It’s a new year! Happy 2016.
I love when January comes because the clock “restarts”. We’re working with a clean slate in terms of the year and we’re in control of setting the direction of our side business in the new year.
Hopefully 2015 was a great year for your side hustle. Regardless if it was or not, before we start talking about 2016, you need to look back at the last 12 months and evaluate:
- What your side business accomplished
- What worked and what didn’t work
- What tweaks you made to your business
- How you got clients
- Honest feedback for yourself
Here what this looks like for me: changed up my link building strategy in 2015. Started focusing on strategic partnerships for new business. Made Twitter an important part of my overall business as a source of revenue and lead-in to SEO/blogging. Revenue was up over 2014, but only by a little bit (7%). I need to push for stronger growth.
Looking back
It’s important to look back over the prior year to get a lay of the land. Knowing how 2015 went…especially if you’re honest with yourself…will help to plan out 2016.
To further drive the point home, how can you effectively set goals and plan in 2016 if you don’t know what happened in the prior year…changes, successes and failures.
So take a second and sketch out 2015.
Make 2016 great
So let’s talk about making this year, 2016, a great year. The main question you need to ask yourself is, what would make this year great?
Everyone’s goals are different. Maybe you want to make a certain amount of money…maybe you want to automate your business more so you can take on more clients or work less hours…maybe you even want to scale down your side business because it’s becoming too much.
So what would make this year great for you? Give this question a lot of thought.
For me, I have a revenue target I want to hit. I already have the systems in my side business set up where I’m not knee deep in the trenches…so my main focus is on keeping clients happy and getting more clients.
So I’ve got a revenue target…so then I ask myself, well, how can I hit this number? What worked for me in 2015 that I can build upon? For me — and I mentioned it above — it’s focusing on my new Twitter service as a lead-in to SEO and blogging…and focusing on more strategic partnerships. I think if i do both well, while taking care of my current clients and making sure my service is still valuable for them, I’ll hit my goal.
So I’m just thinking out loud so you can get a sense as to my thought process.
What about you?
So what would make this year great for you? What are your goals? When you know these answers, come up with the steps or to-do’s that will make things possible…and break it down into manageable chunks.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
How bad do you want it?
You’ll naturally answer this question with your actions. Are you willing to put daily progress into your side business to meet your goals? If yes, you likely want it bad enough. If you constantly drift in and out of productivity, or you’re constantly making excuses why you couldn’t work on your business today…well, you probably don’t want it bad enough, or you have to re-evaluate your side business selection.
Final thoughts
I find it helpful to keep my goals top of mind every day. An easy way to do so is through a tool called Memo To Me. It emails you every day with whatever message you want…so I send myself daily reminders of my goals…and an affirmation I say to myself every day from Émile Coué:
Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.
Is that weird? Yeah maybe, but I don’t care. Every little bit helps and mindset is huge.
Make 2016 a great year and good luck!
