It’s that time of year. Time to check in to see if we are on track to hit our goals for the year. The mid-year review.
If you are like most business people, you probably set some goals for 2023. Personal life goals, financial goals, career goals, possibly even some spiritual or civil service goals. Well it’s time for our mid-year check in to see if we are on track.
As you know, I am a fan of tracking everything. Tracking helps keep us accountable, but it also helps us course correct if we stray too far from our plan.
Have you been consistently hitting your daily, weekly, and monthly goals, so far?
Let’s back up a bit. Why do we even set goals? Goals provide structure and clarity. Good goals should be measurable so we can track our progress. We will talk about setting S.M.A.R.T. goals in another post.
Even more than structure and clarity, setting inspirational goals provides vision and motivation. If you set lame goals, you will not be motivated. We should be setting goals that inspire us to wake up every morning and live life to the fullest. Set goals that encourage us to grow our business and improve our life in every way.
When we do our mid-year review, we aren’t just checking to see if we are financially on track. We aren’t just tallying up our bank statements to see if we have reached 50% of our annual revenue goal.
No. We are checking all the metrics. Tracking everything. How many new clients did we work on? How many of those new clients were referrals? If not referrals, how did they find us (internet, marketing campaign, promotional events, etc.)? How many of those appointments were one hour, 90 minutes, two hours? How many rescheduled after that first appointment? How many are now regular recurring appointments?
Have you learned any new modalities or techniques? How many CE credits have you acquired so far? How much time did you spend marketing? How much oil have you used so far?
There are so many free and low cost opportunities to earn CE credits through ABMP or AMTA, but even if your state doesn’t require mandatory CE credit hours, it is still important to keep learning. It keeps us from getting stale and bored. It keeps us fresh and up to date in our work.
We also have unlimited resources online. And more books on massage techniques, business, and marketing than we could ever possibly read in our lifetime. How many have you read so far this year?
I strongly encourage you to read at least one book per month. More if you can. You don’t even need to buy the books. Libraries have plenty of options to keep you busy. You can even download books from the library to your e-reader and read a few pages between appointments if you have spaces. Or listen to audiobooks while you drive or exercise.
The great thing about continuing education and reading books, is that it helps with our mindset. And sometimes we need a reminder that we are business people. I often try to remind people to think bigger. Yes, it’s true that when you are in session, you should be 100% focused on your client in massage-mode. While in massage-mode, you should think like a massage therapist. But when you are not in session, think bigger. You aren’t just a massage therapist. You are a business person, who happens to be in the business of massage!
You might want to consider adding the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review to your reading list. Articles about other businesses might spark an idea for you about growing your own practice.
Some other questions to ask yourself: Where were you at this time last year? How are you staying motivated? Do you need to adjust your goals to make them more inspiring? Have you consistently given your clients good results? Are they rescheduling? Are they happy enough to send you referrals?
Have you done any creative problem solving? Has that creative problem solving sent you on a new path or toward a new type of specialty work?
How are your time management skills? How could they improve?
Have you checked in with your other massage therapist friends to see how they are doing? Be sure not to commiserate with the ones who are not on track to hit their goals. But do find out about the ones who are on track or ahead of schedule. Find out what they are doing that is successful.
And if you are on track or ahead of schedule, maybe you could take on a mentor role to help your friends who are behind. Sometimes taking the mentor role helps you think more clearly. You break things down into chunks to make them easier to learn, and doing that helps clarify your own perspective. I think it was Richard Bach who said, “You teach best what you most need to learn.”
The bottom line is, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Other massage therapists are usually happy to share information about what has or has not worked for them in the past. Worst case scenario, if you can’t find someone to help, there is always the option to hire a coach, or at least, take a business mastery course.
Before I sign out, here is a note to those of you who own a multi-therapist practice. Be sure to do mid-year reviews with all of your employees (therapists, receptionists, managers, etc.). This will help keep them motivated and it will help you determine what type of training you need to do so you can course correct to crush your year end goals.
If you didn’t set goals for yourself or your business at the beginning of the year, now is your opportunity to set yourself on the path to success, for the rest of the year.
If you did set goals, now is your chance to see if you are on track to hit those goals. If you are not on track, this is the time to determine what actions you need to take to course correct. And if you are ahead of schedule, you have two options: move the goalpost to hit a bigger goal for the year, or take a little extra beach time this summer. It’s your choice. You’ve earned it.
Always keep learning,
——- Nick
