September always feels like the start of the year to me. After the summer, whether you have kids or not, September does seem like the start of the regular routine. There is something about seeing all the back to school supplies in the stores that makes me start to think about cleaning my office, reorganizing, de-cluttering, setting priorities and goals.
As a home stager I am always advising sellers to clean, reorganize, de-clutter, prioritize their projects, and work on the goal of selling their home. This is a great time of year for us to practice what we preach. Purge those items you have been using to stage that look old or tired. Clean up your files. Reorganize your priorities and set some goals. Think about your business, how can you find more clients, be more efficient and more creative? This has been such a tough market, how can we as home stagers work on our own business to promote what we do best? Make a business plan. Google business plan and lots come up. Some are free and work well.
Here are some simple fill in the blanks that can help your business:
Mission Statement - What is your business, what do you want to portray as a company, what sets you apart from the competition? I love Disney's mission statement "To make people happy." How simple, but really it works, making the customer happy, making the employees happy, that is Disney. Put your mission statement on your desk, on your bulletin board, internalize it.
What is your mission statement?________________________________________________
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Vision for your business - What will your business look like next year? In five years? How will you expand or enhance your business?
What is your vision for your business?_______________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________
Set your goals - Set specific goals, daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals. They do not have to be how much revenue, it could be how many contacts you make each day, week, etc. How you network, how you market, etc.
What are your goals? ___________________________________________________________
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Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) - by analyzing these characteristics in your business, you will get a better idea of what it will take for you to not only to survive but also prosper. Include the changes in the industry, the marketplace social and economic conditions, competition, new technologies that can help or hurt your business.
Define your SWOT______________________________________________________________
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Financial Plan - Analyze your costs and your income, set up financial controls, and account for everything that goes in and out.
What is your financial plan?_______________________________________________________
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Measure and Evaluate - Set up a way to measure your progress on your goals and plans. Do it regularly, perhaps quarterly. This will help you refine and improve your plan and achieve your goals.
How will you measure and evaluate your business? ___________________________________
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I hope this helps you start out in September with a new successful plan to enhance your business! I know it is going help me get back on track as summer ends.
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