Another January has come and gone, leaving in its wake many of our dreams that 2025 will be different than all those before it. What were your grand New Year’s resolutions for your company this year? Plans to get on top of your finances? Install new, streamlined processes? Get a handle on your marketing? Chances are, if you’re on the majority side of the statistics, those dreams were deserted weeks ago, or never even really pursued in the first place.

Did you know that January 10th, not even TWO WEEKS into each new year, has now officially been titled "National Quitters Day"? That’s right, it’s the day when most New Year’s resolutions are abandoned, if they even make it ten days in. Let’s be honest, people don’t have much resolve for change and self-improvement at all, but boy, we can dream big and overestimate the fire out of ourselves each year, can’t we?

Procrastination, bad habits that are much harder to break than starting new ones, and plain old busyness are our worst enemies. Whatever the reason, by February almost all New Year’s resolutions have failed.

So, why should this matter to you as a contractor? Because Quitters Day is more than a statistic. It should be a reminder to us that goals don’t achieve themselves, and good intentions alone never lead to real progress. The question is: are you still working toward your goals for 2025? Is it still on the “to-do list?” Or did your chance for new year’s change go up in smoke faster than the midnight fireworks that stirred up the neighborhood dogs?

Resolutions vs. Results

Every year, people vow to eat better, save money, or finally tackle that home improvement project. Similarly, businesses should be looking at their last year and making resolutions to improve as well:

  • "This is the year we’ll finally upgrade the website and our technology."
  • "We’re going to prioritize training and team building to retain qualified employees."
  • "We’re going to really push homeowners enrolling in our maintenance plan."

But just like our personal resolutions, these goals often lose steam when reality sets in. The hard truth is, life doesn’t stop in January, making plenty of time for you to pivot in new directions. The phones start ringing, daily emergencies happen, and suddenly all those good intentions are gathering dust in the back of your mind (probably next to that treadmill you swore you’d use).

Here’s the thing: the difference between resolutions and RESULTS boils down to two very simple words – COMMITMENT and ACCOUNTABILITY. Are you committed to making your goals happen, or are you just hoping they’ll happen on their own? Because, spoiler alert, HOPE isn’t a strategy. And secondly, who ELSE is committed to helping you get to where you want to be by holding you accountable? If you’re trying to change important things on your own, you reduce your chance of success significantly. Big dreams are almost never achieved flying solo.

We’re 1/12th of the way through 2025, and maybe nothing has happened just yet. But think about it this way: New Year’s Day is just a placeholder that has no more real significance than February 11th. If you’re serious about making improvements in your company this year, even if you got off to a slow start or haven’t started at all, it’s what you do FROM HERE that truly matters.

Here are a few very important marketing questions to ask yourself now:

1. Do you have a marketing plan? An important question to ask yourself in any area you want to improve, of course – “Do you have a PLAN to make that happen?” But for marketing to be most effective, it must be CONSISTENT with all facets working together in coordination to communicate well with your audience. And this can be super intimidating. So, many contractors never sit down to plan because they don’t know where to start, and end up just throwing out a postcard or email from time to time, hoping for the best. This leads to scrambling to “get something out,” long gaps between times your prospects hear from you at all, and something less than professional being put in front of them when they do. Others have “something” going on PPC, something on the website, something on Facebook… but all the pieces are disjointed, advertising different things, and in some cases working AGAINST each other. You desperately need a marketing plan for the year that puts you on a schedule and coordinates all your media types and marketing spend.

2. Are you neglecting your existing customers? Remember all those homeowners who loved your work last year and were raving fans? Yeah, if you haven’t communicated with them regularly, they’ve likely forgotten the name of your company. That’s a hard truth, but life moves on for people with busy schedules, and they’ll forget about you if you let them. One of the worst lies you can tell yourself each year is that you’re happy where you are and just want to keep the customer base you have, and think that takes no additional work. I promise you that if you don’t remind them frequently that YOU are their contractor, someone else will come along to convince them to look elsewhere. You need a customer retention program in place to lock down those valuable homeowners who you’ve serviced before, keeping them in the fold, happily referring friends.

3. What are your maintenance plan goals? You know maintenance plans are the bread and butter of long-term success, and they can help you survive the shoulder seasons. But are you actively promoting them – seriously – with a well thought-out and well-presented plan? Do your techs know how to sell the company as well as if it were their name on the sign instead of yours? Quit telling yourself homeowners aren’t interested. Make maintenance plans a priority and do the necessary work to give anyone presenting it confidence.

Big goals can feel overwhelming, but every one of them starts with the first step. You might think that first step is some major change, but in reality, the first step is simple and also the most important – YOU deciding that enough is enough, committing to the change that needs to be made. Then step two is bringing people in to help.

Call a staff meeting and open the floor for all to suggest solutions. You’ll be surprised by the ideas that are brought to the table. And people are much more invested in success if it’s a team effort and if they are a part of the solution. If you need marketing help in any of these areas, consider reaching out to us at Hudson Ink. You’ll be assigned a personal marketing coach to make yearly personalized marketing plans, keep you on track with the calendar and budget, and offer helpful strategy suggestions to get the most out of your marketing spend. Your coach can also make adjustments and tweaks to your plan throughout the year as needs and circumstances change. Either way, don’t go at it alone.

Every year, we tend to repeat the same cycle of BIG DREAMS followed by a pile of regret and missed opportunities. Remember, you can start fresh any day and change everything once you finally get motivated and choose to call in some help.

Let today be that day!

Reach out to me at (800) 489-9099 or email [email protected] to start the conversation toward change. Or, if you’re really serious about changing TODAY, submit your Marketing Assessment Plan (MAP) directly to a coach and set an appointment for a review of your information.