This week is a series of the most cost-effective techniques we use with our consultancy customers – I hope you find them useful for you in achieving your goals in 2010.

They include:

• Customer Retention Tips
• Re-connecting with Prospects
• Maximising your Word of Mouth Marketing

You can achieve most of these without spending very much money – and your returns will be higher than many other forms of marketing.

Athletes also use visualisation when they’re competing and the positive effects have been well documented.  But, for business people, it’s an underused tool.

The best technique I have been exposed to was visualising a lottery win.  The speaker suggested we look past the money and think about what we would do, if money were no longer an issue.  This often leads to the discovery of what it is that you really value – which is crucial when deciding your strategy.

Some people struggle with visualisation, so don’t worry if you find it a bit far-fetched – you’re definitely not alone.  These ideas might help you though…

• Think about films or TV programmes that have generated an emotional response in you – whatever that emotion was.  Chances are that response is linked to something about which you feel passionate.  If you can focus on that, you’re part way to discovering what you really want.
• If you really struggle to visualise, a coach I know recommended you go and see ‘Avatar’ – James Cameron’s latest movie.  It is incredible, but it may also help you think more broadly and visualise things that are important to you.  And that’s the first step in achieving what you want.

Remember – if you don’t know what you want, you’ll achieve ‘anything’. If you visualise exactly what you do want, both you and the people around you will try to make it happen.  The universe doesn’t understand positive and negative – it just understands ‘focus’ so, as they say, be careful what you wish for!

Tip: This isn’t about working longer hours to find the time, it’s about being smarter with the time you do have, so I need you to work a little harder than just thinking you’ll start an hour earlier one day.

Take a look at your calendar and have a look for any of the following:

1. Meetings that you don’t really need to attend.  We often attend events or networking meetings that, if we’re honest, don’t achieve any returns.  Could you save time next week by cutting maybe just one of these out of your diary?
2. Meetings someone else could attend on your behalf.  Effective delegation can be really useful in generating time you can spend more productively.
3. Unstructured meetings.  Could you initiate an agenda to keep the meeting on track and shorten the time taken out of the office?
4. Travelling time.  Are there calls you could make, rather than meetings you need to attend?  A conference call would save travelling time for all – and it’s an ideal time to suggest this with our current weather ‘issues’.
5. Project work that could be delegated to others, or out-sourced.  For example, are you doing your own tax return, when a book-keeper could do it in half the time and allow you to focus on running your business?
6. Unnecessary work – jobs that don’t add value to the business, but keep you busy – the not urgent and not important stuff.  Could you bin some of that and save valuable time?

If you have any other ideas for actions that could be improved, reduced, removed… please let us know.

Hopefully, you’ve been able to find just one hour in which you can build your business.  And, if you’ve done it next week, chances are you can do it the week after and the week after that.

It’s believed that just 20% of your actions each day generate 80% of your results – Pareto’s principle.  What you need to do therefore is try to work out which actions are important – and generate results.  These are often those that generate profits and are usually time spent with customers.

Why not spend the next 24 hours jotting down everything you do and the way you spend your time.  We can then have a look at whether that’s efficient use of time tomorrow and help you get more out of your day.

If you can use your time in a smarter way, you can improve your results and spend more time with family and friends.  As an example, in my first job when I was just 13, I took a weekly paper-round.  I soon realised I could deliver the three weekly papers in a similar amount of time to delivering just one – but I was paid three times as much.  Simple!

What’s important about this list is that you can check your own goals against those most popular with others.  But, perhaps more importantly, it will also give you an insight into the goals of your employees and customers, which will help with your strategic planning and marketing techniques…

Ten Most Popular New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Stop smoking
2. Get fit / lose weight
3. Enjoy life more
4. Cut down on alcohol
5. Get organised
6. Get a new job
7. Learn something new
8. Get out of debt / save money
9. Spend more time with the family
10. Do something to help others

These top ten things help you understand your customers and what their main drivers are – if you can tap into these trends and help them achieve some of their most important goals, that could be a remedy for success in 2010.  And could help ensure you achieve your New Year’s Resolutions.

It is a great practice though to look back over the year and see what you achieved and what you weren’t quite able to reach.  It will help you celebrate the good things – which we don’t take enough time out to do – and set a plan to achieve the other goals if they remain important.

A review of your goals will also enable you to better understand what you can realistically achieve within a twelve month period.  Maybe some of them needed a little longer.  Maybe some are no longer important.  Or maybe you need to clear more time in your diary for strategy and marketing to ensure you do achieve your goals for 2010.

Whilst the snow’s affecting many businesses and keeping things quiet, it’s a great use of any spare time to really think about what you want to achieve this year.  It’s in your power – you don’t have to rumble along and see what happens, you can actually work a plan.  Why not give it a go?

In order to avoid this situation, and ensure your business moves forward in a logical and determined way, we recommend finding yourself an accountability partner – someone who will ask how you’re doing against the goals you’ve set – and keep you on track.

This is the reason many of us have a business coach – but it doesn’t need to be someone who costs you money.  It could be a fellow business owner -maybe you could coach each other.  Or a mentor or adviser you trust.

Our top tips for the best outcome are as follows:

• Find someone you trust, who also has experience of running a business
• Set a timescale that’s comfortable for follow-ups – no less than once per month (once per week will give you more momentum)
• Stick to the appointments – no matter what
• Set time aside in your diary for ‘strategy’ or ‘marketing’ to ensure it’s done
• Be careful who you ask – free advice is worth exactly what you pay for it

If you know someone with coaching skills and business experience, they are probably perfect – why not call them now and ask if they could help you this year?

Hopefully, you’ve been able to take some time to review your goals with your partner.  It’s critical to do that first – you can’t make a business plan in isolation of your personal plan.  So revisit those goals and have a good look at what you might need to do in terms of your work life, in order to meet your personal goals.

This will allow you to create some business goals that (hopefully) add to your personal goals.  And that’s where we’ll start this week…

Create just six goals in the following categories:

• 90 Days
• 1 Year
• 5 Years

Tomorrow, we’ll have a look at how you can keep yourself on track.

Without ever discussing your goals and aspirations, you might never find that out.

As a result, it’s very insightful to have your partner complete the goals exercise too, so you can understand what’s really important to each other.  You can then decide which goals you want to achieve in 2010 and set a plan to get them.

Have fun comparing notes!

Have a look at your 5-year goal list and work back from there to decide what actions you need to complete in the next year in order to take a big step towards those goals.  The following tables may help you:

1-Year Goals – Business

1-Year Goals – Personal

These goals can now be linked into your 90-day goals – 4 of these 90-day planning sheets and you’ll be at the end of your year.  The three goals exercises together will keep you focused on your priorities and will give you something against which you can measure your progress.

Good Luck!