Time to prep for 2008

Well, it's almost too late to be making cold calls, now that the holidays are almost upon us. And most people are getting into the swing of holiday networking (if you need some holiday networking tips, here's a post we did last year on the topic pointing to Bruce Allen's excellent marketing blog). But it's not too early to start thinking about your marketing plans for 2008. Even if you'll be taking some time off to be with family, try to use some of the December down time to set a strong foundation for 2008 so you can hit the ground running in January.

Here's what we recommend for December marketing activities. Get yourself a glass of champagne and:

• Install time tracking software, such as Timefox to keep track of your actual time spent on jobs (and mention Marketing Mentor for a discount).
• Create or update your database of prospects, clients, colleagues, vendors and anyone else who needs to stay abreast of what you're doing. Weed out the prospects who no longer fit your criteria for “best prospects” and take some time to research more who resemble your “ideal client” profile.
• Install contact management software -- such as ACT for PC users, Daylite for Mac users or web-based Highrise -- to keep track of your marketing efforts

And if you need a marketing plan, try ours. We just launched the 2008 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan/Calendar. It's ready to go for December and there's a version for "Start ups" as well as for "Veterans." Check it out today (and forgive the blatant self promotion).

Comments

[Martha Retallick]

I come from a family of entrepreneurs. So, the topic of business naturally comes up during our get-togethers.

So, it's up to me to be ready for the inevitable "How's business going?" questions. I know from past experience that the proper answer goes like this:

1. It's going well/so-so/great.
2. Here's what I'm going to do to improve business in the New Year.

[Dani Nordin]

well, the good thing is that I've already done most of that - I actually use Billings to track time and invoices, which is made by the same folks who make daylite.

So far, I've already created my list of goals (personal and business) for the new year, and I got started on one of them today - outlining the processes that I've established in my head and putting them in writing, so that I can easier hand them off to someone else down the road. I've also started limiting my e-mail use to twice a day, and I shifted my schedule so that mornings are devoted to writing and reflection, since one of my goals is to write (most of) a memoir this year. The last couple of weeks have been amazing for productivity!