Sometimes I sit around thinking to myself “What can I do better?” If you are in business for yourself you have probably read a ton of self-help books and marketing books etc. I remember asking a friend more than 10 years ago “What should I do about my business?” I felt like there was nothing I could do to improve it. He replied to me “Have you done everything you can think of to boost your business?” To me, this indicated not only that I needed to dig deeper and plan more, but also that I needed to exhaust all possibilities and take a risk. As the new year started and I watched others on social media plot out their year, I borrowed some of their ideas and formulated some of my own. I believe that being in business is a balance between professional and personal success. If you fail in one, it makes the other harder to excel in. With that, here are 19 things to Make A Successful 2019 for me that may benefit you too.
- Study- Learn as Much as you can about whatever your business or craft is. I’m a voiceover talent. I realize that every day the competition for my job becomes more fierce. Everyone with a voice is trying to enter into this arena. My advantage is that I’ve been here for 15 years. But no-one should rest on their laurels. Whether it’s more classes, conferences, or understanding the trends in my industry, I need to study regularly.
- Practice- Perfect practice makes perfect. We’ve all heard practice makes perfect. Well practicing wrong makes things worse. Understanding that right way and focusing on doing that daily is the path to success. Things like vocal training, warm-ups, cold reads, and varied reads will continue to make me a better talent.
- Communicate- Stay in contact with your customers. Use reminders and CRM. Last year I improved my sales simply by using a CRM. I had never done that before. The ability to remember who to contact and when helped me tremendously. I invested in Cloze. For me it tracks my calls to customers, reminds me to call them or email them and tells me what our last communications were. I use it keep up with the projects and auditions I’ve done. At $160 per year, it’s worth every penny.
- Track and Review- Metrics help you realize if you are going in the right direction. While Cloze helped me keep track of customers, it was important to track sales and projects. There are a ton of software out there. A few are Wavesapp (which is free), Freshbooks (which comes with tons of perks), Quickbooks, Square and Invoice2Go.
- Compete- Best yourself and others. Have fun with it. I’m the type of person who hopes we all win. But after you have tracked your metrics for this month, figure out what you did right and do it even better.
- Don’t be hard on yourself. There are factors that you can’t control. Work within the perimeter of things you can control. Beating yourself up is only gonna make you emotionally distracted.
- Advertise- Explore your advertising channels both free and paid. Marketing is everything. People have to know who you are and remember you at the exact moment they need your services. There are lots of free ways to advertise but don’t be afraid to throw some money at it. It will return.
- Find an expert– You may not know everything you need to know about business or even your business. Find someone who does. Use their services. There may be aspects of things that you are missing.
- Don’t be the smartest person in the room.- There are a lot of brilliant people out there. Share ideas. Respect others expertise and take note.
- Surround yourself with winners. It’s contagious
- Take a risk. Have a plan B,C,D,E & F for when you fail. But one of them will work. Don’t become emotionally attached to the way you win. Just focus on the result.
- Keep a routine, especially when you figure out what works.- Get up at the same time every morning. Eat breakfast or drink your coffee at the same time every day. Get dressed for work even if you work from home. This will help you with organization and make your work flow easier.
- Ask yourself (Have I done everything I can do?) Be creative
- Balance your work and personal life. Work hard and have fun harder-er
- Discuss your business with family and friends and what they do. Throughout my career, I have landed a bunch of opportunities from referrals of friends and family. When they remember what I do, they send me work if they have it or see it out in the wild. But also, I let all of them know that voiceover is everywhere, including in the companies that they presently work for. From HR training materials to internal advertisements, opportunities for my services are there.
- Keep optimal health. Eat better, sleep well, exercise. Breath.- I recently started drinking more water and it has made a big difference. When all things are working optimally, my work ethic is on point. I often wake up tired, and that affects my bottom line.
- Delegate- Don’t try to master everything at once. Allow others with expertise in things that may be helpful to you to contribute their part.
- Don’t procrastinate– The time is now. Don’t stand in your own way. This is a big problem of mine. Perhaps its an agent of fear. I don’t know. Perhaps it’s my carefree relaxed nature. But recognizing it as a fault and overcoming it will add a few digits to my account. Also, purchasing a copy of my children’s book “Dana The Procrastinator” will also add a few pennies too.
- Take a vacation- As many people who follow me on social media know, I have no problem globetrotting. It’s a lifestyle. But honestly, I would be a total failure if I didn’t do it. Travelling gives me something to look forward to outside of work. I started my year off in Dubai. I have several Latin American destinations in mind for 2019 along with my probably first trip to Africa. Reward yourself. Give yourself a mental health break.
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