Goal Setting
From a business standpoint, I’m always excited about beginning a new year, and looking ahead to what I’d like accomplish in the next twelve months. Although I’ve only been in the massage business for a decade or so, I’ve been a business owner for most of the last thirty years. One thing that has served me well in all that time is having concrete goals.
I left my job as a massage school administrator a little over four years ago and opened my own clinic. Since the first day, my goal has been to gain one new client a day, 365 days a year. Since we’re closed on Sunday, that means gaining two some other day of the week. I’ve exceeded that goal again this year for the fourth year in a row.
I have not accomplished this alone; I have a great staff of therapists who share in that goal. Every year on January 1, I write the magic number on a sticky note and it stays on my computer screen so I see it every day. As I make a file for each new client, I give thanks for getting one person closer to the goal. I keep the staff informed about how close we are getting as the year goes by. They share in my desire to make it and my excitement when we do.
Another goal of mine, and it’s very concrete, is to have a good time every day at work. I want to laugh every day, and I want my staff to laugh every day. Enjoying your work is one of the most important things on the path to success.
As any of my esteemed colleagues on this blog could testify, succeeding in business is largely a matter of perseverance. When setbacks happen, you pick yourself up and dust yourself off, and get your eyes back on the prize. Thomas Edison said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
I often hear from therapists who have been in practice for a year or two, or sometimes ten, and they’re still not where they want to be financially or still not in the work situation they’d like to have. Most of the time, I’ve found the problem comes down to their not having concrete goals. They have dreams–”One of these days I’ll be doing so-and-so or making this amount of money,” but they haven’t given it the breath of life by turning it from a dream into a goal.
If you have a dream you haven’t realized yet, I want 2008 to be your year. The first step is to write it down in specific terms. Then put that where you have to see it every single day–your appointment book is a good place, or make it the screen saver on your computer. Then remember that law of physics, that something will stay on the same path unless a force acts to change it, and realize you have to be that force in order to change your circumstances. The Small Business Administration has a great piece of advice on their website (www.sba.gov), and that is never let a day go by without doing something to market your business.
Schedule a half hour every day when your only focus is going to be marketing. That can mean anything from working up a new advertisement to sending welcome cards to new clients, to calling up old ones who haven’t been in lately to see how they are and jog their memory that it’s been awhile since their last massage. The point is, do something. Set your goals, and take some action. Believe you are going to succeed. Act as if you are going to succeed, and know that success depends on your actions. Another unknown philosopher said “There are people who make things happen, people who watch things happen, and people who wonder what happened.” Decide to be one of those people who makes things happen!
May your New Year be filled with peace and prosperity,
Laura Allen
Posted on December 28th, 2007 by Laura Allen
Filed under: General
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