How to have the best year ever

Let's get right into it. You want to have your best ever year next year? Of course you do. Who wouldn't. You also know exactly what you need to do to get there. So the question becomes then, why don't you just do it? This article will help you get clear about what you want to have achieved by this time next year and how to actually follow through and get it done.  

What do you want?

The first thing to figure out is what you want. Yes, feel free to write down Lambos and yachts if you want but I think it's far more actionable to focus on the metrics that will get you there. Again, it's easy to say "I want [insert arbitrary figure here] in my bank account by December 31st" but I think you can go one more useful than that. Revenue is too hard to control. It's too many "steps away" and there are too many variables. It's easier to control things like:

• People contacted
• Phone calls made
• Blog posts written
• Interviews given
• Meetings set up

You can directly control every one of those things with nothing more than your effort. You're not relying on any external sources. That said, you want to pick something to have as a goal. It could be a number of customers, or number of signups or number of people on an email list. Anything like that is great, just steer away from picking random financial figures. Once you have that number 10x it. I know it sounds stupid but just do it anyway and hold onto that number.

Reverse Engineering

Now we're thinking about things we can control, we need to go to the end of the line and work backwards. Let's assume that in order to win business, you generate a lead somehow, then you have a meeting, submit a proposal and win the job. Why don't we assume that the goal you've chosen is a number of customers by the end of the year. Say you wanted 50 new customers and it's now 500 new customers because you 10X'd it. How many leads do you need to get a sale? 2, 3, 5, 10? More? If you don't know, have an educated guess. It doesn't have to be that accurate. Say it's 3, that means you need 1,500 leads to get your 500 customers. Divide 1,500 by the number of days in the year: 4. 4 new leads a day. Not that tricky.

The Fun Maths

Now we know we need 4 leads a day. That's all. You don't need to think about anything else. Just how do you get 4 leads a day? How many do you get currently and where do they come from? Maybe you get 4 a week from your current networking efforts and referrals. Can you multiply those current efforts by 5 relatively easily. Could you add 5x the traffic to your website or get infront of more people each week at networking events or find a way to multiply the number of referrals? How does your website perform at the moment? How many visitors before you get a lead. Say you're running at 5% visitor > lead ratio. Could you add some video to the page, or better copy and get that up to 7 or 8% with a little effort? Could you get a Virtual Assistant to find you 100 contacts each week for you to cold email?

Your Daily Target

Once you've worked out the different ways you can do this, split it up into daily targets. It could be that you do a certain type of task on Mondays then something else on Tuesdays. The other option is to divide everything into daily activity and do it that way.

Possible?

It really doesn't take much to get your brain to the point where this stuff is actually rather achievable. Don't forget we 10X'd this too. I challenge you to give it a shot. You might as well. Another mediocre year doesn't sound too fun.

Next Steps

In closing, don't think about arbitrary financial goals. They are too much of a stretch. Focus on what you can control by taking a goal and working backwards to give you tasks you can achieve. Work out what your tasks are and what you need to do on a daily basis in order to achieve your year-end target. This will be my last post of the year. I'm going to spend the next 3-4 weeks creating new content to share with you in the new year. Have an amazing Christmas and New Year. Adam