Benay Informer 03/23/2022

Track your progress!

It's time to give SWOT a try.

Fresh start Mondays.

New month, new goals.

New year, new me.

We’ve heard them all, right? But have you done anything about the goals you set for yourself and your business in January… or even last week? As we close the first quarter of 2022 (Wow! That went fast!), now is an excellent time to summarize all you have done, bask in your successes a bit, and make plans to keep moving forward.

There are various tools to choose from to do this. A SWOT analysis is not only one of the most straightforward ways to track progress and identify need areas; it also works exceptionally well and can be done from anywhere with just a digital notepad or classic pen and paper. You can do your own research into the details, but we’ll just go over the highlights for now.

To use this tactic as a visual overview of progress, we suggest simply folding a blank sheet of paper in half and then in half again, thus creating four distinct areas to make lists in. Label each quarter accordingly (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats… get it, SWOT…). Then, you guessed it, start entering items to each section. When I look at mine, I consider the Strengths and Opportunities positive outlook spaces and use the Strength also as a “completed projects” section. In the other two areas, Weakness and Threats, I list out things that went wrong and places I feel like I can improve on in general.

Once you have yours completed, take time first to celebrate, then make a plan to continue with and even grow your wins. Then, for the not-so-positive items, you can research options for improvements. This may mean hiring more staff to handle your increased volume (good problems are still problems). It may mean signing up for a conference to network and meet new clients or enrolling in a course to learn new skills. The experienced team here at Benay Enterprises is happy to review what you come up with to create a path to lead you to success over the next three quarters of 2022. That’s right, three more quarters are left in the year—that’s plenty of time to right your proverbial ship and close this year better than you started it.

Just one more thing. We couldn’t end this month of Women’s greatness without highlighting just a few more of our favorite women in history. We toast you for so many reasons, ladies!

Mrs. Fields ~ yes, THAT Mrs. Fields! This momma-preneuer started a sweet empire with one store in Palo Alto, CA, and is now a household name. Debbi has written several books and sits on the board of a handful of companies.

Dorothy Fuldheim ~ taking her radio career to the screen, this retired teacher was the first television’s first female news anchor and possibly the first female television news commentator.

Rosie the Riveter ~ true, she is a fictional character, but Rosie represents the spirit of a movement to change the role of women in the home and workplace that was deeply seeded in the hearts of women all over the world.

Make your world as unique as you.

All the best,

Dawn

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