We’ve spent the past 3 weeks walking step-by-step through setting ambitious (but achievable) goals, creating milestones to check our progress along the way, planning projects for hitting each milestone as well as weekly tasks to accomplish those projects.
By breaking down our big, lofty yearly goal into these ever-smaller bite sized pieces, we turn a big, scary journey through the year into easily digestible weekly tasks. (Holy mixed metaphors, Batman!).
The beauty of a goal setting and planning process (👈 seriously, click that one…) like this is, once it’s set up, all you have to do is… well… the next thing on your list. It takes our focus off of the top of the mountain and, instead, allows us to focus on just the next step.
But maybe you found yourself stuck this month trying to figure out what should go into those monthly projects or weekly tasks. Let’s take some time today to look at a few examples to give you a bit of inspiration for your own plans for 2024.
(To keep this email from being a massive wall of text that scares everyone away For the sake of brevity, I’ve only given a SMART Goal, 4 Quarterly Checkpoints, 3 Monthly Projects and 1 months’ worth of tasks for each example below).
Feel free to outright steal any of these, there’s no gatekeeping here.
Example 1: Double Wedding Bookings
SMART Goal:
“I’m going to double my 2023 wedding photography bookings (from 6 to 12) by December 31st, 2024.”
Quarterly Checkpoints:
- Q1: 2 wedding bookings.
- Q2: 3 wedding bookings.
- Q3: 3 wedding bookings.
- Q4: 4 wedding bookings.
Monthly Projects for Q1:
- January: Start running Facebook/IG ads for wedding bookings.
- February: Network with wedding planners and venues.
- March: Offer limited-time promotions for wedding packages.
Weekly Tasks for January:
- Week 1: Research current Facebook and Instagram ads best practices.
- Week 2: Design and launch the first set of online ads.
- Week 3: Monitor ad performance and adjust strategies.
- Week 4: Analyze ad results and schedule weekly checkins moving forward.
Note: In reality, if I were coaching this photographer 👆I’d want to know what the end goal was for doubling bookings. If it’s to simply double revenue, then I’d encourage that photographer to consider increasing bookings while simultaneously increasing their profit per wedding. That way, they’d be able to hit their goal of double revenue, without having to work twice as much.
Example 2: Boosting Print Sales
SMART Goal:
“Hit $50k in post-session print sales by the end of 2024.”
Quarterly Checkpoints:
- Q1: $5,000 in prints sold.
- Q2: $10,000 in prints sold.
- Q3: $15,000 in prints sold.
- Q4: $20,000 in prints sold.
Monthly Projects for Q1:
- January: Learn and launch a Virtual In-Person Sales process (yes, that was a blatant and shameless plug. Don’t worry, there are about to be more…).
- February: Test and refine my process with past clients who purchased digital files only.
- March: Optimize my product offerings and prices to achieve my target sales average.
Weekly Tasks for January:
- Week 1: Learn the AEDD Framework for In-Person Sales.
- Week 2: Create the necessary assets needed for transitioning to Virtual IPS.
- Week 3: Practice virtual sales strategies with an accountability partner. Plus-Delta all the things!
- Week 4: Optimize my website to better attract my ideal print-loving client.
Example 3: Increasing Website Traffic
SMART Goal:
“Triple my average monthly website traffic by December 31st, 2024.”
Quarterly Checkpoints:
- Q1: Achieve a 50% increase in monthly website traffic.
- Q2: Reach a 100% increase (double) in website traffic.
- Q3: Attain a 200% increase in website traffic.
- Q4: Triple the monthly website traffic from the start of the year.
Monthly Projects for Q1:
- January: Optimize on-site SEO.
- February: Create evergreen content assets to rank for target keywords.
- March: Increase inbound links through collaborations with vendors.
Weekly Tasks for January:
- Week 1: Perform an SEO audit of the website.
- Week 2: Do keyword, content pillar and competitor research.
- Week 3: Optimize all H1 headings, OG tags, titles, and image ALT tags.
- Week 4: Create a content plan to rank for target keywords within each content pillar.
So… there you go. You have all the tools you need to be able to create a solid and achievable plan for dramatically improving your photography business in the coming year.
Now all that’s left is to actually do it.
Let’s give you some incentive…
The first person to send me the following will earn a free year of Swift Galleries.
- Your SMART Goal for the year
- Your 4 Quarterly checkpoints
- Your first 3 monthly projects
- Your first month of tasks
Ready? Set…. GO!
