Managing your 2017 goals in bite sized pieces | Travel Research Online

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Managing your 2017 goals in bite sized pieces

Happy New Year! Have you made your resolutions? What were they? Huh? Huh? I can’t help it. When a new year rolls around, I am full of energy and excitement. And I think that 2017 will bring plenty of excitement on many different fronts.

My goals are set and I am a believer in setting goals for yourself, both personally and professionally. I am also very careful to make sure the goals are attainable. Not easy goals, hard ones. Goals where I need to work to achieve. Many will be met, some will not!

Sure, I’d love to personally sell $10 million in travel this year. But that is unreasonable. So I try to keep things real in 2017.There is a lot happening in the industry. And as we all know, we have very little control over it.  We can control our own operations, but have little influence on the other aspects. Also, with the change in the administration in Washington, I would not be surprised to see some curve balls thrown our way in 2017.  With all this in mind, rather than setting some quantitative numbers, this year I think I may set my goals more conceptually.

So where does this all fit into travel and New Year’s resolutions? Over the past two years, I lost a whole lot of weight and feel great. It was a long process (and to be honest I need to lose some more—the holidays were bad to me) but it made me realize that the larger goals are achieved when taken in manageable, smaller sized bits.

If you want to increase your cruise business, rather than setting a dollars and cents goal, set your goal to book 2 cruises per month over your last year numbers. It is manageable. It may fall into your lap, or you may need to work at it. Once you are in the habit of booking an additional two cruises per month, make sure you are upselling to meet your client’s needs.

If you need to increase your income, rather than raising fees or cutting essential costs, why not look to be more consistent with your fees and costs? For me and my niche of single parent travel, I want to offer just two more groups this year than in years past. My customers have told me what they want (higher activity options) and this year I plan to put a whitewater rafting trip and a biking trip into my mix.

Two groups are not a huge goal, I realize that. But they are a smaller, more manageable step towards increasing my business. And most importantly, accomplishing these goals will likely motivate me more. As when I was losing weight, when I saw the results, I strived to see more. Two more groups may lead to three or four; but two more than last year is more revenue for the agency.

Do you have any strategic goals for 2017? How do you manage them? Are they big and bold? Or do you prefer small and manageable like me?

 

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