Do you spend so much time working in your business that you
never work on your business?
The corporate world knows the value of taking time out for
a step back, taking time to assess what is going right,
what is going wrong and what just plain isn’t going
anywhere. As a business owner (or as one who dreams of
owning a business), it is critical to take time out to plan
for the upcoming time period, be it a year, or even a
long-term goal. Otherwise, how can you get where you want
to be if you don’t know where that is? I usually plan two
business retreats per year:
~ One in late summer — it’s late enough in the current
year to have a good idea of how the year is progressing and
yet still have enough time to make changes if necessary.
~ One over the holidays just before New Year’s — this
saves me from also doing New Year’s resolutions. :-)
As part of my “New Year Retreat”, I pick one word around
which to focus the year. This makes it much easier to plan
the year and every choice, every decision is first weighed
against “the word”. If the outcome furthers my journey in
reaching the word, I do it. If it doesn’t, I don’t. Past
words have included “freedom” (from a corporate job that
sucked the life out of me), “stability” (financial,
emotional, new business) and even “romance” (and now I have
my darling hubby).
I centered my word for 2007 on some poster board, cut out
pictures of what it represents to me and hung it up in my
office. I’m now ready to build my plan.
I take a few critical tools and go somewhere alone for a
few days (or lock myself away in the house) where I can sit
and reflect on my business as a business, its successes and
opportunities. In order to have a successful business
retreat:
1. Bring your financial records…in whatever form they
exist. I use QuickBooks to track my finances – it allows me
to track my income and expenses by any number of categories
and dates. With the click of a few buttons, I can tell when
my peak times of year are, what products and services bring
in the most income (and how that changes seasonally) and
what my expenses are.
I used to figure out how much money I had (or would have
based on an estimate) and then what to do with it. No
longer. I now use the technique found in “How to Make
Money as a Service Professional” to figure my billable time.
If your financial records are a mess, now is the time to
straighten them out. If you can’t do it yourself, get help,
this is one area that you can’t skip! You need to know
where you are now in order to effectively plan for the
future. If you need assistance, check out the article on
my blog on “How to Hire a Bookkeeper”.
2. Bring a calendar. Personally, I use a large
write-on/wipe off wall calendar so I can see the whole year
at a glance. This allows me to easily see what I’ve
planned. I also use colored stickers to label different
types of days: profit generating, business building,
vacation and holidays. This allows me to know what’s
planned on any given day. It’s not easy…it takes time and
effort to know where I want to be 12 months from now, so I
start with some basics.
* Holidays…I take the major ones off.
* Vacations…I am planning several long spa/yoga weekends
and at least one week away with my hubby.
* Business Building…I’m meeting with my Mastermind group
in Los Angeles in February and attending a Dan Kennedy
seminar in October. There are a couple of other conferences
I’m toying with and they will be tentatively marked on the
calendar.
* Profit generating…these are the days that I’m working
on activities that make money for my business: client
coaching, online business management, etc.
3. Bring all those scraps of paper or notebook in which you
wrote down ideas for your business and things that you want
to do. Record them in one central place; I call mine my
“Dream Notebook” – it’s actually a sketching notebook with
a gorgeous picture of the beach on the front cover. If you
have a laptop, bring it. . .otherwise a notebook and
calculator will do just fine. Use this list as the starting
point of where you want to go, what you want to do and,
equally important, what you don’t want to do in the
upcoming year.
4. Break it down into small segments…after determining
where I want my business to go over the next year (month,
quarter, etc.), I break down the larger goals into
quarterly objectives and then into monthly objectives, etc.
This takes the “big picture” and makes it more manageable
as I can get my arm around quarterly and monthly (and then
weekly) objectives much easier than I can the entire year,
and it won’t seem as daunting if you plan to take smaller
steps toward a larger goal.
5. Relax and remember that you started your own business to
do what you love, to focus on those things that bring you
joy and also…to make money to allow you to continue to do
the things you enjoy. Keep this in mind as you plan and
remember to plan some time for yourself away from the
business – we all need this to keep things fresh and
exciting!
It is critical that you take the time to plan what you want
your business to be like. You don’t need to do something
just because “you always do it” or because “you’re good at
it” – focus on those things that you enjoy doing!
You’ll be much happier and productive – after all, you
didn’t go into business for yourself to feel pressured or
dislike what you’re doing!
—————————————————-
Online Business Coach & Entrepreneur, Sandra Martini
teaches small business owners how to create more success in
their business while maintaining their sanity and having
fun. Sandra’s coaching programs are available via
teleconferencing, emails and telephone calls. For more
information and to receive the FREE special report, “7
Wealth-Building Secrets of Successful Entrepreneursâ€, go to
http://www.Online-Biz-Coach.com .
Comments on this entry are closed.