more flexible than usual because no one can be sure how this situation will unfold. Every goal and plan you make should come with a contingency. Ask yourself, if I can’t do that, what can I do instead to achieve the same result?
5. Get back to work
Now get back to work so you can start achieving those new realistic and flexible goals.
If one of your goals is to finally move your business off the kitchen table and into a professional office space, Jackie is here to help. Contact us today and we’ll have you in your new office tomorrow.
