4 Months Gone: Evaluate Your Efforts
Posted: May 5th, 2008
By: Zach Heller
Category: Business Development Skills, Career Corner, Opinion Corner

Happy Cinco De Mayo to everyone!  It’s Monday and that means it’s time to get back to the office.  May 5th means that we have made it a third of the way through another year.  So far, this year has been one marked by overall economic troubles and rather interesting presidential primaries.  It can be difficult at times to escape the day to day grind and take a step back to look at things on a larger scale.  But now that we are in the fifth month of the year, I believe it is time to take a day or two to analyze how the year is going for you in a business sense.

Each and every one of us starts the new year with plans for new business development and continued marketing and client relations strategies.  But having those plans is just the beginning, now it is time to see whether or not we are keeping up with those plans, and whether or not they are helping us achieve our goals.  Maybe you have been so busy trying to keep up that you have forgotten all about some of the new projects you wanted to implement.  Or maybe the tough economic conditions have caused you to alter the way you are handling business development practices up until this point.  Though everyone’s situation is going to vary, here are a few questions to ask yourself as you think a little bit deeper about your performance to date.

1. How is your online presence compared to where it was at the end of 2007?  This is an important one because online marketing is not only effective, but almost always cheaper and easier to implement than other marketing strategies.  Are you blogging?  Have you upgraded your website?  How are you showing up in Google and other search engines?

2. How many new contacts have you made?  These can be any type of contacts you may have since last year.  Maybe you went to a few networking events, or maybe you have gotten a few referrals from previous contacts.  It’s a numbers game and it is important, especially in today’s economy, to get out a meet people.  Develop relationships and see where they lead, because they can eventually lead to new business.

3. Are you spending money in the right places?  If you have started any new marketing campaigns this year, it may be time to look back and see what kind of return you are getting on them.  Since times may be slow, it is important not to spend too much money on something that does not seem to be working.  Take a long look at the numbers and see if you can’t cut some unnecessary costs or at least redistribute your money to those initiatives that have been working a little better.

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