Not Too Late – Five 4Q Actions to Save Your Business & Get to “Done” This Year

I had a conversation with a colleague the other day and she lamented that she had not gotten as far this year with accomplishing her goals as she would have liked. What alarmed me was that she wrote off this year – and it was only October – saying that it was too late to handle anything more this year, and that she would “get to planning to take care of things at the beginning of next year”. “Whoa!”, I said. First, there’s a few weeks left in 4Q (the fourth quarter of a year), and productivity in those few weeks can mean a make-or-break difference for completing a goal by December 31. And second, why wait until year-end to make plans for the next year? Actively sitting down, looking back on the first three quarters of the year, assessing what can still be salvaged of the year, and determining how to make the last quarter as productive as possible IS taking action…immediate action.

My clients invest in my holding them accountable through the very last day of the year. And I run popular programs such as my “Create Your One-Page Plan for the New Year” that are full-day sessions taking people through the process of creating their own one-page plans during the workshop so that they leave with their action strategies and steps in their hands, potentially able to begin taking action on Monday after the workshops. But for you – in this article – I give you five fourth-quarter actions that they invest in me to give them because I want to serve as many people as I can, keeping you in intentional movement right up to the special day I created for the last business day of a year…”No Interruptions Day” (usually December 31). Here, “on the house”, are five 4Q actions to save your business and get to “done” this year.

 

1. Pick one project / goal for the remainder of the year. Pick the most-important one you have that will move you forward within the fourth quarter. Set aside the rest of the projects / goals / ideas / intentions you may not have gotten to. They’ll be there for you to get to, or change, after 4Q this year. Then calculate the number of productive weeks from now until the end of the year. I figure on three “good” weeks each for October, November, and December where people – especially people who have full-time jobs – will be at work and answering their phones. Identify one milestone for each of those productive weeks that you can set towards reaching that one goal and set that milestone to “due by” the end of each productive week. Hold yourself to each week’s milestone.

2. Get an accountability partner to hold you to each of your milestones to the end of the year. It’s so easy to find excuses for yourself and not reach “done” for that milestone by the end of the week. I know! I teach and counsel and consult on this and I still have accountability partners – paid and friends – whom I need to hold me to my own commitments.

3. Schedule 1:1 time with at least three people with whom you’ve been intending to connect and just have not gotten to doing so yet. Those partial weeks that are less-productive as the holidays set in…schedule a breakfast, lunch, or coffee meeting with those three people to establish or build upon vital relationships. Make these three people who, over time, can help you through direct business, referrals, or you don’t know yet until you meet with them. Remember the adage that you just never know who knows, or is connected to, whom until you spend time getting to know them. It’s not always about getting direct business from someone!

4. Do a business & personal performance review report card for the year that is ending. Spend a half- or full-day being honest with yourself, and being proud of yourself, assessing how you performed with key areas of your business as well as tending to your relationships, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. I have an actual program I take my clients through – and offer it as a stand-alone program via a day-long telephone conference, workbook, and assignments process – based on years of investing in coaches and consultants myself and a look at the success factors of my own years in business. I also have a free Idea Lab video where I give you a short, complimentary version of this session. I can’t include active links in these articles so just go to my website – IdeaSuccessNetwork-dot-com – and click on the “Contact” menu selection to send me a note requesting the link to that program. (Forewarning: when you do, I will ask you to connect with me more permanently by getting my Idea Success Notes tips & best practices for ideation and implementation.)

5. Pull together your business and personal paperwork so you can access what you need for year-end and planning purposes. Instead of giving other people your money on the Friday after Thanksgiving, or standing in returns lines the day after your celebrated holiday, dedicate a few hours when you can’t reach anyone else because they’re spending their money to searching for, gathering together, and organizing your paperwork so you won’t waste time doing it when you can be in fast action as the new year begins.

If you take just a couple of these 4Q actions – let alone all of them – in the last weeks of the year while others lament that they have no more time, you’ll be far ahead of the game and you’ll have momentum you build from being in action right up until the last day of the year. I can help you stay in action when you connect with me and participate in my “One-Page Plan for the New Year” and “Business & Personal Performance Review / Report Card” programs. Use the “contact” link at my website to get details and register for them. These 4Q actions truly can save your business and get you to “done” with at least one goal, project, idea, or intention – still – this year!