Join Me in “The Year of Doing!”

Good golly, Miss Molly, it’s already the 6th of January and I still have to get my plans for the New Year in writing and to get them into motion.  Now, I decided a long, long time ago that I wasn’t going to make New Year’s Resolutions.

A Resolution without a plan is meant to be broken. 

What I do the first of each year is to create goals and then make a list of what I need to do to meet those goals.

I have named 2013 “The Year of Doing!” and hope that you will join me.  It is way past time for me to stop talking about all the things I would like to try and just get out there and go for it.  There are so many things that I want to try to expand both my existing businesses as well as to try new things.

I have about six ebooks ready to be formatted and sold on Kindle as well as on our GiftRetailersConnection website.  Watch for them.  This is the year that I will be concentrating more on teaching through my writing.  I’ve been doing that already through the magazine but will be doing much more in other ways in 2013.  You’ll be hearing more about this throughout the year.

One of the ebooks that I offered last year was a Marketing book that was specific to the year 2012.  I am in the process of expanding it into an ebook that will be even more valuable with more detailed, specific marketing tips and information and condensing the actual marketing calendars provided in the original ebook.  It will be more evergreen and not specific to 2013 but will be a book you can use to increase your marketing knowledge ten years from now.

From the very beginning of my very first business more than 30 years ago, my primary focus of each and every business has been to help those who need and want it and whom I have the ability to provide help to.  It began with Arizona Singles, which provided a safe and secure way for single men and women throughout the state of Arizona to meet each other.  And it worked for many.  Ron and I attended many weddings and are still friends with many of those we brought together with our newspaper and social events.

Expanding into advertising sales for many of the other singles magazines across the country as well as for the national magazine for Romance Writers’ of America, I continued to provide help for those who needed and wanted it.

Of course, I made money.  That is an important part of any business.  A business with more expenses than income soon is no longer a business.  But helping others doesn’t mean becoming a charity.  I’ve learned that when I give, I receive much more in return.

My gift business as well as GiftRetailersConnection with its forum, magazine, newsletter, this blog and website has continued to expand.  I was recently asked to close the forum to everyone who was not a subscriber to the magazine.  This suggestion goes against the very grain of why I am in business and the forum will remain open to anyone and everyone, whether I agree or disagree with you, who is a member of the gift industry.

So basically, some of  my general goals for this “Year of Doing are:

(1) Move out of my comfort zone and do some of the things that I’ve wanted to do but haven’t.

(2) Give 110% to each of my business models–growing them through marketing and improved communication with my potential customers as well as the existing ones.

(3) Give back to my industry community and readers. Offer encouragement and information on all levels to anyone who needs and wants the help regardless of whether they are thinking of starting a business or growing an existing one.

(4) Really listen to my readers. This is why we are establishing the Reader’s Advisory Panel. See the current issue of the magazine to learn how you can be an important part of it.

(5) And always be transparent.  There is just too much crap out there on the internet and too many people trying to make money from others by pretending to be more than they are.  I will always continue to be honest to you, my readers, when I try to sell you something, when I provide you information, and when I make decisions that may affect you, my readers and industry community.

These are the general goals for my business.  They will be broken down into specific goals.  And these will then be individually broken down into a list of what is needed to accomplish each goal.

That beats making resolutions that are mean to be broken any day.  So will you, too, join me in this “Year of Doing?”

I invite you to share with me your ideas as to how I can continue to be a benefit to you and your business.  And, oh yes, I began this post with “Good Golly, Miss Molly” which as those of you from the rock and roll generation will remember as one of the songs from that era.  But there is actually a Miss Molly in my life.  She is a mini poodle who, along with Delilah the mini dachshund, keeps me moving and doing when they think I’ve been sitting at the computer for too long.

5 thoughts on “Join Me in “The Year of Doing!””

  1. Thanks Kim….I have problems with this…going in too many directions at once and getting nowhere! Will go down a different path this year.

  2. Kim; Those are excellent suggestions. It is all too easy to get overwhelmed with trying to do everything at one time. Once you set goals that you want to achieve, you shouldn’t try to do everything at once. Thanks for sharing!

  3. Hi Joyce,
    I read a great book called Conquering the Chaos and it was written by the founders of the software company Infusionsoft. One of the biggest take-aways I got from the book was that your day to day business will eat up all your time unless you schedule in blocks for growing your business. If you can invest just 20% of your available time to growing the business it will make huge differences. The second big thing I took from the book was to focus on one or two goals only. Set those goals, achieve them and then work on the next, but trying to do more than that at a time just results in feeling overwhelmed and letting yourself get lost in the day to day of your business.

  4. Joyce, I look forward to your ebooks because I am sure they will be full of great information as always. You have benefited me and my business with all that you have provided already. The forum, newsletter, blog and gift directory. I expect 2013 will be a great year for our industry, due in part to your efforts to make it happen!

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