What will 2014 be like for your business?
2014 is the year of LEGACY for me.
Every year I conduct an annual review and look ahead to the upcoming year for both the business and my personal life. You can read the complete explanation and download the template in our annual review blog post.
Today we’ll take a look at how to conduct an annual review for your business with 9 Clouds as an example. Learning from the previous year and looking ahead will help grow and focus your business.
A Look Back
We have much to be thankful for at 9 Clouds this year. Last December I set a few key goals for the business which we mostly met. If you’re trying to decide what to focus on in your upcoming year consider these types of goals.
Revenue
From our $15,000 grant five years ago, my brother and I saw a great milestone in the forecast for this year. We wanted 9 Clouds and Lemonly to be a million dollar company.
We reached and exceeded the goal this year! This is largely due to our ability to move all of our 9 Clouds clients to digital marketing retainers that maximize our time and create the best results for their businesses. Lemonly also had tremendous growth as infographic design and interactive infographics continued to grow in popularity.
Key takeaway: Build a solid team and a revenue model that is scalable for growth.
Content
In 2013 I wanted to prioritize regular content. For us this is how we reflect, teach and attract potential prospects. Plus I just love doing it too!
I aimed for two blog posts a week, a newsletter a week and a growing list of over 6,000 digital homesteaders by the end of 2013. We also were able to achieve this thanks to my awesome team and great readers like you who share and talk about our content. Thank you!
I also specified writing 1,000 words a day personally, publishing one article in a political thought journal and getting a regular column in a traditional publication. I went a big 0-3 here as I discovered the goals I set were both ambitious and on my own. Throughout the year the team goals had a much better chance of success thanks to accountability and help.
Key takeaway: Sharing the load helps you to focus on small pieces of your goal and keeps you accountable. Make your goal quantifiable so you have something to aim for.
Also, make the goal something that seems easy enough that you’ll actually do it. 1,000 words a day is a lot and at times scared me away from writing. If you set a goal of 200 words a day, it seems easy and you’ll start writing and very likely get to 1,000 words anyways.
Speaking
I love speaking and teaching through corporate workshops and events. In 2013 I aimed for four speaking events a month making up over 5% of our revenue.
I didn’t quite make it on the speaking events mostly because we started the year doing some free speaking events. The year ahead I’ll focus more on creating unbelievable speaking and workshops that people will not only hire 9 Clouds for but will talk about long after the event.
Key takeaway: Charge clients for what you’re worth the first time, otherwise it is hard to move to a paying model.
Project Launch
Every year I like to create at least one major project. At this time last year I thought it might be a mastermind group, which may still come down the road.
The large project goal changed however to publishing a book: Navigating Social Media.
With the help of the awesome 9 Clouds team, we were able to publish the digital version right after Thanksgiving and the beautifully designed paperback is being printed as we speak. It was a long process but a work of art we’ll be proud to look back on.
Key takeaway: Your goals can change.
A Look Ahead
On Friday last week, the 9 Clouds team and I discussed what we want to achieve. It’s so fun to look ahead and dream what life will be like, but to make it actionable you have to also add in the next steps and deadlines to make sure it is realistic.
Make sure to break your goal down so you will know if you are going off the path throughout the year. For example, if you have a revenue goal, break it down by quarter so you can check in every 90 days and see where you’re at.
This year we have a few key goals to achieve.
Revenue
By the end of 2014, we are aiming for 9 Clouds to double its revenue with a mix of new clients, retaining current business and increased income from speaking, book sales and our 9 Clouds Academy. We will work to make the speaking, book sales and Academy about 10% of our overall revenue. That’s a piece that I’ll be spending much of my time one. Let me know if you have any ideas!
Key milestones: We want to attract six new clients, maintain 90% of our current business, grow the Academy to over 150 members and speak or conduct workshops at least twice a month.
Content
We want to maintain our current content frequency and work now on the word of the year: legacy. We want to create summarized content that can be published, purchased and act as an overall guide to readers.
Key milestones: To achieve this I will be writing 250 words a day (a goal low enough that it should be laughable, but it hopefully gets me in the chair as Joshua Fields Millburn says).
We’ll create a 9 Clouds manifesto and one additional large publication. We’ll also aim for 5,000 downloads and purchases of the Field Guide.
Learning
Last year I categorized learning as a personal goal, but this year I’m also going to include it in the business section. In our industry and most industries, continuing to learn and improve is essential for success and survival
I’m going to keep a goal from last year that I nearly achieved which is reading 52 books throughout the year. I find reading is the best inspiration for writing, so that should help my business content goals.
I also want to complete a coding course. One of our new Lemonly employees is an amazing development teacher so I will look to him and online resources like Code Academy to learn more in-depth code.
The reason for this skill is not that I will be coding websites, but rather to understand the language and thought-process of developers. Knowing the limitations and logical loops of code can help me both in my business and personal life. This article on The Code of Life summarizes it well.
Finally, I want to learn a new spoken language. I love language and try to keep up my Spanish and Norwegian. When I look back I find the happiest times in my life are when I’m learning and exposed to new thoughts and ideas. Learning a language is something I can learn and immerse myself in. It can potentially assist my personal travel goals in the future or at least give me a new way to see and think about the world.
Key takeaway: Business and personal are inextricably intertwined. Recognize that a healthy and stimulated personal life helps your business.
My Word: Legacy
As you can tell, I love getting in the weeds and identifying the goals for the upcoming year. However, I will only look at these every 90 days. Instead I keep one word in my head to help guide me through the year.
This year is the year of legacy for me. I want my work this year to be building towards an outcome that I will be proud of; An outcome I will look back on and identify as the foundation for what is to come.
In previous newsletters I have called it A Body of Work. This year, I want to emphasize building this body of work. If I can keep that word in mind, I will meet my goals often without knowing it.
What are Your Goals?
This week of holidays might be a blur of presents and family. Or it might provide moments of quiet. If you get a moment, try to write down a few of your business goals for the year and the key metrics that will help you achieve those goals. Then, choose one word that can be your north star for the year. The word that will keep you on track.
With a little reflection and planning, 2014 will be an amazing year.
Let us know what your goals are for the year. We’ll share them in an upcoming newsletter or blog post to help other readers plan their upcoming year.
