It’s January, and one thing is certain. Your emails and social feeds are filled with information and suggestions regarding goals.

It’s a new year, and it’s only natural to think about your hopes and plans for the year. We do it every year in the chamber world. Budgets are planned. Strategic plans are developed, tweaked, or dusted off. Events are scheduled. Programs are implemented. 

Goals are easy to make. Gyms across the county are filled at the beginning of January, but mid-February, the regulars find that the first of the year crush has dwindled to just them again. It’s the attaining them part that’s difficult.

Many sources will tell you that you are far more apt to reach a goal if you:

• make it specific
• make it measurable
• give it a time frame
• make sure it’s personal
• put it in writing

“I don’t focus on what I’m up against. I focus on my goals, and I ignore the rest,” said Venus Williams.

In your planning, do you set sponsorship goals?

How do you approach sponsorships? Is your only goal for them a budgetary goal? If so, you’re shortchanging yourself and your members. Sponsorships are about so much more than dollars, both for the chamber and your members, if you allow yourself to begin thinking of them in broader terms.

Consider some of the following ideas when creating your own sponsorship goals:

• How many new sponsors will you obtain this year?
• Will you seek a certain number of new sponsors per each of your programs, initiatives, and events (PIE)?
• What segment of your membership will you engage that never has sponsored?
• Are you going to have specific sponsorship goals per each PIE or collectively throughout your membership for the year?
• Will you enhance or develop sponsorship pricing based on supply and demand?

Be sure to set some goals that feel outlandish, unreasonable even. Aim high. Dream big. If you give yourself measurable steps, you may astound even yourself at what you can accomplish this year with your sponsorship goals.