You are already doing it whether you realize it or not. Every single day – every moment of every day, actually – we all do things, choose things, and experience things that impact what happens next in our life.
When a new year begins, a lot of people – myself included – make promises to ourselves, set new goals, and strive to change things for the better, but far too many “fail” because we’re too focused on the big picture and forget the little things that lead there.
You may have had a disappointing 2019 and are thinking to yourself, “I’m going to do better in 2020. I’m going to make it the best year ever.”
Whether your goal is about your business, yourself, or something else, you aren’t going to achieve it all at once by just deciding it is going to happen.
You can’t suddenly get more sales, lose weight, exercise more, make better choices, be kinder – or anything else that you set your mind to do – all at one time.
Regardless of what you decide you are doing to do, the DOING of it happens one event at a time.
Today is the beginning of not only a new year but also of a whole new decade in this century. I’m going to call it THE DECADE OF DOING and make it the ROARING 20’s of the century and I invite YOU to join me as we DESIGN OUR FUTURE. Watch for details of what we are working on for the members of the GiftBasketNetwork community not only for 2020 but for the whole decade.
If you are a subscriber of the INSIDER magazine, the issue that is waiting for you in your email box outlines how I plan to do it. If you are not already a subscriber, you can still get this issue (and 11 more) at https://www.giftbasketnetwork.com/magazine (Hint: There is also a detailed article about how I used Maple Ridge Farms to increase my business income substantially without employees or added inventory).
Regardless, of whether you are a subscriber or not, I invite you to join us in our Facebook group as we work together to design THE DECADE OF DOING in our industry. It’s free. The only requirement is that you are a member of the gift/gift basket industry either as a company owner or a vendor. You can join the group today at https://www.facebook.com/groups/giftbasketnetwork/
I would like to leave you with one final tip to help you grow your business.
Our customers frequently buy gifts from us to thank someone or to recognize them for some event. I suggest that you add this one thing to your DESIGN FOR THE FUTURE: Plan a special time of the year to thank those customers for their business. It could be now – right after the holidays, Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving, or any other time that works for you. I am sending gifts to all my corporate customers this week using inventory that I have left from the holidays (and no, I don’t buy holiday themed products so that won’t be a problem) along with a hand-written thank you card. This is one of the major ways that I use to get repeat business from them.
Maple Ridge Farms does this for those of us who are their distributors and send them their business. Last year, I received a wonderful coffee cake when they were celebrating their 40th Anniversary along with smaller thank you gifts for orders that I placed.
Don’t know what to send? It doesn’t have to be elaborate or expensive. Of course, you could send them a big gift basket but even a much smaller gift will be received with surprise and appreciation. How about a small gift box with crackers, cheese, and something sweet? Another idea is a package of themed snack mix from Big Steer.
Try it yourself. I think you will be surprised that they are surprised that someone cared enough to thank them.