Canadian Small Business Women

Connection, Synergy, Community

5 signs success is on the way

sandra

Clients often come to me struggling to stay focused on their goals. They don’t feel like their making real progress on their goals and often feel like they’re spinning their wheels in mud. It’s easy to beat ourselves up about things – we can be our own worst critic at times. You might not be exactly where you want to be. That doesn’t mean that you aren’t making progress, or that the goal isn’t possible. Here are 5 signs you are making progress towards your goals:

  1. You’re taking daily action towards specific targets

This is really the only way you’re going to make any progress on your goals. If you have goals, but you’re not actually doing anything to make them happen, what are you waiting for? You can visualize and affirm all you want, but you actually have to get out there and do things if your goal is going to become a reality.

  1. You’re meeting the right people and connecting with the right resources

When you make the commitment to your goals, the universe conspires with you to make them a reality. I know this to be a fact. When you stop talking about what you want to do and actually start doing it, the right resources and connections will be made to take you to the next phase. The key with this is to keep an open mind and stay focused on the end goal rather than worrying about how it will all come together.

  1. You’ve encountered obstacles, and overcome them

When you can remain committed to your goal regardless of the challenges, you’re well on your way! Persistence pays off. When you want something bad enough, nothing can discourage you or make you believe that it isn’t possible. You’ve got the mental tenacity to make it to the finish line. This is one of the most important ingredients to anyone’s success!

  1. You’re constantly adjusting the plan

This one ties in with #2 and #3. When you have an open mind and the right people and resources are finding their way to you, you have more information that allows you to fine tune the plan. When you encounter obstacles in your plan, instead of giving up, you look for alternate paths to make your goal happen. When you’re monitoring your progress on a regular basis, adjustments happen naturally.

  1. You’re even more excited about the goal than when you started

As the light at the end of the tunnel begins to shine brighter, you’re bound to get even more excited about your goal. It’s moving from a simple idea to an actual reality! I don’t know about you, but it really doesn’t get any better than that! You know that the blood, sweat and tears were all worth it, and you’re not afraid if you have to give a little bit more to make it all happen. Ride that momentum to the finish line!

Any goal worth achieving takes time to unfold into reality. Little steps, daily action and a focused mindset are just a few of the tools that are going to bring you that much closer to realizing your dreams. Celebrate your accomplishments, keep an open mind, stay focused on the goal and watch the magic happen!

Sandra Dawes is a certified life coach specializing in helping women who feel unfulfilled with their 9-5 follow their dreams and pursue their passions. She holds an Honours BA, an MBA as well as a certificate in Dispute Resolution. She has completed her first book,Embrace Your Destiny: 12 Steps to Living the Life You Deserve!

Connect:

www.embraceyourdestiny.ca

www.facebook.com/embraceyourdestiny

www.facebook.com/embraceyourdestinythebook

www.twitter.com/sandradawes

Are you measuring your success?

sandra

Believe it or not we’re quickly approaching the end of the first half of 2015! How are you progressing on the goals you set for yourself this year? If you’re not sure, then you need to consider creating metrics and tracking them regularly for the rest of the year.

Setting benchmarks in your business is important. If you don’t establish targets towards your goals, then you won’t know how far you’re getting. It’s easy to keep yourself busy with really getting any closer towards your goals without setting short-term goals.

If you feel like your momentum is slipping, then consider attaching rewards to each benchmark as incentive. It doesn’t have to be something extravagant. You want to make sure the reward is a meaningful one so that it provides the right motivation. Think about things that you’ve wanted to do for yourself but haven’t made the time to do and build it into your incentives!

If you’re looking for another way to stay on track, share your goals with someone your trust! Ask them to keep you accountable. Choose a scheduled time to check-in. To really make it powerful, ask them what goals they’re working on, so that the accountability is reciprocal. Just like a workout buddy is what you need to get your butt to the gym sometimes, having someone hold you accountable to your goals keeps you going, even when you feel like giving up.

Another reason that you might be struggling to measure your success might be the lack of a plan altogether! You need a roadmap to guide you towards your destination. I’m sure we’ve all heard it said that a failure to plan is a plan to fail. It’s never too late to develop a plan and put it in place. There’s still a lot of time to make this year your best one yet!

Take the time to figure out a 30, 60 and 90 day plan. When you meet the target set for each of those plans, celebrate! What are you committing to doing in the next 7 days to get you closer to your goals for the year?  Make sure to share it with a friend, or if you’re feeling bold – put it out there in the comments section below!

Sandra Dawes is a certified life coach specializing in helping women who feel unfulfilled with their 9-5 follow their dreams and pursue their passions. She holds an Honours BA, an MBA as well as a certificate in Dispute Resolution.She has completed her first book,Embrace Your Destiny: 12 Steps to Living the Life You Deserve!

Connect:

www.embraceyourdestiny.ca

www.facebook.com/embraceyourdestiny

www.facebook.com/embraceyourdestinythebook

www.twitter.com/sandradawes

Social media metrics demystified

Evelyn

 

Happy New Year! I hope that like me, you had a restful, enjoyable holiday and that you’re looking forward to the opportunities of the coming year.

It’s at the turn of the year that we often take some time to make new goals, check our progress on existing targets and discard those aims that no longer apply. So it’s during this season of goal-setting that I think it’s important to take a look at your social media numbers.

When marketers talk about social media metrics, most small business owners tend to get lost in the jargon. But all metrics mean are the numbers we attach to our impact of our social media accounts. This can be as simple as how many followers your Twitter account has or as complex as how many sales you made that can be linked to a specific social campaign.

But let’s keep it simple shall we.

First let’s talk about why you need these numbers. Social media metrics act as gauge for how well you’re doing online. If you’re putting out quality content, engaging in conversations and maintaining a consistent presence on your networks, then your numbers should reflect that. If not, you might need to revaluate the content, audience or platform you’re working with.

Metrics give marketers, or small business owners, a way to determine a return on investment (ROI) for the time and money spent on social media marketing. They’re a way to value impact, ensure you’re reaching the right audience and provide feedback on what you’re doing right and what you should change.

There are three main areas that you should look at when trying to determine your social media impact: number of followers, how many followers are seeing and interacting with your content and which content is most successful. Each social network has its own way of tracking these interactions, so it’s important to find out what metric works best for each platform. For the purpose of this article, I’ll be taking a look at Facebook and Twitter.

 

Count your followers

The most basic way to tell if anyone is seeing your content is by determining how many followers you have. In theory, this should be the number of people who are potentially seeing your content at any given time, however in practice, only a fraction of your followers see your content.

 

Reach and engagement

While the number of followers is important, more important is how many of these people are actually seeing your content. On Facebook your Reach determines this metric. Reach is calculated by Facebook’s internal algorithms, the quality of your content and if you purchase ads. For Twitter, this number is not as easily tracked and is determined by how many of your followers are online at any given time.

Because the reach of your content is often out of your control, an easier number to look at is your engagement. On Facebook this number is based on how many people view, click or interact with your content. On Twitter you can track your engagement by counting how many clicks your tweets have. Unfortunately this metric is usually only accessible through paid metrics services such as Sprout Social. Another way to look at this number is by counting your link clicks. You can sign up for a free service called bit.ly that tracks this number for you.

 

Content is king

The most important metric you can track is how many of your followers are actually interested in your content. On Facebook this can be tracked by counting the likes, shares and comments on individual posts. The number of likes or shares your content gets determines how interesting your followers find it. On Twitter you can gauge your follower’s engagement by calculating retweets and mentions. Both of these metrics can tell you if your content is having an impact on your followers.

 

Once you start taking a closer look at your social media numbers you will need to set some goals. This way you can see if your time online is actually bringing you the results you want. Keep the goals small at first and then increase them as your business grows. Record your social media metrics on a spreadsheet or document each month so you can track your growth as the year goes on. This will also help you make new goals for your social marketing activities next year.

 

Good luck and happy 2015!

Evelyn Senyi is the owner and chief marketer for Recurve Marketing, a Toronto-based digital marketing agency that offers creative, effective and affordable marketing strategies for Canadian small businesses and non-profit organizations. Follow Recurve on Twitter @recurve_ca and on Facebook www.facebook.com/recurvemarketing.ca.

Are we there yet?

sandra

We all have goals.  Some are more concrete than others.  Do you track your progress?  Do you set benchmarks that help you to know when the finish line is approaching?  Or are you just stumbling through, hoping that you will be guided somehow towards the path to accomplishing your goals?

I know that I get more done when I have concrete targets established for any goal I’m pursuing.  When I was writing my book, the goal was a minimum of 4 pages a day.  The target wasn’t always met, sometimes I fell short, other times I surpassed the daily goal.  Not only did I have daily targets, but I had also set a deadline for when I wanted to have the first draft of my book complete.  The daily targets and checking in to see where I was at the end of each week, kept me motivated and focused.

We hear so much about success factors to making our goals a reality.  Accountability partners, writing them down, and setting targets are all things we are told will help us to make our dreams come true.  But what happens when we put all these things in place and then never review the plan to make sure it still makes sense?  What if we get so caught up in being “busy” that we forget to measure if our business is translating into productivity?

Everyone’s talking about how busy they are, but shouldn’t we be talking about how productive we are?  I don’t know about you, but I can be busy all day and not have anything meaningful to show for it!  If you’re busyness isn’t get you closer to achieving your goals, then you might as well be spending your time sleeping or watching television.  If the journey to achieving your goals was a road trip, you may be stuck always taking the scenic route, stopping at every fruit stand and antique shop along the way rather than taking the quick bathroom break and getting back in the car.  If you’re not in any hurry to achieve your goals, there’s nothing wrong with the scenic route.  If the achievement of your goals is just a means to something bigger, then enjoy the ride, but remember to stay focused on the destination.

You may be thinking that it’s too late to get your goals back on track and make them happen this year, but it isn’t!  You just have to get clear on what you want to get done by the end of the year and break it down into monthly, weekly and even daily targets!  Once you know your numbers, you’ll have a clearer idea of what you need to do to make it happen!  If you’re not clear on where to start, I can help!

Clarity on the checkpoints makes the journey more enjoyable.  Regardless of how ineffective you may feel like you’re being at times, you have tangible evidence that illustrates just how far you’ve come!  Sometimes, that is just the motivation we need to keep the momentum going, even when it feels like we’re running on fumes.  The good news is, at least you’ll know when you’re next service stop is coming so you can refuel 🙂

Sandra Dawes is a certified life coach specializing in helping women who feel unfulfilled with their 9-5 follow their dreams and pursue their passions. She holds an Honours BA, an MBA as well as a certificate in Dispute Resolution.She has completed her first book,Embrace Your Destiny: 12 Steps to Living the Life You Deserve!

Connect: 
www.embraceyourdestiny.ca
www.facebook.com/embraceyourdestiny

www.facebook.com/embraceyourdestinythebook
www.twitter.com/sandradawes