Renew your commitment to your goals

Here we are at last – September – the best month of the year for the acquisition of new students. Interest from parents in their children’s extracurricular activities, including sport, will be at its highest point as the new academic year starts; and it is imperative that you take advantage of the rising market if you want to achieve the success you deserve and have planned for.

Therefore, now is the time to renew your commitment to the plans you made some time ago – if you did not set your goals and make appropriate plans you run the risk of total failure at worst, or at best failing to reach your true potential. If you have not set your expectations for the period September to December and you do want to succeed, it’s never too late to develop your goals – so do it now.

In any business, goal setting can make the difference between success and disappointment. Here we are at the best time of the year, so make the most of it, but remember that “if you do not know where you are going any road will take you there” and therefore set your direction and plan your route. That is to say, plan the actions you need for success and then stay on track by measuring your results and making adjustments where necessary to remain on course.

You may have set out with good intentions at the beginning of the year but you need more than just good intentions to get you to where you need to be financially – this requires a clear understanding of what you want to achieve, a plan and then the commitment to stay on track.

Here are some tips that will help you:

1) Take a “helicopter view” of what your business looks like and what you want to achieve. Stand back from it for a while and review why you do this and what you want from it;

2) If you have set goals – just check them to make sure they relate to what you want;

3) Only if appropriate – change the goals, but always on the basis of your new insights for (1) above. If you do find that you need to change your goals, make sure that you still give yourself a little “stretch” – Remember Robert Browning “Ah, a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?”;

4) Don’t give up too easily. You may be tempted to reset your goals to a lower level, but don’t just do this: first look at the strategy you adopted to make those goals happen and if that was not adequate to get where you need to be then change what you were doing and get back on track;

5) Make it fun – this is a great business and you should have fun when teaching and also when organising your business. Make your big task for each day something worth doing and then make it happen – it is surprising how good you will feel;

6) Set deadlines for your actions – each goal should have a deadline i.e. 25 new students by the 30th September. Then set the deadlines for each action required to get there;

7) Make today the day you take action. Start now and move towards success – do not wait for tomorrow as it never comes. To feel good you need to know where you are going and the actions needed to get there. You will feel great as you tick off each action and measure your progress toward your objectives.

If you have found it difficult to calculate your key performance indicators and what they mean financially, then use the NEST Sales Forecast Planning Tool which can be found in your personal access to myMA (available via – Marketing Toolkit > Planning Tools), or just give us a call and we will be happy to help you.

Quote of the week:

“Lord we know what we are, but know not what we may be.”

William Shakespeare 1564 – 1616: Hamlet (1601)

Renew your commitment to your goals

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