FRESHviews

RHONDA ABRAMS:

STRATEGIES

hasn’t in your life or your business.

List your goals. Begin by listing all your goals. Don’t worry if you have lots of them.

Get specific. Put details with each goal, especially numbers. Let’s say one of your goals is to increase sales. List each product you offer and set a goal of a specific number of customers and income for each. Or, if your goal is to work out, set a specific number of times you’ll work out each week and for how long.

Develop steps. Identify the steps necessary to achieve each goal. For instance, to attract more customers, you’ll need to increase marketing. To work out more, you may need to join a gym or get a new pair of running shoes.

Estimate money and time. Put a dollar figure next to each step. And estimate how much time it might take.

Estimate people. Figure out who will be responsible for each step, especially in your business or in family goals.

Prioritize. By now, you’ve got a list that would take much more money, time and resources than you have. So, prioritize your goals and steps. Don’t try to do everything; eliminate some goals altogether rather than attempting all partway.

Write an action plan. Schedule the month, week or day you’re going to take action on each step and what that action will be.

Get consensus. Discuss the plan with all affected parties (employees, family members). Are they willing to commit to it?

Once you’ve developed your annual plan, you’re on your way to achieving your goals and being a success in 2007! C

Rhonda Abrams’ newest book is Successful Business Research. For more tips, see www. PlanningShop.com.

Making magic

Planning for the new year

IF YOU’RE LIKE ME, you’ve got big hopes for 2007. But with many things that will demand your time—your business, family, community, your own health—how do you make sure you achieve the things you want this year?

The best way is to develop an annual plan to set goals, priorities and action items. Remember Rhonda’s Rule: You can’t reach a goal you haven’t set.

Developing a plan is a way to step back from the daily grind, set goals and think through the best strategies for reaching those goals. As important, it helps you establish priorities and decide what not to do this year. That enables you to better use your limited resources of time and money. Here’s how to do it.

Keep it real. The key to a successful annual plan is to look at where you’ve been, where you want to go and the best way to get there.

Look at the past. Before going in new directions, evaluate what’s worked and what

NO BUSINESS operates for any
length of time without running
into problems, some of which
may even threaten its survival.
There are occasions when you
may feel as if you need to pull a
rabbit out of a hat. According
to adviser, speaker, author and
magician Andy Cohen, that’s
exactly what you should do.
In his new book, Follow the
Other Hand (St. Martin’s Press,
2006), Costco member Cohen
uses magic to drive home the
message and does it in en-
tertaining fashion. Through a
fictional business owner’s meet-
ing with a fabricated magician
named Merlin, secrets of busi-
ness success are revealed.
Here’s a look.

•Think differently—follow the often-ignored other hand.

•Build trust—make the audience (customer) part of the act.

•Define a brand—create a magical experience for clients.

•Bust barriers—remove the obstacles to thinking differently.

Hold on to

your staff

•Discover your competitive edge—find your unique magic.

To divulge the depth of the secrets here would undermine the enchantment of the book

( www.followtheotherhand.com). Special cards are provided to

IF YOU’RE LOOKING for a New Year’s goal that will actually help your company’s bottom line, here’s one: Reduce employee turnover.

The top reason employees leave a company isn’t for more money. “It’s because of poor management,” says Cindy Ventrice, a Costco member and author of Make Their Day! Employee Recognition That Works (Berrett-Koehler, 2003). “Reduce burnout and you reduce turnover.”

Taking steps to keep employees around isn’t complex or expensive. Ventrice

PHOTODISC

offers these easy tips.

• Clarify and communicate your company values and goals. Employees can handle challenges best when they understand the purpose and value of their work.

• Reward behaviors that promote your organization’s values and goals. Not only do employees want to do work

that is of value, they want to be valued for that work.

• Offer employees
control over how they
accomplish goals. The
worst burnout occurs in
jobs that have high respon-
sibility and low control.
Provide the assignment
and, whenever possible, let
employees decide how it
gets done.

Ventrice offers a simple equation for the efficacy of her advice: “One enthusiastic employee working eight hours will accomplish more than two burned-out employees putting in

12-hour days.” C

help you pull off a couple of the tricks explained in its pages. The tricks you then come up with to boost your business will come from you —so you can prove your success is no illusion. C