Prepping for Your Best Year Yet: The Necessities

Photo by svonog.

It’s that time of year when I have some extra time. Using it to prepare for improving my business the New Year is a smart choice. Once everyone returns from holiday breaks and business gets going again, you won’t have time to participate in imperative year-planning tasks.

Stock up on daily planning products.

A planner isn’t just a calendar for me—it’s a way of life. This year, I got my 2009 planner two weeks before the end of the New Year. It makes it easier to book things into 2009 and it also prevents me from hitting every office store looking for the perfect planner on January 1. Whatever you use—print calendars, day planners online software, post-it notes—stock up on the supplies you need to plan. And make sure you have something to hold your yearly goals. (See next step.)

Devise your yearly goals.

Keep in mind that there is more than one way to plan for the year. If you’ve got a daily calendar that’s wonderful, but what about long-term goals? Don’t just rely on a calendar for daily tasks and shove things like, “Get 5 new clients” on the back page. Purchase the software or print materials necessary to store lists. Your goals for the year should be practical, focused and include baby steps to help you reach them. You want to make sure these goals are written somewhere separate from your daily grind stuff—somewhere you can review them often so you adhere to them. I like to use a Real Simple journal to help me stay on track of my long-term career goals. (I also keep what I like to call a nag list in there, which is comprised of things that I keep forgetting to do. Hey, at least if I write them down and view them frequently, they’re more likely to get done. And yes, visits to the eye doctor are always on this list.)

Create marketing collateral.

If you’ve already got a killer brochure and business cards, there’s no need to re-invent the wheel. But if you don’t have marketing collateral to promote yourself as a business, now’s the time to devote to that. You don’t want to have a light-bulb moment and realize that a brochure could help your business when you’re swamped with work and don’t have a clear head to plan it out as you’d like. I like to revamp my resume in addition to my brochure each year. I give my website a spruce-up as well, updating it with clips and news bits. A good thing to keep in mind is to remember that marketing collateral includes print and online—so if you’ve got an awesome sell sheet, go get hard copies of it now so you can easily distribute it throughout the year. And of course put it on your website if you see fit.

Back up data.

I stink at this and had my stinkiness refreshed for me when my laptop needed an entire system restoration recently. If you aren’t super regular about backing up your electronic data, now is the time to do it. Whatever method you use, take a few moments to sit down and make sure your electronic data is backed up. I also go through my electronic folders and organize them.

A few years ago, I instituted an “Archived Clients” folder that I use for clients I no longer work with. I found that by staring at their names in my folder of current clients, it was just a reminder that I no longer worked that gig. This was hard when I recalled certain jobs and clients I really liked that had dried up. So getting them out of sight keeps them out of mind. Additionally, I like to go through my print files to ensure everything is organized and any old data that I don’t need is tossed (or um, recycled.)

Make a new contract.

It sounds so simple, but this one can save you a lot of time. If you have the soon-to-be past year printed on your written agreement, now’s the time to update the document. I do; which I know if I stopped doing would save me extra time, but I tend to print out and send a lot of contracts and fill them out by hand. To save time on filling out contracts, I have as much standard information already printed on it as possible, such as the year. By updating my contract I can easily print them out when necessary and simply fill them in.

Prepare for tax time.

Nothing beats having to sort receipts while I’m on a deadline for a project. So I try to organize my tax documents while I don’t have anything pressing to do. Additionally, I look back at what worked and didn’t work for me each year. This year, separate folders for different personal and career items helped and I won’t be changing that. But last year, the entire way I organized paper receipts and documents changed, and the overhaul took several hours. Why not do it when you’ve got nothing else to do with that time? Remember: Tax time tends to sneak up on you so work ahead and don’t wait until the day before your taxes are due to sort through it all.

There are plenty things you can do to ensure that 2009 gets off to a fabulous start. By taking some time in 2008 to organize yourself you can start the New Year off running with your feet on the ground instead of dreading all the wrap-up work you didn’t get done before the ball dropped.

Kristen Fischer is a copywriter, editor and author living at the Jersey Shore.