Unlocking the mid-year magic: How to stay ahead of the competition and reignite your goals

The magic of the New Year is so thrilling! You’re given a blank slate with endless opportunities for establishing new goals and finding new dreams to chase, all of which will set you apart from competitors. But by the middle of the year, you may find yourself floating along in your regular routine and wondering, “How can I bring the magic back?” We challenge you to use this time to get ahead of the competition by revisiting your needs, realigning your goals and creating a plan to make it happen.  

At Pierce PR, we put action behind every intention. We know how easy it can be to get lost in the day-to-day operations, so we’ve placed accountability checkpoints along the way because we have big dreams for both our clients and our company. Below are some tips from our Director of Operations, Sarah Mickle, on how to do the same for your company.

Review all of your contracts

Take a few minutes to review all of your contracts, both with your clients and third-party vendors. Do you have all important dates and reminders on your calendar? This should include renewal dates, check-ins, birthdays or any other important events.

Are all contracts being honored appropriately? It’s essential to verify that your third-party vendors are accurately providing all promised services. On the flip side, it would be wise to ensure you are meeting (or surpassing) expectations agreed upon when clients signed on with your company. If there’s room for improvement, it’s best to use this time for realigning with the promised scope before asking them about renewal. 

Speaking of client renewals, this is also a great time to explore the potential of increasing your scope when they renew. You can achieve this by reviewing their goals and resources with a fresh set of eyes and thinking of unique ways that your company can help accomplish those goals and maximize their investment.

Review contact lists and other internal documentation

There have been many times when a client has shared new information with me, such as requesting a new contact be added to invoices or announcing the start of a new payment process. These intricacies automatically get stored in my head, but how would anyone else on our team know? 

At Pierce PR, we make it a priority to document every process in place within our company. Not only does this make it easier for new hires to catch on to internal methods, but it also keeps us from having to reinvent the wheel.

To help with this process, I like to take some time to review all of these lists and documents through the lens of a new hire. Have titles changed? Has the client moved? Is that an old contact? Is that documented process still how we do things? Oftentimes I find a few things to tweak, which saves me time – and potential confusion – at year-end.

Review the status of company goals that were set

One of my favorite features about Pierce PR (and there are thousands!), is that we meet quarterly as a team to review the status of past goals and set new goals for the future. This includes our financials, potential changes to our processes, attempting something new together as a team and creative ways we can enhance the client experience. Additionally, our leadership team meets with each team member to review the same subjects on an individual level. This is one of the ways we honor our commitment to growth core value.

However, setting new goals is about as effective as riding a bike in a mud pit if we don’t take the action needed to reach them. Once a month, I review my notes from each check-in and send the team reminders and deadlines about action items. Perhaps they wanted to write for a new client industry or apply for a local leadership group. Whatever the dream may be, I make sure steps are being taken in the right direction.

Mid-year tasks are definitely the unsung heroes. They lack the pizzazz of New Year possibilities and the stress from end-of-year crunch time; but, they can be your secret weapon to increase growth and success in the long run. 

Sarah Mickle is the Director of Operations at Pierce Public Relations