Entrepreneur for the Holidays
For entrepreneurs assiduously chasing every lead and working around the clock to launch their dream to conquer the world, the holiday season can be very frustrating. Emails and phone calls go unanswered as important contacts focus elsewhere until the after-effects of the festive season have worn off. This is a good opportunity for overloaded entrepreneurs to focus on the foundation of the business and to recharge themselves.
Explore your market.
Expect people to be distracted during the holiday season by family and celebrations. Instead of being frustrated, use this time to catch up on important work that often takes a back seat while you’re busy chasing your dream. This is a great time to conduct internet-based research to help you better understand the markets, customers, competitors and evolving technologies that will influence your plans. Include in this research learning as much as you can about the things that most interest your customers about the nature of the products and services you plan to offer. Try to find out where these prospects get the information they rely on to influence their decisions. This will help you to create an effective marketing and communications strategy when you are ready.
Make a plan.
Look ahead at the next twelve months and list every action or event that must occur in order to move your business forward to accomplish your goals. Prioritize these items and insert them into a project timeline format with deliverables, milestones, target dates, name of person responsible and dependencies between them. Include on this list key contacts and other third party resources that will be helpful to your plans. Time permitting; begin preparing the communications that you will use to reach these individuals. This planning work will help you to hit the ground running after the holidays and it eliminates the fog of confusion about what to focus on next.
Recharge your batteries.
You boost your creativity when you are having fun so the most important thing you can do during the holidays is take a break. Relax, take time off, rest, have fun and you’ll be amazed at your impressive creativity and problem-solving abilities when you’re ready to re-engage. Removing all of the clutter from your brain helps you to focus on what’s truly important. During the holidays, this happens to be your family and friends and your own sanity and well-being. There is no point worrying about all of the things that you cannot do during the holidays.
Happy Holidays!!