Stating Goals for 2012

Now it is time to state my New Year’s Resolutions for my consulting firm, McDonald & Associates.   By sharing them with you I am implementing #4 tip from last weeks blog. This week I am sharing the goals we have for the operations side of the practice.  Next week I will write about goals focusing on marketing.

Operations goals:

1. Empower Students more.
2. Move our office toward being paperless.
3. Incorporate college affordability into our practice more.

All of these goals can be accomplished easily using mycca.net.

1. We can empower students by using assignments better.  A IEC recently told me she uses the assignments feature in mycca.net to make action lists with her students as they are meeting.  I tried it recently with great success. I entered the action plan into the counselor Assignment section for the student record as we met. At the end of our session, together we set a due date for the assignment.  Click, click, click, and the assignment was saved, reminder emails were set for both student and parent, and I receive an email with the assignment to add to my calendar.  So much time saved and the student was a part of the process!
2. By uploading all of our company documents into mycca.net we can move toward being paperless.  We have a large number of documents to provide to parents and students in the college planning process.  The new document sharing feature on mycca.net, allows you to upload then assign documents to students as needed.  Our goal is to upload our student binder, making it an electronic binder. 
3. Using the Academic Scholarship Reports in the college planning process early on will help incorporate college affordability early.  Academic Scholarship reports gives you an idea of how many merit scholarships are available at colleges that are being considered, and the maximum level of scholarship for that school.  This can assist me as a consultant as I shape a list of colleges for students and parents to consider, and ultimately as they select the colleges for “My Colleges” list to apply to.  This will maximize the options a student or parent has as they enter this process.

Keeping the Promise of the New Year

Making resolutions is a tradition we all share as a New Year rolls around. Some people hate making resolutions. I embrace them. To me it is acting on the promise the New Year holds. I want to seize the opportunity of a new beginning and make it my own. It gives me a chance to stop, take stock of my past year, and make goals for the next year.  Although this is important to do in my personal life, it is crucial to do in my business life.  As a consultant, I want to work smarter, not harder. I want to be a better educational consultant as well as a better business person. The easy part is always making the goal.  The hard part is making the goal happen.  Here are some tips I have found beneficial in keeping goals.  Use these to guide you as well as you make your new year’s resolutions:

1. Bring Focus to your goals.  Don’t shoot for the moon, trying to set goals for everything you want to do.  Create a focus for your goals for the next year by selecting your top 5 goals or less.
2. Define your goals.  Compare the difference between a goal to “make more money” to “increase my income 10%”.  The first is hard to measure.  The second gives you definition and helps you concentrate your efforts.
3. Make a plan.  There is a saying that a goal is a wish unless it is written down.  Not only write down your goal, but create a plan to make it happen.  Otherwise it will stay a wish for the next year.  A plan helps you to track progress toward your goal.  This is much more motivating to you to achieve the goal.
4. Share your plan.  By sharing your goal with your office, your spouse or someone else, you bring that goal to a level of accountability and support.  Knowing someone else knows and shares your goals will help you maintain your momentum.
5. Celebrate along the way.  As you reach milestones in your plans, celebrate.  Rejoice in the progress. If there are setbacks in the progress, that is ok.  You can celebrate getting back on track too.

Using these tools will help me to make the most of the promise of 2012.  I hope they will help you too!