Are you the kind of person who sets resolutions each year?
I am, from something as simple as choosing a guiding phrase for the year (2009: “Listen more, talk less”) or as elaborate as building a twelve month happiness project (2014). Whether I ultimately stick to my resolutions or not, I gain a lot of clarity from the process of looking ahead, of sifting through my priorities and attempting to distill down all my big, bubbling ideas for the future into just a few strong goals.
For example, one of my 2014 resolutions is to find more adventures in my own back yard. (Gee, I think organizing my friends for a food truck crawl will qualify nicely.)
What will you focus on for 2014?
Resolutions aren’t just for your personal life, and as a small business owner, there’s often very little separation between your business and your personal life—all the more reason why you need to spend some time planning ahead. If you’re not sure where to get started, I’d recommend Chris Guillebeau’s Annual Review framework. It’s simple enough to be easy, but it asks the right questions to guide you into digging deep. We’ve talked about Chris and his business acumen on the blog before.
How do your fans fit into the process?
I’d like to throw down a challenge: once you set your business resolutions for the new year, share at least one of them with your fans. Post it on your Facebook page or include it in your next email to your mailing list.
Why? It’s one more opportunity for you to share the story of your business, to build a deeper connection with the folks who keep your business running. While the reasons you started your truck are a fascinating point of connection with your audience, the why and how that keep you going are equally compelling. As a food truck fan, I love these little glimpses into the driver’s seat.
And you never know who’s listening. The help you need—the catering partner, the reliable truck mechanic, the festival promoter—may be in your audience already.
Give it a try, and feel free to share your goals or a link to your Facebook post in the comments.
#FoodTruckFan posts are by Mindy Holahan.
Image by MattBenson.
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About the Author
Mindy Holahan is a staff writer and the #FoodTruckFan columnist. Indeed, she’s a big ole fan of food trucks, particularly if they sell fish tacos. She has a background in the hospitality industry, loves working with writers, and gets positively giddy about the intersection between cooking and science. Follow her on Twitter @HolaMindy for daily bouts of enthusiasm or on Instagram @HolaMindy for her adventures and epic failures in gluten-free baking.