Give yourself, or your business, a boost at the start of the New Year.
Priming your mindset.
Marc & Rachel, owners of Marc Wood Hand Made Furniture in Ilminster, Somerset went into the festive break the busiest, and least stressful ever.
How does this happen in a business that’s evolved on an up and down roller coaster journey over 10 years?
Until last year, Marc and Rachel were mostly concerned with what was happening in the bigger picture, outside of their control; Covid, Brexit, elections, the economy, etc…
At the start of 2024 they ‘primed’ themselves with a theme for the year; Showcasing – shifting the emphasis to focusing less on what’s going on ‘out there’, and more to what we’ve built up over 10 years.
They started by putting on woodworking courses from their lovely rustic workshop location in Somerset.
In the summer they were percolating on what they would like as a focus to finish the ‘Showcasing’ year strongly. I sent them the following best ways of attraction new business which I had received previously from Oliver Dax, of sales consultancy Monkeys Paw;
“In a survey covering the US and the UK, Business Development Managers, Sales Directors and Managing Directors across different sectors and across industries were asked to report back on the best ways in which to generate business in 2015.
This comprehensive survey’s findings left us with a league table of the 8 most productive business generators in the following order:
1. Referrals
2. Forging Business Alliances
3. Networking
4. Intimate Client Events
5. Targeted E-mail Market Campaigns
6. Seminars
7. Direct Mail Campaigns
8. Cold Calling
At our start of the Quarter meeting in September, Rachel seized the initiative from the momentum and said let’s focus on promoting what we do well for repeat business and referrals.
Marc captured it with a Quarter theme, ‘Honing It’.
The outcome (we don’t allow the words coincidence, fate, or destiny) was they had their best ever period going into Christmas, and the first time since we started working together in 2020 they gave themselves a three month rating of 9/10 – ‘Powerful’.
This was previously unused vocabulary in Marc Wood Handmade Furniture, given the ongoing story of being in the impact of outside factors.
We all know we do better by focusing on things within our sphere of influence. Having a formal structure to make sure we stay focused on what we say is most important is what creates the impact.
Do your homework. Think about what’s most important to you in 2025, and create some urgency with a 3 month focus to Easter.
Then make sure you have an accountability structure to maintain that focus. Whatever Shakespeare’s ‘slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’, happen outside of our control.
