Aiming higher in 2012

Happy New Year everyone! It has often been said that “in order to predict the future, you must first understand the past.” Therefore, as one begins to plan for a successful 2012, it’s important to look at previous accomplishments.

In April 2011, I wrote a blog post asking my readers to hold me accountable for my goals for the second half of the year. In that blog post, I promised to report back at the end of 2011 to share whether I met those goals. The reason for making my business challenges public was to instill enough fear in myself, as a freelancer, to make sure that I would stick to my plan.

Well, it’s now time to face the music and report back on how well I did. In case you didn’t read my previous blog post, here are the goals that I set for myself in 2011:

  • Have at least 5-10 phone calls or meetings with new contacts every day (my motto is always be networking)
  • Have 3-5 repeat clients by the end of 2011
  • Host at least 2 group presentations about B2B digital corporate storytelling by the end of 2011
  • Help at least 3 small websites to put together an integrated media sales strategy by the end of 2011
  • Work with 3-5 businesses to help them profile Canadian digital media trends and online user behaviours (i.e. via blogs, market insights reports, presentations, etc.) by the end of 2011
  • Pitch a Canadian digital media news story to 3-5 print publications where I’d like to be published

Now, here are the goals that I did achieve:

  • I am happy to say that I met my goal of three to five repeat clients by then end of 2011. I’m going to have to revise the requirements for this goal in 2012.
  • I also easily met the group presentation target because I had promised to host at least two. In hindsight, I should have aimed for five to ten instead. So, I’m going to have to aim higher in 2012.
  • I did work with three startups (not necessarily small websites) to put together an integrated media sales strategy in 2011. I am happy with having achieved this goal because it’s hard to find customers who are looking for help in this area. I might expand on this goal for 2012 and create more advanced challenges.
  • Finally, I did meet the goal of working with 3-5 businesses to help them profile Canadian digital media trends and online user behaviours (i.e. via blogs, market insights reports, presentations, etc.) by the end of 2011.
Here’s where I need to improve:
  • While I was always networking, there were, admittedly, days where I was too busy working on client projects to meet my five to ten client calls or meetings quota. I guess what I’ve learned is that once you have a set number of clients, the desire to keep pitching does slow down a bit. However, when I did go to conferences and events, I set a goal for myself to come home with at least five to ten business cards. This, I can proudly say, I achieved.
  • The print publication goal is the one area where I really fell short. Admittedly, I only pitched one Canadian digital media news story to a print publication where I’d like to be published. I guess because I was writing a lot of online, time-sensitive content in 2011, it was difficult to find stories that would lend themselves well to a print publication. So, I am definitely going to have to be more aggressive in this area in 2012. That’s because I really would like to gain more experience writing for print – even though we do live in a digital world.

So, overall I would say that I didn’t aim high enough in 2011 because I easily met the majority of my goals. As a result, my business resolution in 2012 will be to aim much, much higher. I think it’s better to report back that I came in just shy of my goals in 2012, rather than report that I easily met them. Stay tuned for an update on those goals in the weeks to come.

Image source: funnypicturesimages.com

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