Make Room for Hope: Your 12 Strategies for 2023 Planning

By Hank Yuloff

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In Blog Post, Current Events Marketing, Entrepreneurial Lessons

Make Room for Hope: Your 12 Strategies for 2023 Planning

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As you get ready to create your strategies for 2023 planning, how would you answer this poll: On a scale of 1 to 10, how hopeful are you feeling about business, and more specifically YOUR business in 2023? Let’s take a look at the economy and what happened this year and what is probably on the horizon. Follow these strategies for 2023 planning.

We’ve seen A TON of headlines talking about recessions, layoffs, and market fears over the past few weeks. And many experts are sharing what they think we should be doing to stave off the worst.

/>As the saying goes, “It’s prudent to plan ahead and reef the sails before a storm strikes.”

But are we going overboard? Are we being TOO negative?

It’s a normal human reaction to try to foresee and prepare for the worst. We have even seen leaders at our local Chamber of Commerce preach doom and gloom. Wow.

And I think that can sometimes lead us to act as though the worst-case scenario is a foregone conclusion. Barring a huge purposeful expansion of military movements in Europe or Asia, I’d stake my Economics degree against that this won’t be the case.

What if we’re not making enough room for good things to happen?

While the risk of a recession next year is real, it’s not a given — it’s a prediction.

The Wall Street Journal survey of economists puts the risk of a recession within 12 months at 63%.¹

On the other hand, Goldman Sachs puts the probability of a 2023 recession at just 35%.²

No one knows what will happen for certain but it doesn’t look like a recession is just around the corner.

Recent layoffs are getting big headlines, but they aren’t widespread.³

Afterall, for the last 18 months unemployment has been at it’s lowest average in decades.

In fact, there’s still a chance that we could avoid a recession or experience only a mild downturn.

Especially if inflation has truly peaked. (Fingers crossed!)

There are likely to be stormy waters ahead, especially for employees affected by layoffs, but as we enter the final weeks of the year, I want to highlight some signs of hope:

Hopeful sign #1: The latest data shows that the U.S. economy grew nearly 2.9% in the third quarter.⁴

Hopeful sign #2: Economists think the economy will grow again in the fourth quarter as well.

Hopeful sign #3: The Fed might slow down the pace of interest rate hikes soon.⁵

It’s true, we’re still in challenging conditions as we approach 2023.

More volatility is very likely in store for us.

But let’s make room for optimism and positivity.

Good things are in store as well.

Before we look ahead, we wanted to give a personal THANK YOU to termed-out Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti and we wanted to highlight a few more bits of good news from 2022:

We learned that U.S. child poverty plummeted 80% between 1993 and 2021.⁶
Scientists discovered a way to help identify babies at risk for sudden infant death syndrome.⁷
Voters elected the first Gen Z member of Congress.⁸
A record number of sea turtles laid nests on the Georgia coast.⁹

Your 12 Strategies for 2023 Planning

If you want to make the next 12 months more successful, more profitable, and more productive than the last 12 months, these twelve strategies for 2023 planning are for you.

By the way, this list isn’t just for a new calendar year – you can revisit this list at any time and create a real turning point in your business if you’re willing to reboot, reinvigorate, and reimagine your business success.

1. List the three most important objectives for your business over the next year. These should be critical “big picture” accomplishments that will lead to profits and future achievement.

2. For each objective listed above, identify your responsibility in achieving your objectives. WHAT will you do? HOW will you do it? WHEN will you do it?

3. Be crystal clear in separating strategies (how and why items) from tactics (what and when items) and use “Verb-noun-date” format to create specific action steps and put them on your calendar.

4. Don’t think of your year as a whole. Break it down to monthly metrics and put quarterly goal-planning reviews on your calendar so you can adjust the dials on your plan, measure results, and take a strategic look at your marketing, sales, and business development activities every 90 days while keeping a close eye on results (profits, clients, projects, revenue) every 30 days.

5. Don’t go it alone. Remember, lone wolves starve to death. Think of partners, champions, allies, referral sources, and joint venture partners who can help you leapfrog over obstacles and who are a great supplement and complement to your own products and services. Contact them and build (or grow) your relationship with them so you can collaborate more closely – starting right now. Of course, this is what we do for a living: Make you and your business more successful. We’d love to begin a conversation at www.HowToGetThereFaster.com

6. Write down your list of professional development goals for the next 12 months. When you’re creating your strategies for 2023 planning, you definitely must decide on What do you want to learn, do, or become as a business owner? Attend online conferences? Gain additional certifications or professional designations? Create your mini-course? Do more virtual speaking or webinars? Get more consulting clients? Be specific and put these activities on your calendar so you make sure they happen.

7. Write down your list of personal goals for the next 12 months. In creating your strategies for 2023 planning, you definitely should ALSO decide on what do you want to accomplish for yourself and how would you like to grow personally? Spend more time with your partner? Stay connected with your kids as they grow up and/or pursue their college or post-college adventures? Remodel your house? (We just began that process this year.) Dig deeper into a special hobby or sport? Drop 10 pounds? Run a 5K? Take a cruise? Where? When? With whom? We have one in May of 2023 beginning in London. Come with us and we will teach you some marketing tricks each day! Send us an email at info@YuloffCreative.com and we will connect you with the travel agent. Map it out and let’s make it happen!

8. Don’t get distracted. One of the things we promote in our Group + Private Coaching Program is that we keep our clients from Shiny Object Syndrome. “SOS” has a powerful pull on most entrepreneurs and business owners. Stay focused on the big picture goals you set in Step 1 above – and then relentlessly ask yourself for every new idea, initiative or project, “Does this support one of my three goals? If so, how?” And don’t let yourself off the hook as easily as you might have done in the past. If it’s a no, it’s a no. Metaphorically speaking, stop opening up hot dog stands in the parking lot and redouble your efforts to make your flagship restaurant thrive!

9. Look around your industry. What is happening in your field? Do you watch what others are doing? We belong to a couple of promotional products groups on social media and several coaching and business groups. Rule 1 is don’t take everything you read as gospel. Rule 2 is ask yourself “How right are they?” instead of “Are they right?” We can learn from many, even if it is “heck no” or “I never thought of that.”

10. Live out of your calendar, not your inbox. Plan your day – what MUST get done and WHEN? Chunk your day down into blocks and assign specific tasks to those blocks – Phone calls, emails, client tasks, whatever it is YOU want to do that will move you closer to your GOALS. Keep that calendar under your nose. All day. Make it your default screen. Hide, minimize or (gasp) close your email until “check email” pops up on your calendar. Learning how to TIME BLOCK and putting that process into place is vital to your success. Would you like a copy of our 2023 calendar? Send us an email with your mailing address and we will send it to you along with some incredible marketing tips. That email address is INFO@YuloffCreative.com

11. Take a look back. So many of our small business coaching clients get wrapped up in the NOW of running their business that when we are on a coaching call together we can see the absolute stress on their face. We try and remind them of how far they have come and we go through the steps that we took together to be at the more successful place where we are now.

12. Inhale. Breathe Deep. Relax. Remember that “You Got This!”. Any time you’re creating an inflection point in your business, it can be scary. You’re letting go of the old – letting go of what no longer works or what no longer serves you well. And you’re embracing the new – the untried, the uncomfortable, perhaps even what seems risky. But the biggest risks of all are stagnation, arrogance, or complacency. Remember – a bend in the road is never fatal… unless you fail to turn.

When it comes to looking ahead and creating strategies for 2023 planning, we know that this is a challenge for most small business owners. The biggest challenge is that they want to get there faster. To help you get there faster, we would like to offer you a Free Marketing Consultation. Most small business owners, just like you, that take advantage of this conversation, report back that their free 30-minute success call was worth at least $10,000 in increased sales and savings to their bottom line. If you would like to get there faster, let’s begin our conversation by increasing your profits.

We’ll discuss where you are in your business right now – where you’d like to go – and how you might get there much more quickly without getting sucked into the vortex of conflicted advice floating around in the world and in your head. There’s nothing to buy on this diagnostic call. No gimmicks and no nonsense. That website to schedule your call is www.HowToGetThereFaster.com . Go there now!