It’s hard to believe that a new year is almost upon us. Since launching our series of new public websites in early September, we’ve published some great content from an amazing crew of talented and thought-provoking writers.
Please enjoy this recap of our most popular articles on the Actionable Consultants website in 2016, all focused on helping you create new growth in your business.
Building a Sustainable Business
By Louise Davis
When you ask consultants and coaches, “what does sustainable mean to you?” the answers are varied. It could be consistent cash flow (monthly), number of client facing days per year, new clients, business growth, annual revenue, moving from front of room to strategic advisor, just to name a few. So what does having a sustainable consulting business mean? It’s not the what, but more the how—the regular process of stopping, reflecting, and planning is key. How can you have greater certainty in an uncertain environment? Essentially, it’s having a long-term plan and the flexibility to adapt your business model to a changing marketplace.
How To Grow Your Business? Ask Yourself Some Difficult Questions
By Shawn Shepheard
Actionable Consulting Partner Shawn Shepheard shares the tough questions he recently asked himself, and the tactics he used to embrace the answers he heard. What do you want? What do your clients want? How will you move forward when you know the answers to those questions? Often, the person who is responsible for holding us back is ourselves. If growing your business is a priority for 2017, it’s time to have a serious talk with yourself, and then commit to taking action.
What to Read to Drive Business Growth
By Andy Budgell
We know growth can be a challenge for small business owners. We’ve curated a few recent book summaries from Actionablebooks.com that contain simple and effective tools to help you drive business growth. Check out these summaries to help you prime your leadership skills for growth, improve your goal setting, and embrace innovation in your business.
The Shifting Learning Landscape — The Need for Learning ROI
By Chris Taylor
The past ten years have seen a rapid shift in the learning industry. Clients are increasingly focused on analytics and ROI, not just in learning but across the enterprise. There’s a global shift happening in L&D, from measuring learning impact qualitatively and making assumptions about impact, to a demand for tangible, quantifiably measurable results that have a direct impact on key business metrics. By shifting your practice along with the changes in the industry, you can increase your relevance in the marketplace, increase sales, and make a measurable difference for your clients.
Annual Planning — Actionable Style
By Sara Saddington
The end of the year is a great time to pause, reflect, and plan for the year ahead. Client work slows down to make time for holiday parties, and meetings start to get pushed into January. We have developed a worksheet resource to help you plan to make 2017 your best year yet. Based on Actionable founder Chris Taylor’s long-standing process for mapping out the year ahead, this worksheet will help you reflect, visualize, and plan to meet your upcoming goals and milestones. We’ve also created a series of tutorial videos to help you make the most of your planning—sign up for our Consultant Monthly Review, and access the videos online.
As you move into the new year, take time to pause and reflect on where you’ve come from, and where you’d like to go.
From the Actionable Team, we wish you a happy, restful and re-energizing holiday season. Here’s to your continued success in 2017! And wait until you see what we have in store for you next year, including new articles, infographics, videos, worksheets, and other resources to help you stay on top of industry trends and scale your business in 2017.
Author
