Hey Friends, Jenna here!
First off, welcome to the new year! We hope that 2023 has some AMAZING things in store for you.
Today I am interviewing one of the most inspiring women in my life, who I am lucky enough to call my boss, mentor, and friend! Amanda is a co-host of this show, but also owns two businesses in the wedding industry. I was so excited to have the opportunity to sit down and ask her questions about how she has run a successful business since 2014.
Business & Professional Goals for the New Year
According to Amanda, it is extremely important that you are always moving forward in your business. You have to have a mindset of thinking ahead. Otherwise, you will continually have to put out fires. When things get difficult, it is easy to throw yourself into “fix it” mode, and have those overall goals and a vision in your head of where you want to be in the future will help keep you on track when you are struggling. A goal gives you something to put your focus on in the good and bad times.
“If you don’t know where you are headed, you will never leave where you are at.” - Amanda Allison
That does not mean you have to have your exact destination in mind - but set some goals and push yourself forward.
Annual vs. Quarterly goals for small businesses
When planning out your goals & objectives for your business, Amanda has found that dividing up the goals quarterly works best. It gives you an opportunity to make tangible goals that are more “in the moment” and adjust those goals as you see fit!
Small Business Annual Goals: Start thinking of these in October or November of the year before. Analyze where we are at, what we can do better on, and how you can get there.
Small Business Quarterly Goals: Quarterly goals are most often better for businesses because of how quickly things can change. If the year 2020 taught us anything, it is that life and business is unpredictable. Having quarterly goals really gives you the opportunity to pivot in those times. These goals are more in the moment. You can make goals more specific to the time of year, gauge off of previous quarters to determine new goals and you have more of the flexibility to adjust or change as needed.
Different Categories of Goals
Amanda doesn’t like to just have one goal. She likes to split up her Annual and Quarterly goals into different categories of the business. This is how she normally divides out her categories:
Finance or Sales Goals
Marketing Goals
Customer Service Goals
Team Goals
Property and/or New Amenity Goals (not really applicable to all businesses)
First of all, each of these categories are VERY important in its own way. Not having a clear goal or objective in mind for each could really do your business a disservice.
Second, having these different goals in different categories has given us the opportunity to celebrate a goal in one area, even when you feel like you aren’t reaching your overall goal. For example, the COVID lockdown really affected the venue since there were so many guidelines regarding the number of people that could be together. However, our Customer Service goal for the quarter was getting more positive reviews. Each review from a 2020 client was 5 stars. That is incredible and something to celebrate with the whole team. Although it was a difficult time for us AND our clients, we were able to make things happen and make our clients as happy as possible in a crappy situation.
Come on, you’ve got to celebrate the small things!
Team Goals
If you have a team of employees that work for you it is so important to listen in to what they have to say, too. First off, it is nice to care about your employees and make the work atmosphere pleasant. However, it can also benefit you and your company. People have completely different life experiences so they see things differently and may have noticed things that others haven’t. Asking what someone else would do to improve your company or asking for their input can open your eyes to things that you may have never noticed, but your clients might have.
“What do they (employees) see, what do they think, how can we do better? The worst thing that I can do as a boss and owning a business is assuming I know it all, and that my way is the best way.” - Amanda
Coming up with a goal together as a team and everyone being on the same page can do wonders for employee satisfaction. It is rewarding knowing that you are working toward a goal in your position. It makes a job more than just clocking in and out.
Happy 2023, everyone!
We hope that this year is filled with success and growth beyond belief! We would love to hear from you. Send us your goals for this new year! Let’s support each other and push ourselves to success!
EPISODE RESOURCES
This Episode hosted by JENNA
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