Getting started with marketing goals: Taking a look at the past

"What you need to know about the past is that no matter what has happened, it has all worked together to bring you to this very moment.  And this is the moment you can choose to make everything new.  Right now."  Author Unknown

We build our lives on the foundations of our past experiences. We shouldn't dwell on them forever but as a business owner, each year we should be learning from our past mistakes and successes. Today, let's take a look at our mistakes and success in the past year to see where we can improve or continue. This will be the starting point to putting our marketing goals down on paper.

And you do need to put these things down on paper. You will want to revert to your marketing notes in the future so don't trust that your memory will remember these things. Plus writing these things is more cathartic and will help ingrain them in your mind.

Let's start on a more positive note - the successes. With the way the economy was this past year, you may have trouble with this one, but I know that every single person had some success - small or large.

Was their increased profit or sales? Did you make contact with more clients this year? Did you start using social media for the first time? Did you do something significant in your community? Did you hire new employees, update your office, or just become more organized? 

You may want to ponder this for a few days if you didn't really consider this year a successful one. I know in my business, it was a very down year for profits, but I did have some successes. I was more involved in the community. I explored my personal image in the community and found a way to improve how others perceive my business. You should have a list of at least 10 successes.

Next, the mistakes. In the same notion, find at least 10 mistakes in your business this past year. Some people may easily find the mistakes while other may have a hard time admitting mistakes. It's okay. Again, mistakes help us see where improvement is needed and set goals to get past those things. We can't grow without mistakes.

Mistakes my business had this year were not looking at our finances more carefully, not watching our spending, not promoting our business enough with one-on-one contact, and being reactive rather than proactive with possible customers, to name a few.

Keep your list. Take a few days to think about this past year. On Wednesday, I'll post about taking those things and making your goals for 2011.