Local Search Consultants - GOALs for 2017?

[Linda Buquet]

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Hey gang,

Thought this would be a good time to start sharing our New Year goals for our Local Search businesses. You know... they say if you share your goals with others. it helps you feels more accountable so you stick to them. So what are yours?

Automate?
Streamline?
Hire more staff?
Fire some clients?
Work More? Work Less?
Change focus to a different niche?

Just throwing out a few short ideas...
but please share below, with a little more detail so we can all learn from each other.

(I'll kick it off by sharing mine in the next post)

 

[Linda Buquet]

My goals are pretty simple, but there are many small steps I don't need to spell out.

1) Improve health and energy because without that, at my age, I can't accomplish much.
So this one encompasses tons of smaller resolutions about eating better, more exercise, etc. etc.

2) Try to gradually build my hours back up a little by working on #1. I had to seriously cut back my 70 hour weeks in 2016 and could only work 1/2 time due to all my hand injuries. But my goal is to try to work smarter/more and build up a few more hours a week.

 

[HoosierBuff]

Good idea!

1).Automate and delegate: Get myself out of the weeds a bit more than I am today, and use my team to do more (and allow me to have more of a supervisory, assistance and approval mode) (reduce 'doing the work' time by 50%)

2). Add one new product that does 5% of revenue to my product line

3). Get better at linkbuilding (not sure how to measure this)

and while were at it:
- smile more
- work out
- eat more lunches from home, and fewer french fries and pizza

 

[Linda Buquet]

Those are really good ones AND exactly what I hoped you guys would share with each other!

THANKS!

Happy New Year! May all your goals be realized!

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Great post Linda!

In my role as Agency Operations Manager at Powered By Search I have many goals. But if I was to sum it up into one meaningful goal, it would be this:

"Agency Operations Runs Like a Well Oiled Machine"

There are several key results that I will be tracking to know if this goal is being hit. These key results will involve things such as:

- Systems creation and adoption
- Team Training
- Automation and/or consolidation of internal processes

On the personal goal side of the coin, I always work towards goals that have a positive impact on health, Family, and Career. Some for 2017 include:

- 1 to 2 blog posts per month (starting a personal blog)
- Compete in one Jiu-Jitsu tournament
- Train Jiu-Jitsu three times per week
- Complete four pro-bono Local SEO Audits for local businesses

Looking forward to seeing what others are planning for next year.

 

[Scott Rawlins]

For me, I need to be able to delegate more to other people without trying to do it all myself. This will free up some time so that I can actually have a life and be able to spend more time with my family. These kids are growing like weeds.

More personal goals than business goals I know, but I feel like work is taking up way to much of my time the last year or two.

 

[James Watt]

Great post Linda, something I've been thinking about too. My goal for 2017 is just to get better at organization and time management. I've got so many balls in the air right now, I'm finally getting my head above water again and my goal is for consistency. I want to go into every week with my days planned out, and come out the other side with hours going where I'd intended without getting pulled off to put out fires.

Financially I want to get stable enough to leave the country with my family if need be (my dad's a Canadian citizen, so I need to get that application in the works...) spend more time doing fun things with my partner and son, and (on a more selfish note) start working out again, and get my Russian up far enough to start my first Dostoevsky book.

Good luck with your jiu-jitsu Colan! My son's been loving Aikido, I've been thinking of starting that too to do with him, so maybe I'll be getting into a martial art this year as well...

 

[Myles Anderson]

Merry Christmas guys!

It always good to state your aims boldly & publicly so you have more pressure to achieve them rather than sweep them under the carpet!

Speaking for BrightLocal our aims this year are -

1. To be even more useful for local SEOs by building out our platform for Multi-Location reporting & integrating with 3rd reporting services (e.g. Call tracking, social-ad platforms)

2. To make BrightLocal more enjoyable to use by updating user interfaces & speeding up report processing

3. To become a true 'partner' to our customers by providing high quality support & advice on our tools and on local search tactics & trends

4. Re-start our InsideLocal webinar series & cover a fresh & relevant set of topics

5. Open up our dataset & research capabilities to enable customers/3rd parties to conduct high-scale research into trends around local search performance & optimization

There are a few more but if we can achieve these 5 i'll be a happy man in December 2017!

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Awesome Myles! Very exciting

 

[Videopete]

Linda

Thank you for the great group of people you have brought together and the content that is produced here.

Goals for 2017

1.Automate

2.Educate

3.Grow

 

[Linda Buquet]

Linda

Thank you for the great group of people you have brought together and the content that is produced here.

Thanks Pete, I owe it all to our team! AND our members like you!
Happy Holidays!

 

[BenFisher]

Sounds like everyone wants to automate, scale and get out of the trenches. Good for you! That is the only way to truly grow. It is a challenge for a service oriented business, but it can be done. Anyone wants some advice on those points hit me up, happy to share our experience.

My list in no particular order:

1. Continue building on our portal for partners
2. Refine our training process
3. Add new products to our service lineup
4. Find a web design company we can trust to refer clients to!
5. Get 6 more white-label partners for our G+ Social SEO service.
6. Keep going to the gym 5 days a week ;P

 

[MiriamEllis]

It's really fun reading this thread and seeing which way the wind is blowing for so many of you who consult with local businesses. In 2017, I hope to:

1) Increase the educational resources at Moz for local business owners and the agencies that serve them

2) Dig deeper into the facets of local search marketing campaigns, hopefully finding new, helpful angles to research and write about which have yet to be thoroughly explored.

3) Learn more about the concept of aspirational marketing and tying that to local businesses, serving the rising generation of customers who want to feel that the businesses they patronize are good companies that benefit their communities in terms of social justice, environmental justice or other desirable qualities.

Wishing you all a happy 2017 in which you meet all of your goals!

 

[mborgelt]

We've made a ton of improvements this year which has only increased my appetite for 2017, ironically. In 2017, we want to start spreading our wings into other areas of digital marketing like social media, marketing automation and acquisition automation.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I'm with Miriam. Loving reading everyone's aspirations for next year!

Thanks to all that have shared so far!

I'll try to keep this thread going with new replies straight through til next year.
So check back to see who else weighs in and what they have to say.