2016 has arrived, whether we’re ready for it or not!  And with a new year comes a slew of personal resolutions, often about changing a behavior that we haven’t liked in ourselves in the past.  That’s all good, but you can read article after article about how very few resolutions are kept.  So after this week, those resolutions may go out the window. 

Sometimes companies make New Year’s resolutions too, but more often we consider what our goals are for the next 12 months.  This week, we wanted to look at setting those goals, and perhaps if you have already set company goals, you can look at this from a personal standpoint as well. 

Goals for either a company or an individual are often lofty.  We want to have a 25% growth in sales with the company, or we want to individually score the winning goal in the World Cup.  Unfortunately, those goals often go the same way as the resolutions.  They’re not necessarily achievable, and they’re so far sighted that they soon get ignored. 

A few years ago I started making lists for what I wanted to achieve during the year.  You could call it a mission statement or a bucket list, because some of the items were personal things I had always wanted to do.  But some of it was also oriented toward my behavior, such as the time I would spend with family, relationships with clients and reworking my garden.  It always has more to do with who I want to be, and how I’d like the company to be, rather than just the usual work out/diet/study more routine. 

Let’s look at some ideas for what the company mission could include for 2016.  If that list is a good one, it may include the steps that will translate to that 25% growth in revenues.  And realistically, all the activities we do within a company should have a purpose, so we shouldn’t be putting anything on the list that we don’t feel will accomplish something important.  As a marketing person, here are a few things that I could see putting on the company list for 2016:

•        Develop a client/customer recognition program
•         Revise the company website
•         Involve the organization with a chosen nonprofit that we can support
•         Hire someone to do a strong, year-long public relations campaign
•         Institute a summer work schedule
•         Focus on new business development and develop a weekly activity calendar
•         Pick the one thing that makes the company most unique, and make that the subject of all advertising throughout the year
•         Schedule team building events on a monthly basis with staff
•         Pay off that one debt that is really nagging

You may have lots of other ideas for your list of what you want to accomplish this year.  Make it purposeful, and if you need help with it, give us a call.