A brand new year brings hope, new beginnings and time for exciting opportunities. It is the ideal time to think about the year ahead and turning your business dreams into reality.
It is time to be honest about what you really want to achieve and what makes you happy.
Whilst thinking about the year ahead remember your business dreams are unique and individual to you.
Some therapists may want to create a business which allows them to spend time with their young family and others may want to fill their treatment room five days a week and launch a new product range.
We are all different, with unique circumstances – so be honest about what you truly want and don’t feel you have to follow the path of someone else.
To turn your dreams into reality, no matter what stage your business is at, requires the use of goal setting to help you move forward and make them happen.
Goals keep us motivated, focused and allow us to measure the success of our business.
Goal setting can play an important role in many areas of your reflexology business from marketing to finances, to the redecoration of your treatment room.
Each one can be successful if the goal is clearly defined, and a plan is devised for how to achieve it.
Without goals – and a process for tracking them – you may have difficulty seeing the big picture and staying focused. This may leave you feeling lost and disheartened.
As you start the new year and a blank diary full of opportunities, enjoy my top goal setting tips to achieve everything you hope for in the year ahead:
1. Review
Before setting new goals for the year ahead it is important to review the year which has passed to establish what has been successful, what hasn’t worked so well, and the areas you would like to develop further.
If you don’t step back to review the past 12 months you could continue carrying out the same activities which may not help you to achieve your business and personal dreams.
During the review process it is also important to use this time to celebrate your achievements and feel proud of the progress you have made before you move on and start working on new goals and targets.
This is something I always encourage my business mentoring clients to do, as it helps them to acknowledge everything they have achieved (kind of like an end of year appraisal).
2. Dream
Once you have reviewed the past year, it is now time to consider everything you dream of accomplishing within your reflexology business.
Avoid limiting your thought process as this stage and think about everything which may be possible. Now is the time to consider every possibility – there are no boundaries. Don’t be afraid to think big!
Once you have taken the time to think about what you would love for your business, write down where you would like your business to be in one year, five years and ten years. If ten years feels too overwhelming at this stage start with a one and five-year vision.
3. Develop the Dream
Now you have your dreams down on paper, you can start to develop them further. A great way to develop the ideas is list making.
Here you can focus on one idea at a time and create an outline of the possible goals for it.
Mind mapping is also a great tool. You start with one idea in the middle of page, then use words and drawings to create a visual map of related ideas. This is a good idea if you like to work in a more visual way.
4. Organising the Dream
Now you have your ideas developed, it is time to organise them. Sort your ideas into categories, based on measures which are important to you and your reflexology business.
For example, you could organise your ideas based on:
- Attainability – how easy will it be to achieve it?
- Desirability – how much do I want this?
- Financial impact – does this goal require financial investment?
- Time commitment – how much time will this goal require?
Working through this process helps you to develop your dreams and ideas further.
You may see an overlap in some of the ideas and themes; this is a positive sign you are on the right path.
5. Time to Plan
Once you have completed the above steps you should have established a couple of goals that you really want to focus on. Write each goal on a separate piece of paper – so you have lots of room to make notes or use a tool such as the Therapy Business Goal Planner.
Working through each goal will allow you to create a plan to accomplish them and the specific actions you need to take.
6. Focus on Today
Striving towards larger business goals can be overwhelming for a small business owner, so breaking it down into bite-sized chunks allows you to take a series of small steps each day to get closer to your goal.
Of course, you don’t want to lose sight of the bigger picture, but if you take one larger goal a step at a time, you will grow in confidence.
You will progress, and you will turn those dreams into reality.
Good luck everyone,
Kelly x
Photograph credit: Mathilde Langevin
Kelly Hainsworth is the founder of Love Reflexology, a mentor – and a successful reflexologist – with a passion not only to support her clients, but all reflexologists within their businesses. She provides business mentoring and social media workshops to help therapists and tutors create the business they desire. To work with Kelly head to her website.