Setting Goals- Where should your focus be?

A new year is all about setting either personal or professional goals. By now, we know that we should set reasonable goals and attach achievable action to them. I set my goals for 2020 back in November (I always like to be ahead of the curve!). So if we know that goals should be reasonable, perhaps looking at them as quarterly milestones with real action steps to set the stage for success, then we almost need to go back a step and look at what our goals should be.rnLet's look at two of the common categories you can focus on: Lifestyle and balance - If you're an entrepreneur and small business owner, its likely that balance went out the window awhile ago - even if you're a lifestyle coach that teaches balance, changes are (like all of us!), it's tough to practice in reality. How do we better achieve balance when our to-do list is constantly growing? Accept that as hard as you may try, not everything can get done in one day. It's ok for a non-urgent email to sit for a day when you feel overwhelmed, tired, or stressed, close up for the day. Set business hours, and if needed, include these in your signature line. If someone contacts you after the end of your day, they should expect that the message will sit. My tip - my office hours on Fridays technically ends at 1 pm; I work till 4 pm, but I use those three hours to catch up and turn off my phone, which leads to pretty effective focus. Take vacation days - you may not be at a point where you can truly go off the grid for a week or two, but take extended weekends when you can. The key here is to book an activity on those days that takes you out of the office, plan a spa day, find a new trail you haven't explored before, or volunteer. The change will do you good. Boosting your income - Who doesn't want to bring in more income year over year? There are three main ways to look at this goal. Increase your rates - are you charging enough for the services you provide? This may not mean increasing your base hourly rate, although you may need to, but looking at the services you provide, beyond your scope of work, that you should be charging extra for. Perhaps this may involve re-framing your scope of work, increasing what's included and consequently increasing your price for the package, or at the very least, setting better boundaries on what's included and what's "extra." More clients - you may be charging enough, but not to enough clients. Boosting your digital marketing efforts is key here, the more visibility you have, the more likely you'll be seen by prospects. Create lead magnets, blog more, post more, interact more - we have a ton of resources on our website to help get you started, and of course, we're always available for a complimentary consultation, all you have to do is ask! Become more efficient - this seems huge, and hard to put your finger on. But look at it this way, is there something you are frequently asked for that you could create a lead magnet about, and offer with ease of access on your website? Are there tasks you're doing that could be delegated, even if its only 5 hours a week? It's 5 hours more you could be working directly with clients. Do you have programs that could be offered as recordings, and available on-demand? There are endless options available to small business owners. What goals did you set for 2020? Better yet, what's your trick for staying on track? By Peggy Murrah, Founder of PMA Web Services