Is Your 2020 Going to be Like Groundhog Day?
The New Year is the ideal time to have dusted the cobwebs off the brain and be ready to get motoring. I heard that saying a few years ago and it struck a chord.
Is your business going along on similar lines?
Is this year going to be a photocopy of last year?
Stuck in your own version of Groundhog Day?
Let’s get the New Year off to a positive start.
Have you targets sets for the year ahead – targets for sales, profits and a higher salary for yourself? If you have not set targets, then I strongly encourage you to do so today.
Step one is to know what you did last year. Hopefully you already know but if you don’t then… Look at bank statements, invoices out from last year and know your main figures.
Example: Mary had sales of €60,000 last year and a wage of €30,000. She wants to set a sales target of €80,000 which would allow her to take a wage of €40,000.
How is she going to get that increase? Well, it won’t happen by itself – she needs a plan. Some extra sales and marketing activities will be needed. There are four main ways she can grow her sales.
1. Sell more of her current services to existing or past clients
2. Sell more of her current services to new clients
3. Sell new services to existing or past clients
4. Sell new services to new clients
Example no. 1: If Mary was a web designer, she may offer her service of ‘monthly updates to your website’ to more existing customers.
Example no. 2: she could offer the same service to brand new clients.
Example no. 3: sell new services to existing clients. Mary might develop a social media service and offer it to existing clients. Or she may offer it to brand new clients.
If you know anything about my approach to marketing, you can guess that I would advise Mary to prioritise 1 & 3 above.
If you have not done so already why not set a sales and profit target for your business? We all want higher sales. Why not go for an increase of 20% (or more if you feel bullish)?
Have stretch sales targets, which you review on a regular basis and your sales will almost certainly grow.
Make sure this year is not a photocopy of last year and avoid ‘Groundhog Day’.
Neil