by Donovan Ray Hardenbrook
It’s that time of the year again to reflect on the last year and plan for the next. As John Maxwell, one of my favorite mentors, is known to say “Experience teaches nothing, but evaluated experience teaches everything.”
So was this year a good or bad year? Regardless, there are many things we learn over the course of a year that can help us improve ourselves and our businesses. Rather than “should” all over you, I propose a little exercise using a wonderful problem solving technique called the 5 whys to help you not only reflect more clearly on the year but also understand how to apply a years’ worth of experience into planning for the next year. I am going to use a business oriented example. Five Whys is also extremely valuable for personal goal setting as well.
Why #1 – Why wasn’t business better this year?
You can look at your business from many perspectives to answer this question. Did you not make enough sales or profit? Are you losing customers to competitors? Did you not keep up with the latest technological trends by visiting sites like https://visualobjects.com/app-development to help you develop a company app? Have you worked harder for the same or less income? All of these can be used as examples, but let’s assume you didn’t make enough sales.
Why #2 – Why didn’t we have enough sales?
Maybe you didn’t have enough traffic to your website or brick-and-mortar store. Maybe you didn’t invest enough in marketing. Maybe you didn’t utilize areas such as TokMatik TikTok followers to help with your social media engagement. Maybe you didn’t have the right product mix. Maybe your product or service doesn’t have the right features and benefits. I don’t know your specific situation but I’m sure you understand the gist. Whatever the reason, you will need it for the next question. Let’s assume that you didn’t spend enough on marketing. Some companies will think that this is a questionable decision, as you don’t need to spend a lot of money on marketing to be successful. Even something as small and as unique as a custom water bottle, that you can find at places like Custom Water, (https://customwater.com/) can help you to gain more awareness for your business, and can show other firms that you’re focused on your marketing strategy. But if you don’t invest enough money to make this possible, then you won’t see any desired results.
Why #3 – Why didn’t we invest more in marketing?
When you get to Question #3 things may begin to get interesting. Did you not invest because you don’t believe marketing really works? Did you not create a marketing budget? Were you over optimistic in estimating how much business you would get from referrals? Again your reason is going to be unique, but let’s assume you don’t believe marketing works.
Why #4 – Why don’t I believe marketing works?
Answering Question #4 may be difficult for you regardless of what your specific why question is. We are often taken to a dark place. Have we been systematic about our marketing or haphazard? Did we try and give up too soon? Did we not do enough due diligence to understand our product/market fit? Let’s assume we haven’t put marketing systems in place.
Why #5 – Why did we not put marketing systems in place?
Things may be really deep and dark at this point in our exercise. Maybe we aren’t marketing experts and we didn’t go into business to be one. Maybe there wasn’t enough time in the day to do any marketing due to all the effort required just to run the business each day. However, by this point, you must have realised that without attempting a marketing strategy, you won’t know if it works or not. Having said this, it’s understandable that you feel there’s no time in a business day to fit this in, and that’s where accessing help for your marketing needs comes in. Marketing is very specific to your target audience and the sector of business that you’re in; for example, if you’re involved in the financial industry, why not access help to perform quality financial seminars? This way, less time is wasted by having to go through it and improve it yourself. Keep trying new strategies (you may surprise yourself).
Connect the 5 Why’s to Next Years’ Goals
You can learn a lot from using the 5 Whys process. Based on what you’ve learned, you can start to explore solutions and make plans for the upcoming year. See if you can identify a plan and goal for each why question you came up with.
I hope you found this structured problem solving exercise useful. I encourage you to try it for your specific situation. Let me know how it worked for you!