6 Mid-Year Check In Tips for Process Servers
- July 09, 2012
- by ServeNow Staff
- Business Tips
- Marketing
The halfway point through 2012 is almost here. With less than a month left until July 2nd, now is the time to look back and reassess the goals you set for your process serving agency this year. In late January, ServeNow published some tips on how to grow your process serving business in 2012. Hopefully, that article helped you outline some goals and strategies that you wanted to try out this year, and to help you determine how dedicated you’ve remained to these goals, we’ve put together a mid-year check-in list.
Here are 6 mid-year check-ins every process server should conduct:
- Mid-Year Check In #1: Your Business Resolutions:
With Grow Your Process Serving Business in 2012, process servers were given an outline of reasonable goals to focus on that can be achieved within this calendar year. With July 2nd quickly approaching, it’s time to revisit those resolutions one by one and see how well you’ve stayed committed to those changes. It is normal to have had success with some goals and to have struggled with others or even to find out you have been overly ambitious. Make sure to give yourself the credit you deserve for resolutions kept and start thinking about how you can recommit to goals you have not been on track to meet by the end of the year. - Mid-Year Check In #2: Your Goals:
Part of your 2012 resolutions for your process serving company should have included goals for increasing revenue, gaining exposure and networking. You may discover that you set more goals than you can reasonably achieve or even that your goals were too far-reaching. Take the time to determine which goals you have met, which you have not and which resolutions you can still achieve by the year’s end. - Mid-Year Check In #3: Your Revenue:
By comparing your short term and long term revenue goals with what income your company has generated, you should be able to predict where you will be six months from now. Hopefully, your revenue is on the rise or staying steady. If you’re looking for ways to increase your revenue, conduct your mid-year revenue check-in in conjunction with your mid-year marketing plan. This way you can set quarterly or bi-annual revenue goals based on which marketing strategies have been most effective. - Mid-Year Check In #4: Your Marketing Plan:
By setting revenue goals and determining which marketing strategies are working, you should be able to tell what has been most effective. Your mid-year marketing plan check-in should reveal places where you can cut costs and places where your money should be re-invested into the marketing plan. If some of your strategies are not working, try starting a new campaign to ensure your company is moving forward. As part of our tips for growing your process serving company in 2012, we recommended that process servers focus on local search marketing. This is a great time to check your ranking and review how it’s changed. If it hasn’t moved at all, research new ways you can help that ranking rise. - Mid-Year Check In #5: Your Employees:
It’s a good idea to sit down with your employees and identify achievements, address any problems and award any mid-year bonuses or praise. Take this opportunity to offer constructive criticism and acknowledge praise where it is deserved. As you discuss the role your employees play in your business, make sure and give them a chance to offer their opinion on your role and ask them for advice. Allowing your employees to give feedback on your management style and on how to achieve goals will help all of your staff members feel more appreciated. - Mid-Year Check In #6: Associations and Networking:
If you set out to join state and national associations to increase your network, take July 2nd as a time to see how far you have come. If you have joined your local association, look into joining a national one so you can increase your network to an even greater area. This should help you create a system where you can refer serves that are out of your area to others and they can do the same for you. If you were able to attend NAPPS, consider that a great achievement. It’s always great to attend conferences in your area- check out this list of events to attend in 2012.
Once you have finished your mid-year check-ins, it’s important to take some time to reevaluate your strategies and determine what changes need to be made so you can meet your year-end goals. For example, if your goal was to increase internet exposure but you have not gotten any new leads based off of advertising, try joining trusted networks and focusing on local search marketing. After your mid-year check-ins are complete, you should have a clear picture of where your process serving company stands, what successes you had to get to this point and what you could have done to make things even better.
With this information collected, it's time to:
- Identify Problems:
Be sure to attend to unforeseen issues and other problems that have developed over the past six months. This means reformatting your budget to account for unplanned expenses and making sure your business is adapting to new legislation that affects your industry.
- Reassess Goals:
Many process servers will find that their expectations for 2012 were either too high or too low. If you have determined that all of the goals you set in January cannot be accomplished by the end of the year, choose some to focus on and push the rest off until next year. On the same note, do whatever you can to take little steps in achieving these now long-term goals. If you have accomplished all you set out to do in 2012, set new short-term goals that you and your company can meet in six months or less.
- Enact Plan B, C, D, E...:
It’s important to have backup plans in case your original strategy does not produce the results you were looking for. If your local search marketing plans are not working, think of other ways your process serving business can move up in the local search rankings. Running a business means always refining strategies, plans, and goals in order to keep things working in the most efficient way possible. Make sure you are continually developing new plans and staying in the know about new products so your business can keep growing.
July 2nd is less than a month away. Now it the time to start collecting information about your process serving company and begin conducting your mid-year check-ins. Committing time to finding problem areas, redoing business strategies and celebrating major achievements will help you stay on the path to meet your goals for 2012. Take this time to reset yourself and make sure you are staying focused on the goals most important for your business.
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