After the holiday festivities die down and your last remaining guests return home, it's time to get back to work. With any luck, you will be able to take a few days off to relax with family and good friends, but it's never easy to get back into the swing of work after all the celebrations.
For me, January 1 is focused on family and January 2 is all about business. As an entrepreneur, I'm always excited for a New Year and fresh beginnings. But I wonder how other entrepreneurs start off their year: do they catch up on emails and voicemails that were put aside over the holidays, or do they spend time setting their high-level strategy for the year to come?
To find out, I sought the input from some good friends and fellow entrepreneurs and asked: "What do you plan on doing on January 2?" Here's what they said:
"I like to focus my entire organization on the New Year goal. We know what we want to achieve every quarter and monitor progress with the staff to make sure there are no surprises."
- Zaya S. Younan, Chairman & CEO Younan Properties, Inc.
My focus on Jan 2 is 100 percent on my team. I like to thank everyone for their outstanding effort in 2014, and specifically review significant accomplishments. I will ask the team what they believe we can do better, faster, and cheaper in 2015 and share how I think we can do things better, faster, and cheaper. Then, I'll finish with my well known quote: 'In everything you do, know your why!'"
Eric M. Anders, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Wood Ranch BBQ & Grill
"My kick start to a New Year begins with a glance back at all of the mistakes we made in the last year. It may sound counterintuitive, but I am a huge believer that all mistakes are lessons learned, and future success relies on how well we can react and adjust to the mistakes we have made in the past."
- Melissa Kieling, CEO, www.packitcool.com
"Come January 2, I will have a short, high energy meeting to discuss the number one goal of the company for the year and the sole metric by which each team member will be assessed in 1, 3, 6, and 12 months. At the end of the meeting, each team member should walk away knowing both."
- Terrence Yang, Founder and CEO, Precelerator.com
"Starting off the New Year with a bang suggests a certain sequence: ready, aim, fire. A fresh new calendar is a wonderful time to invest in thinking and planning, to make sure that before you hear the bang, you have your gun pointed in the right direction. Taking the opportunity to think and plan will make sure that this year's activities will actually move you in the direction you want to go."
- Darren Kavinoky, Attorney, TV Host, & Founder of www.nocuffs.com
"My goal is to treat every day as January 2nd...as a new beginning by keeping my business up-to-date and as fresh as possible. That being said, on January 2, 2015, we will put into play the plan for our 2015 goals, which centers around our RockStar Marketing BootCamp held in March."
- Craig Duswalt: Speaker, Author, Radio Host and Creator of the RockStar Marketing BootCamp
"New Years signifies a fresh start, and while most successful people don't wait until the year starts to plan their year, I absolutely do. I spend every single day of the previous year working on accomplishing goals for that year and that year alone. I focus January 2 on strategic planning and set important milestones to break and reach in the New Year."
- Pejman Ghadimi, founder of Secret Entourage, and author of the best selling book Third Circle Theory
"New Years is more of a waypoint then just another day on the calendar. I don't wait until New Years to make resolutions; they're made continuously throughout the year. I take New Years Day to reflect on my own accomplishments and of everyone in my companies. Then on the 2nd, I make sure that everyone is headed in the correct direction for the year to come."
- Michael E. Morgan, credit expert and founder of Credit Forget It
"On the first business day of the new year, I start moving and shaking on social media, email and in person. Every New Year brings a flood of people to my online accounts asking how they can reinvent themselves as entrepreneurs."
- Kathy Zucker, Founder, Metro Moms Network
How do you plan to start the New Year when you return to work in January?