8 Suggestions to Transform Your Business in 2017

By Drue Lawlor, FASID
Director of Coaching, Gail Doby Coaching & Consulting & Design Success University

Do you feel your business is everything you want it to be or are you ready to reignite your passion for the business of design and in the process, transform your business?

1. Identify what your business stands for and live those values. Be sure those values shine through in everything connected to       your firm – your team, your marketing and messaging, and of course, the clients with whom you work.

2. Identify your compelling “Why” and find an accountability partner/group or business coach and give them permission to remind   you of that “why” when challenges happen.

3. Take action and get organized, but don’t let your perfectionism sabotage you. Listen to the advice of track and field star, Kim Collins and “Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection.” If you are disorganized it will not only be evident to others but it will waste a great deal of your valuable time. You want to not only get into the habit of calendaring and time chunking but also reviewing and/or revising your processes and procedures. Possibly for some of you it might be “developing” processes and procedures, and if that’s your need then you need to do so ASAP.

4. Take care of yourself. You are the CEO of your business and your business will suffer if you are not healthy. Change can be hard but start with small steps – get up from the computer regularly and get moving a bit more, sleep a bit more, keep healthy snacks handy for when you are on the run.

5. Share the burden – identify the help you need to reach your goals. It might be adding to your internal team, updating your technology to that which is specifically designed for your industry, adding a SEO consultant, marketing consultant, website developer, and/or business coach etc. to your external team

6. Expand your network. Take the time to review the ROI of your marketing, use that information to develop a current marketing plan and brainstorm how you can expand your network to reach more ideal clients or those who are connected to your ideal clients.

7. Dream big and create a BHAG (big hairy, audacious goal).  As Christopher Reeve once said, “So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”

8. Make friends with your financials. You don’t need to become an accountant but be sure your bookkeeper is an integral part of your team and that you have processes and procedures that will allow you to easily understand where your business has been, where it is now and what you need to do to reach your future goals.

So, are you ready to move forward and transform your business? If you are hesitating, let me share a valuable reminder from author Karen Lamb, “A year from now you will wish you had started today.”