Your 2017 Business Vision

My favorite topic is leadership and the feedback I received from my listening audience was they wanted to hear about leadership as it pertains to marketing. If I'm honest, marketing isn't my favorite thing to do, though I understand the importance of it. I will dive deeper into marketing next year. Before we leave 2016 behind though, let's talk about your original vision and make a clear vision for 2017. 

What's the vision for your business? What's the reason you quit your old job and began your business in the first place? It all started with a vision, maybe in the middle of the night or while working for your boss and deciding you could do what they did, better.

The vision is important because it’s the thing that moved you into being a leader and business owner. When you first began, did you write it, share it, or flush it out? If not, do so now and assess how far you’ve gone with that vision. Visions are big, so maybe you’ve only created the foundation so far, but whatever progress you’ve made, write out what your vision was originally and track your progress up to this point.

Think about what you've learned so far. What have you sacrificed? What failures and successes have you experienced, and what have they taught you? Have your finances dictated the direction of your business? Has your business model shifted based on what you’ve learned so far from running your business?

Write out the lessons learned about who your customers are and how they behave. What have you learned about your employees? What have you discovered that they need from you as a leader? What have you learned about your products and what has shifted since your original products? What have you learned about your financial goals? Are you hitting your original goals, financially? How have your marketing plans changed?

What is your vision now?

No matter how many years in you are, what is the new vision you have for your business? What will be new for your team, customers, products, finances, and marketing plan? What’s the change you’re making to the planet? What good do you contribute? Re-enliven your vision by making a vision board, make the center of the vision board the largest and central part of the new vision for your company, and expand from there.

Write out a 'day in the life" of your business and make that the new vision or goal. Create the goal for 20 years, 10 years, 5 years, 1 year, or whatever increments you wish and share it with your team, your family, your mentor, business coach, or whatever person or group of people are important to your business success. Go over the re-envisioned goals with the marketing team and assess if changes need to be made.

Recommit to the timelines, give yourself some time, and set yourself up for success so that you can start 2017 off smart by having a new vision for your business and watch it continue to grow.