Marketing program
I’ve decided that it’s time for a marketing push. It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day running of the business (at least I find it is) and every now and then I need to remind myself that we need to be getting out there and actively finding new clients. So, I’ve started myself on a 28-day marketing plan in the style of Get Clients Now!.
I’ve got it all mapped out and am coming to the end of day 4 of the plan. Actually, saying I’m on day 4 makes it feel like I’m cheating – the book starts you off on a Saturday to make sure you’ve got everything prepared and are ready to throw yourself into it on the Monday. But to me it feels like I didn’t really do anything for the first two days. So, I’m actually on the second day of actively doing stuff.
It certainly feels very positive having a plan to work to. It’s making me think about everything I’m doing and all my interactions with clients and contacts. Let’s see how it goes!
Some time to myself
I found myself getting up at 8.30 this morning thinking that it was going to be 11ish. I guess I haven’t adapted to the lighter mornings yet. It was good to have a head-start on the day. I spent the morning preparing the first draft of the presentation I have to do for my management course. I’m meeting up with my group tomorrow morning to have a run through. It feels good to have got to this stage as it’s been feeling like it’s been hanging over me for the last couple of weeks.
So, having done that I’m treating myself to some time to myself this afternoon. After a full-on week it actually feels odd to not have to be urgently doing anything. I think I’m going to do some work on goal setting, so I guess strictly speaking I will be working but it feels like it doesn’t count if it’s something that I actually want to do. Will intersperse with some mindless reading as well to make sure that I don’t overdo it. Tonight we’re off to my mother-in-law’s for dinner, so that will be a nice treat. Think we’re supposed to be round there for 5pm, so that will force me to stop doing anything remotely worky nice and early.
Goal Setting
Aside from the fact that I’m not much of a football fan, the problem I have with goal seeting is that I just don’t know where to stop.
What do I want? Everything
When do I want it? Now!
So my list of goals just keeps getting longer and longer and I start to feel overwhelmed and end up not achieving anything at all. Not very productive is it? Goals are a good thing so I need to learn how to deal with them more constructively. Instead of just an endless list of what I want to achieve I need some kind of action plan with achievable targets. I must stop myself trying to do everything at once and getting burnt out as a result.
There must be a knack to it, I just need to figure out what it is.
Goal!
Just had a real ‘durr!’ moment. I was searching our library catalogue for keyword ‘goals’. Was looking for some books on goal setting, achieving your goals … that type of thing. What did I find? Pages and pages of books about football. Took me ages to figure out why. I’m obviously not feeling very bright tonight – my excuse is that I’ve been suffering with a cold all week.
Start of another 90 days of brilliance
One of my favourite ‘sorting your life out’ books is How to Be Brilliant by Michael Heppell. I’ve mentioned it before and I’ll probably mention it again. The book helps you plan out ’90 days of brilliance’ to help you achieve or work towards achieving your goals. It’s a brilliant motivator.
Last week I came to the end of a 90-day period, which started well but kind of petered out into unbrilliance – though I did manage to get through my planned reading list, so it wasn’t a complete wash-out. So, I’ve spent the weekend working my goals and planning my next 90 days. This time I will stick to it! Helping me along is my good friend Sparkatrician, who is going to be my ‘brilliance buddy’. He’s also starting out on a 90-day plan so we will egg each other on and generally provide support. Have got our first phone call booked in for tomorrow night.
It’s been quite an intense weekend doing the prep, but I now have 90-, 30- and 7-day plans printed out and in my ‘brilliance folder’. Despite intending to limit my goals to a manageable amount, there’s quite a lot on there. Still, got to aim high! First step will be to get up at 6am tomorrow and do yoga.
