Do you want to grow your pumping business? Do you want to create a strong brand that attracts the best customers? Do you want to be more profitable next year? Do you want a bigger, stronger team of experts? Do you want more sales and happy customers with less stress?

Most pumpers would give a resounding “yes” to any or all of these questions. Unfortunately, many of them would then do something that ultimately hurts their chances of achieving those very goals. The problem is (and you might laugh at how silly this sounds) they create resolutions for the new year.

Here’s a typical scenario that happens in pumping companies around the country: A pumper decides right now that they want to grow their business next year. They know they want to. But they finish out the year as strong as they can and, on Dec. 31, they set a resolution that “I will do more marketing and hire another couple of team members in 2018.”

Then the new year starts, and on the first working day of the year, they think, “OK, now I need to figure out how to increase my marketing, and I need to determine what roles need to be filled on my team.” They learn what needs to be done and try to implement it — until the demands and struggles of each working day arise to slow their progress. Finally, they reach this point next year still struggling to fully implement what they set out to do in their resolutions.

It is a common way to run a business, but it’s a very expensive and inefficient way to grow.

Here’s a Better Way …

Stop making resolutions at the new year. Start making them now.

Chances are you already know (or have a rough idea) of what you want to achieve next year. Instead of waiting to create your goals, resolutions, and targets for the year on Dec. 31, create them now and start working on them now.

By doing it now, you achieve four advantages over any competitor who sets goals at the beginning of the year:

1. You give yourself time to identify, clarify and quantify what your true targets are (rather than vague goals that are harder to achieve).
2. You give yourself time to learn how to actually implement what you want to do. That way, when Jan. 1 rolls around, you can start implementing rather than figuring out how to implement. Many people start learning what to do in January when they should be implementing.
3. When Jan. 1 rolls around, you get the renewed inspiration to continue working on your goal (rather than start one) while your competitors are just getting started.
4. You gain more of the calendar to implement your resolutions and therefore more of the calendar to see results.

Let’s say that you want to hire a new team member. Doesn’t it make more sense to figure out now what you want, collect resumes, and have that team member in place on or before Jan. 1? Your competitors who want to hire someone won’t even start looking until after they’ve spent January trying to figure out who they need to add. Meanwhile, your team is firing on all cylinders already. That’s a strong way to start the new year.

The same applies to marketing or any other aspect of business: set early goals, learn what you need to know, and then implement them.

Set your 2018 goals now, and learn how to achieve them in the very best way. That’s a stronger foundation going into next year.

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About the Author
Mike Agugliaro is the “Business Warrior” and founder of CEO Warrior, a business consulting, training, and mentoring firm, providing tested and proven methods to defeat the roadblocks that prevent small to midsized businesses from achieving their ultimate success. He has played a key role in building Gold Medal Services’ success as co-owner of the company. For more information about CEO Warrior, visit www.ceowarrior.com.