You have 4 quarters, 12 months, and 365 days to tackle your biggest dreams and goals. But before you launch ahead with achieving them, the beginning of the year is the perfect time to tackle a few important tasks on your entrepreneurial to-do list. This week’s post outlines those tasks that are easily forgotten, but really important!
Track Key Metrics
Log into your social media accounts and log the number of friends, fans, and followers. This is important to log so you can track your growth over the next year. Here is a list of key metrics to write down
- Subscribers on your email list(s)
- Website, blog, or portfolio visits
- Video/vlog views
- Followers on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok
Another second good metric to count is your mileage. This is especially important if you use your personal vehicle for business activities and expense your business miles.
*Remember that you cannot expense trips to the studio as miles to expense, but all other business-related travels should be logged.
Dates on the Calendar
The second task you need to do in January is to get your important dates on the calendar now so you can plan around them. You can make this as simple or built-out you want in terms of how detailed you make your annual business calendar. Below is a list of possible ideas for you to include as you map out the next 12 months.
- Goal check-in dates (quarterly is perfect for starting out)
- Grant deadlines
- Exhibition and opportunity deadlines
- Your best sales events (consider when your sales seasons are)
- Annual events you participate in
- Business expense subscription renewal dates (important for managing your finances)
- Administration dates
- Vacations & personal events
- Birthdays, holidays, or anniversaries of clients, competitors, or special audience that you want to acknowledge
- Fun-holidays that align with your product (so your marketing aligns with the trending hashtags)
- Deadlines or projected milestones for goals (Set a goal and work backward!)
- Digital marketing and content planning (If you blog weekly – get it on the calendar)
Update Web Components
As much as it’s important to keep your website updated and dynamic, that’s not what this to-do is about. This one is easy, I promise.
A common task that is easily missed is updating the copyright date on your blog, site, or shop. While you always own the copyright to your work (official registration or not) what’s important about updating this is demonstrating that your paying attention, maintaining your site, and are active online. This is for two specific reasons.
1. A simple copyright date change signifies your attention to detail and maintenance of the site regardless if there is new artwork listed. To collectors and customers who are keeping an eye on your work, this simple update shows that your digital portfolio is current.
2. And number two is to deter spammers who are looking for sites to easily hack. A site with an old un-updated website shows that the site owner isn’t paying attention.
Another good website component update is making sure your overall updates are current. Let me explain. If you use plugins, templates, and apps from 3rd party sources on your website, hackers and spammers can easily access your site when you do not update your site. They can enter through bugs and loopholes that updates often fix. Spend some time making sure everything is at its most current operating system or version.
Do you have any other tips for starting off the New Year? Comment below with your must-do January task!