Beginning a new year brings excitement for what’s to come. Ideas for innovations in business are often plentiful in the first few weeks of the year, but sometimes our best intentions are forgotten or all too often moved to the back burner in favor of the long list of daily to-dos that steal our attention. Here, I focus on tips for helping you create a calendar for 2022 to best balance your current commitments and grow your business for the best year yet!

TRENDING VIDEO ➤ JOIN SHEENA ON SOCIAL.

This year, the EB Optical Checklist is breaking out of each issue with a monthly digital episode to our social channels. Join optical pro Sheena Taff as she applies these checklist items to real-world scenarios.

Follow along with the #EBOpticalChecklist.

 

 

 

WEEK 1: CREATE A CALENDAR.

Coordinate and book each team member’s time and tasks in one place. Allowing everyone else to see commitments helps your practice run plays like a winning team.

□ Set up a collaborative calendar for your practice (Google and Airtable are great free options) that is shared with the team. Color-coding each employee lets them create their own reminders and allows for easy delegation.

□ Add important dates for 2022 to the calendar, including holidays, trade shows, staff birthdays, tax deadlines, and important inventory and sales days.

□ Have employees confirm or update availability. Collect any advance time-off request forms.

□ Add any holiday blackout days to the team calendar. This will ensure staff members can see available times for vacation requests in advance.

WEEK 2: TAKE TIME FOR YOUR TEAM.

Utilizing your team’s ideas builds job satisfaction and shows employees that they are valuable to your business. Listen to fresh ideas for approaching mundane tasks.

□ Get staff engaged in goal setting by having employees complete self-assessments.

□ Hold brainstorming sessions, one with the whole team and another with the management team. Take note of ideas for the upcoming year.

□ Review 2021 sales to identify trends. Create 2022 sales goals that match your business’s growth expectations. Break down goals by quarter, month, week, or day—whichever suits your business size and style.

□ New year, new attitude. If you see staff conflicts or feel complacency is creeping in, now’s the time to put team members on the right path.

WEEK 3: SPRUCE IT UP.

A new look doesn’t have to be pricy. Rearranging frames refreshes what may have become stale stock and encourages visitors to reacquaint themselves with a potential lost gem.

□ Take down holiday decorations, dust shelves and frame displays, clean mirrors and windows, sweep, and vacuum.

□ Rearrange eyeglasses on frame boards for a new look without buying any new product. Try arranging frames by style or grouping petite and extra-large sizes together.

□ Reach out to vendors for new POP. This can be banners, window clings, countertop cards, and displays.

□ Keep up the cheerful vibe by creating a new window display. Make it colorful and eye-catching, including new banners and product images.

WEEK 4: STRUCTURE SOCIAL CONTENT.

Social media shouldn’t always be sales oriented. Offering your expertise through educational posts or fun facts is a great way to grow your audience and keep followers engaged.

□ Keep social media posts uplifting and educational. Selling knowledge will set you apart and show your patients value.

□ Review your website. Ensure inventory is up to date. Remove sold or discontinued products or services.

□ Update staff bios on your website to include new employment milestones, accomplishments, or additional educational achievements.

□ Review your Google, social media, and advertising analytics and insights to identity the best avenues to budget your marketing dollars for 2022.