Preparing Yourself For The New Year: Goal Setting For A Successful Business
“It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
If 2020 taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected. This was a tough year emotionally and many of us took hits financially but there are ways to protect your business through downturns by pricing appropriately, setting goals, and reviewing your business in the past.
WRITE OUT A LIST
First off, I want you to pat yourself on the back. YOU MADE IT THROUGH 2020! I want you to write out a list of what you accomplished this year, and what you learned this year. It’s human nature to set our sights on the future, but it’s also important to learn from what you’ve done. If you’re having trouble, go through your social media, or planner month by month to see what you were able to do each month.
LOOK AT YOUR BUSINESS FROM TOP TO BOTTOM
There are many educational tools from amazing resources to price yourself to profit. But not only should you profit, but you should also be able to SAVE. In the first year of moving my business into my full-time job, I broke my foot. It was a DOOZY. I had about 3 months of sessions that needed to be outsourced, canceled or rescheduled and a few more months after that of limiting my sessions as my foot was not able to withstand a more rigorous schedule. Had I not taken the time to save when I was shooting part-time, I likely would have had to quit and go back to my old profession. This made me realize early on, the value of saving. The beginning of the year is the perfect time to take a deeper look at your pricing model and add into your cost of doing business (CODB) something extra to put into your savings.
SET UP GOALS
Is there something you want to accomplish in your business this year? Every year, I write down between 3-5 goals and then I write them on the whiteboard in my office so I’m reminded! For 2020, I couldn’t reach all of my goals, because one was to travel with my team to an awesome location, another was to speak at PUSH CONFERENCE in Austin (BUT 2021 it’s happening!) so I transferred those goals to 2021 but the ones I did accomplish: Get a bigger studio, add-on a Teen team and work on my workflow ALL did happen AND THEN SOME. Not only did I add on a Teen team, but I also added a small Jr. High Team and it was great! I think it’s important to have an attainable goal you can work on throughout the year, and other goals that may be lofty that make you push to improve yourself and your business. When I am able to mark off a goal on that whiteboard, the feeling is just incredible!
CREATE A VISION BOARD
I do these with the girls on my model team every year as well. It’s a really fun activity!
Vision boards are a visual representation of your dreams and goals. They can be any size, but typically poster board size or slightly smaller works. As photographers, we are visual people and this will not only help you envision your goals, but it will get those creative juices FLOWING! All you need are lots of magazines, glue sticks and some pens/markers. I’ve also used corkboard with push-pins in the past. Some of my favorite things to add are images that inspire me, buzz words and quotes or affirmations that speak to me.
CREATING BETTER BUSINESS HABITS
Whether its that you take to long to reply to an email because you want to have the perfect response (GUILTY), you procrastinate on editing, you aren’t prepping your clients enough for their upcoming sessions or even that you’re not getting enough rest find a weak spot in your workflow and IMPROVE IT. Each year, when I look back, I try and think “Okay, this didn’t work as well as I had hoped, how can I improve this part of my business?” If you can’t troubleshoot it yourself, invest in your business by hiring a photographer who runs a business you aspire to become and see if they offer mentoring sessions. 1-on-1 mentoring sessions have REALLY helped me over the years, it can be for big overhauls, in areas you want to expand your business/knowledge or even something like a portfolio review or pricing review.
It’s impossible to plan for everything, but you’ll get lost without a map. Planning even the basics is so important for a successful long-running business. I wish you all a successful 2021!
XOXO,
Lacey M. Carroll
www.laceymcarroll.com
@laceymc on instagram