7 Steps To Make This Year Your Most Profitable

A new year means a fresh start both personally and professionally.  If you were a little underwhelmed with the last year, now is a great time to ensure that your nest is much better.  So, knowing that you want a more productive and profitable new year is a good step, but how do you go about doing this?  What steps should you be taking to set up the new year right?

• Define What You Want To Do
• Map Out Your Schedule
• Set Up Your Calendar For The Year
• Create A Work/Life Balance
• Invest In The Tools You Need
• Open Up Your Mindset
• Roll With The Punches

Define What You Want To Do

The very first step that you need to take is to define what it is that you want from the new year.  Jumping straight in will not actually be as helpful as you think because you will start to flounder.  Doing this is kind of like driving without a destination, a GPS or any road signs. You will be going forward, or assuming you are, without any idea of how far your destination is or when you might get there.

Take some time to define what you want.  If you are a paper person, you can write this out or you could go the digital route and jot everything down in a Word document.  Getting your thoughts, ideas and potential plans written out will make it easier for you to plan.

You do not have to create something that could be submitted as a business plan.  Bullet points or short sentences are fine as long as you know what you are talking about.  After putting everything down, you can work through it and determine what is viable and what is not.  

Once you have all of your thoughts down, you can start going through them and seeing what is possible and what would need more time or better foundations.  If you have an idea to sell 50 products a day, you need to have a foundation for this. A new business generally can’t do this straight out of the gate. In this case, you might want to look at building up your visibility or brand recognition and set your target a bit lower for the first and second quarters of the year.

Map Out Your Schedule

So you now know what you want to do in the year to come and what your end goals are.  That is actually the easy part because most people have more ideas than they know what to do with.  The next step is the actual planning of what you are going to do and when you are going to do this.

Mapping out your schedule needs to be done strategically and realistically.  You should give yourself enough time to actually get everything done and reduce the stress that you are going to be under.  Setting very tight deadlines will increase your stress and that is not something you want to do to yourself.

You know what you can and cannot achieve in any given timeframe.  When you map out your schedule, you need to be realistic about the number of hours you have in a day.  If you are still working a 9 to 5 job and want to work on your side-hustle, you need to consider that you get tired after work.  Most people will not be able to spend 5 hours working on their business after they get home from work. On the other hand, there are people who are able to do this, but only you know what type of person you are.

Set Up Your Calendar For The Year

Now that you know what you want to accomplish during the year, you need to set yourself some reminders.  One of the best ways to do this is to use a calendar where you set your deadlines in a clear way. This can be done in a number of different ways depending on what works for you.

There are some people who like to use those big A3 calendars that sit on the wall or your desk.  This is a good visual aid and will help you see any upcoming deadlines well in advance. If you don’t have the space for these calendars or just don’t like the idea of them, there are other options that you can use.

If you like technology and want to not use paper, you can try a calendar app.  There are a lot of calendar and reminder apps and software out there and it can be very hard to choose one (trust me I have tried).  If you are feeling a bit overwhelmed with your options, I have a quick list of some that I have tried and you might be interested in.  

Create A Work/Life Balance

Being productive and profitable does not have to equate into working all the time and giving up any free time that you have.  Creating a balance between work and leisure is important if you want to avoid burning out. The way that you balance your life is personal because what works for one person may not work for another.

While you need to think about this in relation to your lifestyle and personality, there are some points to consider.

How Much Time You Have

if you are working a normal 9 to 5 and want to build your business after hours, you need to consider how to balance everything.  Working and coming home to work some more can tire you a lot. You might be able to pull this off for a while, but eventually, you are going to be mentally and physically fatigued.  

As we have a finite amount of time in a day and week, you will need to figure out a good ratio.  If you are working and want to develop your business, you need to carefully consider the number of hours you can spend without burning out.  For some people, this could be 2 hours after work, but for others, it could be 5 hours. This is all dependant on what you know you are able to handle.

Your Work Week

If you are working from home and want to improve your business in the new year, you might want to reconsider how you structure your work week.  Now, you might be a bit restricted in what you can change based on the type of work you do. Society has drummed the Monday to Friday work week into us from the moment we go to school and it can be hard to break this routine, but this could be the key to productivity.

There are some people who thrive on the traditional work week and leave their personal time for the weekend.  This is fine, but there are other people who benefit from taking personal time during the week. You need to consider what type of person you are and which method will work better.  There is nothing stopping you from taking Tuesday off and working on Sunday if you want to and can.

Get Away From The Computer

This is not really a point to consider and more something you should really be doing to get some balance.  I know that I am bad at this because my leisure time is often spent on the computer, but it is something all of us should work at.  Taking some time away from electronics is a good idea even if it is just to go on a short walk around the block.

An easy way to ensure that you are getting away from your computer is to take a lunch break.  During your lunch break, go outside or, if the weather is not cooperating, sit by a window and enjoy your lunch.  Try to not eat while you work because you will not taste your food, you could start a habit of eating too much and you are not getting away from your computer.

Invest In The Tools You Need

Working with the wrong tools can seriously impact your productivity and profitability.  This is why you need to invest in the tools that you need to reach your goals. If you are using long-winded methods, everything will take longer and you are only hampering your efforts.

Now, a lot of people do not have the initial capital on hand to buy the tools that they need.  Fortunately, there are a lot of options out there and many tools have a free version that you can use.  These versions will generally have limited functionality when compared to the full paid version, but they will get the job done.

Trial versions are something that you should also look at because they will help you find the right tools.  Testing tools out before you buy can reduce some of the buyer’s remorse that you get as well as the frustration at not getting the right tool.  Regardless of the route you take, you need to use some tools of the trade to make everything run smoothly.

Open Up Your Mindset

Your mindset plays a huge role in how productive and profitable you are.  Opening up your mindset is something that can be a bit difficult, but can also be very helpful.  To open your mindset, you need to open yourself up to new things.

If you have done something in one way for years, you could be stuck in a mindset.  Opening yourself to new methods or tools can help you in the future. Times change and you need to be open to changing with it.  Technology can make everything easier and you should open yourself to using it where you can. Of course, there are times when tech will not actually help as much as you imagine, but opening yourself to the tech will help you determine this.

Opening your mindset can also open your business up to new opportunities.  If you are an affiliate marketer, you need to be open to new marketing channels and opportunities.  Staying on the same route forever causes stagnation and you need to avoid this.

Roll With The Punches

The last step to a more productive and profitable year is to roll with the punches.  There are times when you will not meet deadlines or something will go wrong that you never planned for.  This is natural and there is often nothing that you can do.

You need to avoid getting stuck when these things happen.  While you need to learn from these experiences, you should not obsess over them.  Obsessing over what went wrong will stop you from looking and moving forward.