With the new year, comes the time to align your goals once again. 2020 took most of us by surprise due to the unprecedented effect the pandemic had and still has in our lives, but this year we are at least a bit more prepared.
New trends have surfaced, the market has shifted in interesting ways, and your contractor business – whether you’re new or a veteran – still has room to shine this year. Let’s just make sure your goals are properly aligned for the months ahead!
Set long-term goals
There should always be an overarching long-term goal for the year, because one year can simultaneously feel like a long time and no time at all from a business perspective. Generally speaking, you want to accomplish smaller goals while motivated by a long term goal.
This long term goal can be anything like a certain number of sales, a company acquisition or expansion, number of hires, etc. Ask yourself the simple question of where you want your business to be in one year and start from there.
When you’re aligning these goals, however, keep in mind that the pandemic is still ongoing. Vaccines have already started to roll out in the US and other countries, but we’re not in the clear yet. Do account for at least six more months of careful threading if we’re being generous, though probably longer.
Good goals need deadlines
Just having a goal in the back of your mind doesn’t do your business any favors – you also need a deadline and a proper plan to pursue. Achieving said deadline is a whole other story, what’s most important is having the correct pressure to get you closer to your goal.
Of course, I mean “pressure” in a healthy way. You won’t get anywhere by setting up unrealistic deadlines and overworking yourself to the point of exhaustion. There’s a myth in the business world that says hard work always pays off, but this isn’t really a good rule to follow – many people can work very hard on the wrong thing, straying them from their goals.
In short, every goal should be attached to a reasonable deadline. If you plan on achieving something in six months, in three months you should be halfway there – if you’re not, then it’s either time to pick up the pace or time to reconsider the goal entirely. There’s no fault in changing the plan along the way, as long as you’re aware of the path you’re taking.
Increasing sales
A typical goal for contractors is to, obviously, increase sales. There are dozens of ways to do this and many of them will be a part of your plan for this year, both in short and long-term timelines.
Naturally, a simple way to get more clients is signing up to homeyou. You can budget exactly for what you want and keep your influx of new opportunities under control, only taking as much as you can. This is certainly not the only way to increase sales volume, but it’s one you can start as soon as today and basically have it as a passive benefit.
Online presence
When it comes to marketing, few things are more important for contractors than online presence. I always come back to this subject because it really is that important.
Your online presence boils down to how easily you can be found online. If a random client in your area of coverage Googles your service, will you appear in the search results? If they look for the service you provide on Facebook, can you be found?
Once they find you, what do they see? Is your profile page presentable, with all the necessary information in case they want to hire you? If they contact you, do you reply promptly?
Basically, if at any point in this “funnel” the client hits a wall, they’re likely to never hire you. In many cases finding you isn’t the problem – both Google and Facebook have localized searches that show the most relevant results for people in your area. Being relevant in your area isn’t particularly difficult, but if your page has no recent posts, missing information, bad reviews… then you might as well not have been found. All of this is important to make sure clients want to hire you when they find you!
This year, don’t forget to update and maintain your online presence to ensure new clients can find you!
Customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is often seen as a secondary goal to all others, almost as a side-effect of everything else working out. Turns out, it can and should be one of your main goals because a lot of work goes into it.
Naturally, offering a good presentation, a professional attitude, and good service will often lead to satisfied customers. But a lot more goes into customer satisfaction than just doing a good job and saying goodbye. Post-sale attitude also counts, the way you reply to reviews (good or bad), how you choose to make follow-up calls, these things play a major role in customer satisfaction – and as you can now imagine, it’s too complex of a subject to be a secondary goal.
Take the first step towards growing your business today and start receiving leads that will make you money. — Sign up with homeyou!
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