Questions hungry entrepreneurs must ask themselves to prepare for 2019

Each day we have over 40,000 thoughts. The problem is that most people think the same thoughts over and over again. The only way to change that is to inject something new into your mind.

Some people quote Albert Einstein as having said that "the definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting different results." While the quote hasn't been factually tied to him, it's still a good one.

I am OK with people calling me crazy because I am different but that doesn’t mean that I want to experience insanity and do the same things over and over.

To make an impact, it's not about what you do each year, each quarter or each month. It's about the daily disciplines. What you do each day, each hour that counts to the big picture. Every minute that you spend wasting time, is a minute you can never get back again. 

Doing the same thing over and over and not getting results is a waste of time.

Energy without strategy is a total waste of time!

Too many business owners are doing social media, doing SEO, doing all forms of business development that in their heart, hoping that it will get them results. Hope is a great thing, but it's not a great strategy.

When it comes to marketing your business, you need to have a plan that works. - Joe Apfelbaum

In the world of digital marketing, you can set up KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) that will tell you whether your marketing is working for you, or if it is a waste of time.

Do you have a marketing dashboard setup for your business?

The first thing we do for our clients when we start working with them is to make sure that they have all their numbers in orders.

If you do not know where you are going, you might never get there, you might have gotten there already but it doesn't matter.

When you fail to plan, you are essentially saying that you are leaving things up to the winds. That you might get lucky. Why not have a plan, any plan is better than no plan at all.

Your vision will become a reality if you dare to share it. - Joe Apfelbaum

You might be afraid that it's not the right plan. So ask an expert to review your plan and make sure it's going to help you get somewhere.

Here are 10 questions I would ask you if you spoke to me about growing your business in 2019.

1. What is your revenue goal for 2019. What do you want your total sales to be?
2. What is your gross profit goal for 2019? Selling more is not better if you are not profitable.
3. What is your net profit per month that you expect to make in 2019? We need to know how much cash you will have to be able to grow your business.
4. What is your specific actionable plan for hitting and exceeding your goal for 2019? DO you have priorities that drive action? Did you write them down and share with your entire team so that everyone buys into the goals?
5. What are the most important data metrics that you need to look at on a weekly basis that will let you know what is working and what is not working in your business?
6. Who are the people you need to hire to get this done? What is your plan for hiring them? Do you have a scorecard with outcomes and competencies? What about job descriptions?
7. What training do you need to provide to your people to make sure they get you to where you are going?
8. Who are your most important clients? What is your plan to retain them and make them more loyal? Will they refer business? (NPS)
9. What did you learn from 2018 that will help you not make the same mistakes this year? Have you communicated that with your leadership team?
10. What are you personally going to do to make sure that your business will hit its goals in 2019?

Answer these questions, write down the answers and share them with your people, coach, mentors, accountability partners, board of advisors and friends. Your vision will become a reality if you dare to share it.

Joe Apfelbaum is the CEO of digital marketing agency Ajax Union. He is a professional speaker, certified Google Trainer, and published business author. Joe enjoys speaking and writing about a broad range of business topics in his seminars, webinars, and articles. Joe is proud of all his accomplishments, but most of all he is proud of his beautiful amazing kids.

For more about Joe, follow Joe Apfelbaum on social media @joeapfelbaum