Learning from the Past and Looking Forward to 2013

I have done a few end of year /​start of new year posts in the past but this one will not be a look back at the past year. 2012 has been a great year for me and my busi­ness, a year of growth and the pain that often comes with it. But I pre­fer to look for­ward and dis­till those lessons into areas of focus for the new year so I can improve where I can and do bet­ter in 2013.

Planning the year ahead

I read a great arti­cle yes­ter­day that some­one linked to on Twitter and the gist of it was that you should con­sider not set­ting goals at all for dif­fer­ent rea­sons but define areas of focus instead. That makes a lot of sense to me. Here’s the para­graph that drove the point home for me:

A goal defines an out­come you want to achieve; an area of focus estab­lishes activ­i­ties you want to spend your time doing. A goal is a result; an area of focus is a path. A goal points to a future you intend to reach; an area of focus set­tles you into the present.

Again: “An area of focus set­tles you into the present”. That one really hit a nerve for me as I have a ten­dency to think of the future a lot and for­get the here and now. I don’t need to set spe­cific goals for a year from now as much as I need to know what I have to do today to move toward larger life alter­ing goals. That will prob­a­bly keep me moti­vated a lot more.

That really changes how you approach change and improve­ment in both per­sonal life and busi­ness and does not set you up for fail­ure. Let’s face it, we all gen­er­ally suck at keep­ing res­o­lu­tions and meet­ing spe­cific goals. In a field as fast paced as Web design and devel­op­ment, we often strug­gle just to keep up with the day to day grind of the work we have to do, client demands, con­stantly learn­ing our craft and bal­anc­ing all of that so we can keep some sort of bal­ance and hang on to our san­ity. It’s not easy. Like I said, I tend to live in the future any­way so any­thing that can help me focus on the here and now is truly welcome.

My Areas of Focus for 2013

So I sat down yes­ter­day and wrote down 5 areas I want to focus on in 2013 and detailed spe­cific points I want to improve or move towards. These things can be with me every day as I set my pri­or­i­ties and help me focus on what mat­ters to me and my busi­ness at the time. For exam­ple, if I want to increase my rev­enue, I don’t want to work more hours, I want to work for clients who are will­ing to pay more for my exper­tise and see the value in it as it can help them with their own objec­tives. I need clients that respect my time and skills and are will­ing to help them­selves move for­ward too.

So what do I need to focus on to increase rev­enue? For me, one impor­tant thing is local mar­ket­ing. In June 2012, I started par­tic­i­pat­ing in a net­work­ing orga­ni­za­tion sim­i­lar to BNI (but far more flex­i­ble) and that has pushed my busi­ness for­ward like no other mar­ket­ing efforts I’ve done before. My client base has evolved towards my ideal client more in the last 18 months than in the pre­vi­ous 5 years com­bined. Getting out of my shell was not easy but it paid off in ways I didn’t even expect. Getting up at 5:30 am every Tuesday is not easy for this night owl either, but I do it because it’s part of what I need to do to move forward.

My sec­ond main area of focus will be com­mu­ni­ca­tion. I have a ten­dency to get bogged down in my work and not com­mu­ni­cate with clients (or col­lab­o­ra­tors) often enough. It’s a dis­ser­vice to them… and me. As a free­lancer I need to man­age expec­ta­tions, report on progress and guide my clients through what is com­plex tech­ni­cal mat­ters to them. It’s not that I don’t do it, but I dropped the ball a few times in the past and can def­i­nitely improve in this area over­all. I will bring more value to my clients this way then prob­a­bly attract more clients and help prov­ing my worth to my exist­ing ones.… then increase rev­enue as a ben­e­fit. You see, not a lofty goal of a num­ber I may not reach this year but pointed areas of focus that will have a real impact in my work flow and attitude.

Goals Versus Priorities

I’m not say­ing that set­ting goals is not impor­tant. But I don’t think they help you make all the big and small deci­sions you need to make in the day to day grind as well as set­ting areas of focus and pri­or­i­ties. I do believe that defin­ing pri­or­i­ties keeps you focused in the here and now a lot more effec­tively than set­ting too spe­cific goals you may not reach. Deciding to pri­or­i­tize bet­ter com­mu­ni­ca­tions, bet­ter time man­age­ment and mar­ket­ing more effec­tively do not have a spe­cific increased rev­enue amount attached to them, but they cer­tainly will help me reach the ball park fig­ure I have in my head.

If I land new clients that value my skills and are will­ing to pay more for them while I improve my processes and com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills, I’ll prob­a­bly improve my qual­ity of life as well, regard­less of rev­enue. I’ll have more free time and less stress. These are just as impor­tant to me as increas­ing my income in 2013 so I’ll focus on the things I believe will get me there.

So what do you plan on focus­ing on in 2013? What do you need to pri­or­i­tize so you can improve your work and per­sonal lives? Do you still think set­ting spe­cific goals are the best way to go? Don’t hes­i­tate to share your opin­ion or expe­ri­ence in a comment!

A happy, pro­duc­tive and ful­fill­ing New Year to all!