EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

Why You Shouldn’t Leave Your Business Planning Until January!

 

Are you ready to have your best year yet in 2022? One thing I have noticed that separates successful entrepreneurs from everyone else is that they perform way better because they have built a clear plan of action to lay out the way ahead. And businesses generally perform better when they have a plan laid out.

 

Now, I see a lot of business owners working through December spinning plates and focusing on selling (which selling, in itself, isn’t a bad thing) but they have this mindset where they’ll delay until the new year to work on their 2022 business plans because they’ve got this ‘New Year - Fresh Start’ kind of mindset.

And what I tend to find is, that when we leave our business planning until the New Year its highly likely you’ll get up on your first working day of January and not know what the hell you’re doing, and you risk falling into faffing, disorganisation and procrastinating on where on earth you’re supposed to be heading.

And we see this behaviour with the New Year gym membership mindset, you might sign up in early January at the gym with all good intentions, but by February you’re back to square one.

And that’s why I start my planning in a slow and steady way in November, because it’s not too taxing and I can take my time over it, but I know that when I’m finished with my business planning, I will start my first day back at work in January knowing exactly:

• How hard I want to work.
• The revenue I want to make.
• Who I’m serving,
• How I serve them in my offerings, and
• What I’m going to be talking to my audience about.

And this way, by doing the planning work at a slower and steadier pace, I know I’m setting myself up for success and I can plan my time and efforts in 2022 in such a way that I’m going to feel energised, motivated and I’m not going to crash and burn come February!

And like I said, if you’re listening to this right now in December, then it’s not too late to get some time in your diary to work through the pointers I’m going to take you through.

 

And in all the years I’ve been running my own businesses and consulting for others, and for large corporates, one thing is always evident…we’re all working through these simple steps in one way or another, because, as the saying goes ‘fail to plan, plan to fail’

 

So, the steps I’ve created are designed to help you discover more of what you want from your business (and your life) and then make that happen.

 

STEP ONE – Look Back Over The Last 12 Months

 

The first thing I want you to do is take a look back at how things have gone for you in 2021. Now I took a deep-dive into the look back exercise in episode 16 of the podcast, so if you need a deeper dive, then check out Episode 16.

 

In my own business, holding annual look-backs has helped me to not just to plan ahead, but it’s helped me to push me forward into new growth, and to target new opportunities.

 

And the reason it’s so good to take a look back, is because if you’re cognisant of what’s happening in your business and what’s happening in your marketplace, you can make changes proactively so that you’re improving month-on-month, and year-on-year.

 

So, as part of your look back into 2021, I want you to reflect on and write down a few things:

• Your wins and your successes
• And then collate all your testimonials into one place where you can see them.
• And then I want you to ask yourself a few things:
  • What worked well in your business in 2021?
  • What could have been better for you? 
  • Is there anything you need to start doing that you haven’t been doing, or perhaps you’re not doing consistently?
  • And lastly, is there anything you need to stop doing?

So, reflect on all those things and write them down somewhere. And what you want to do here is to continue to capitalise on what’s working and stop or change what isn’t working so well.

 

And if you do need a little more direction and pointers on each of those things, then do head on over to Episode 016, as I’ve gone into the look back exercise in much more detail in that episode.

 

One thing that’s boosted my business in 2021 is simplification of everything back to one thing. One social media channel, one core offering, one ideal paying client so I’m going to continue to capitalise on that in 2022 and double down on mastering those ‘one things’ until I’m 100% certain I’ve nailed them before I add more things into my business.

 

My revenue increased by 50% last year just by doing less!

 

STEP TWO - How Will You Spend Your Time in 2022?  

 

We’re going to talk about time now. And I want you to think about how much time do you want to spend working in and on your business in 2022?

 

And I want you to try and avoid things like the employee mindset of having to work a 40hour Monday to Friday week in your business. And that usually happens when people have spent years in employment, they start businesses and they embed exactly the same employee mindset into their own business.

 

How much time do you want to spend working next year?

 

I’m going to work 3 days a week next year so I can spend some more time on other projects.

 

So, think about how you want your business to support you and for how many days a week, and for how many hours a day.

 

And this is going to be really important for you because of the next step, which is setting your revenue targets for 2022.

 

STEP THREE – Your Revenue Target For 2022

 

And here I usually set my revenue target for the year ahead (or you can do this for the next 6months if you prefer). And what this will do is help you to nicely set targets around how much you’ll need to sell every quarter, every month or every week and for how many clients you’ll ultimately need.

 

So, I know I want to work 3 days a week in 2022, and my target revenue is a million. So that gives me an idea of how many clients I will need to serve to make my target.

 

And that’s a conservative target that I’ve set for myself for next year because energetically, I’ve had quite a busy year in 2021, so I’m not going to kick back and relax next year, but I do want to spend more time preserving my energies so, I’ve set myself a lower target (which I feel really good about)

 

I have a fantastic free ready reckoner tool, where you punch in how many weeks you want to work in the year, and then you enter your revenue target, and the tool will automatically calculate your options around sales volume, pricing and the optimum audience size you’ll need in order to achieve your own revenue target.

 

I find using a tool like this takes a lot of the headache away from setting financial targets, especially if you have a very simple online business model.

 

So set your financial target, and don’t forget to dream big here, so don’t think in terms of what you NEED to cover your expenses, but what do you WANT to achieve in terms of your revenue?

 

If you’d like to grab your own copy of my free calculator, I’ll leave the link to that with this episode.

 

OK, so let’s recap.

• By now, you’ll have a view of the things that worked well that you’re going to carry forward into 2022, from 2021.
• You'll know how many hours or weeks you want to work in 2022, and
• You’ll have just set your revenue targets.

 

So now it’s time to set yourself some goals to aim for!

 

STEP FOUR – Setting New Goals

 

And what you’re going to do now is set yourself some goals and I recommend setting goals that focus you just on your next 6 months ahead. You don’t really want to set goals that stretch too far into the future, as the secret here is to focus on having a strong start to your year ahead in 2022.

 

Now, I always recommend setting 3 simple goals; no more than this, as you want to work smart and you don’t want to overwhelm yourself!

 

I’m not going to talk about how to set goals but, if setting goals is new to you, or you need a refresher on how to do that, then I have a great deep dive video on how to set goals that you can actually achieve!

 

I’ll leave the link to that video for you. 

 

STEP FIVE – Are You Serving The Right Paying Clients?

 

The next thing you’re going to do is revisit your ideal paying client when you’re thinking about moving into a new year, and asking yourself if your current paying clients, and your audience are the right clients to take you and your business to where you want to be?

 

So, think about the goals you set in the previous step, and the revenue target you want to hit. Can your paying clients help you to achieve your new revenue target, or the new goals that you’ve just set?

 

And if your revenue targets are significantly higher than they were say for last year, then think about what it is that needs to change in your client base and the way you find, attract, and serve your clients?

 

Perhaps you need to win more clients to hit your target, or you need to sell more, or perhaps you need to revisit your pricing?

 

So, think about these things.

 

And when you’re targeting the right paying clients, you will reach your goals much faster!

 

Ok, so before we move on into the next step, I want you to think about your core values and your clients, and especially if you’ve pinpointed any variations in your ideal paying clients that you want to attract to help you hit your 2022 goals.

 

I want you to ask yourself if your current business values still align to the direction you are building for the year ahead, and to your goals and to the clients you want to serve?

 

And if they don’t align, what are you going to do to bring those things into alignment?

 

So, can you see as you’re progressing through these steps, you’re starting to layer all these powerful things one on top of the other to strengthen your business and set your direction?  

 

Each step I’m taking you through builds on the previous one!

 

Ok, you’re going to focus on your current offerings now.

 

STEP SIX – Revisit Your Offerings

 

And I want you to apply the same lenses to your offerings as in the ‘look back’ in Step One.

 

So, ask yourself:

• Where did your offerings succeed last year? Where are they strong?
• What are people saying about your offerings in their feedback?
• And then I want you to ask yourself further questions:
  • What worked well in your offerings in 2021?
  • What could have worked better? 
  • Is there anything you need to start doing that you haven’t been doing, or perhaps not doing consistently in your offerings?
  • And lastly, is there anything you need to stop doing in your offerings?

And I want you to think about whether your offerings still align with your refreshed goals and your ideal paying clients that you are going to focus on in 2022?

 

And if there’s a mismatch somewhere, what is it that you need to do to align those things?  

 

Alright, let’s move on.

 

So, you now have clarity around:

• What you’re going to carry forward into 2022,
• You know how many hours or weeks you want to work in 2022, and
• You’ve just set your revenue targets and your goals.
• You’ve also revisited your ideal paying client and
• You’ve refreshed your offerings

So, now it’s time to make sure your content is aligned to all these things, and is going to hit the mark with your audience!

 

STEP SEVEN – What Are You Going To Talk About Next Year?

 

Now it makes sense at this stage to take a look at your marketing strategy and decide your content pillars and start outlining your content calendar for the next 3-6 months.

 

If you’re not sure what content pillars are, then, content pillars are basically a set of themes, categories or topics that your business uses to create content for your audience.

 

There’s lots of YouTube videos out there on how to use content pillars, but one of the mistakes I made this year was going onto YouTube, and learning from free content, and just using someone else’s content pillars.

 

And I hadn’t quite realised how powerful content pillars are for supporting you to deliver targeted content to an audience, and I hadn’t fully appreciated that.

 

An influencer on YouTube had created a video saying ‘take my content pillars and use them in your own business’ so that was exactly what I did, without fully understanding how they would impact how I would deliver my own messaging.

 

For 2022, I have decided to focus on the clients transformation, and my new content pillars are going to be very much focused on my clients’ transformational journey and how I am personally transforming their lives.

 

And I’ve asked myself (and I suggest you do something similar too) what is the transformation that your audience are looking for?

 

Now I know my audience and my clients are looking to scale a business which ultimately gives them FREEDOM, it also gives them TIME back because they’re using smart ways of working, and it’s going to give them increased REVENUE. I also know my clients want to become the ‘go to’ person and they want to be their own CLIENTS FAVOURITE.

 

So those things have given me my content pillars for 2022, because that’s how I work with my clients to transform their lives.

 

So those content pillars for me are:

• Time
• Wealth
• Freedom
• And becoming your Clients' Favourite

And I’m going to challenge myself in 2022 that all my content should clearly fall into these content pillar categories. Otherwise, if it doesn’t, it could water-down the transformation I’m trying to get across in my social media content, and in my subscriber emails and in my copywriting in general.

 

So, I want you to start high-level, so define your content pillars first and then outline what you want to say to your audience over the next 6months at least.

 

Okay, we’re almost finished! The last thing I want to talk about is

 

STEP EIGHT - Slaying Your 1^st DAY BACK at Work, and Nailing January

 

And the goal here is to get you mentally through your first day and your first 2 weeks back at work because after the excess of Xmas, you'll need something to get you out of bed and into a working mindset!

 

I know I always need this! I have the type of personality where if I take too long away from work, I have the devils-own job of trying to get focused and motivated, so this really helps me!

 

I like to call it my Blues Beater!

 

So, if you don’t have a clear view of what you're doing on Jan 3^rd (or whenever your first day back at work is), you're basically going to run the likelihood of faffing or diluting your focus on low priority stuff.

 

And this is how you create your own January Blues Beater for your first day back, and it’s really simple.

 

I want you to think about your first day and exactly how you’d like it to unfold. And give yourself permission to do anything on your first day back. It doesn’t even have to be that productive.

 

The point here is to ease your mindset back into working.

 

Here’s what to do for Day 1:

 

• Write down exactly what you’ll be doing on January 3^rd, hour by hour (to crush procrastination!)
• Plan 1 win for the first day to boost your mojo
• Plan in rewards into your first day, and really celebrate getting through that first day.

 

And for Week 1:

 

Then, do exactly the same thing for getting through week 1.

Celebrate crushing your first week back with a really nice treat

 

My first day is going to look like this:

1. A cup of tea and reading emails in bed (I never do any of this, because I’m very structured in the way I work, so I’m really looking forward to my first day back and this is going to be a nice lazy treat!)
2. Watch TV whilst catching up on social media.
3. Go for an hour's walk in my local woodland.
4. Email check-in with my 121 clients.
5. Take a break and enjoy an Amaretto Coffee, and post on Instagram.
6. Check in on my action plan for January to refresh my memory.
7. Break for lunch.
8. Check emails and finish work early.
9. And then, it’s time to Netflix and chill.

So, do you see what I’m doing here? I’m gradually re-introducing activities to my first day back at work, so it’s not a short sharp shock of having to return to a very structured way of working after a break.

 

And then, with that daily structure, do exactly the same for each day in your 1^st WEEK BACK and you’ll gradually wean yourself into the routine that you want to set for yourself in your business.

 

So, I hope my tips have helped, and this is exactly what I’ve done to get myself prepared and laser focused in 2022 in my own 7-figure business, so I’d love to hear how you get on with these things, because I do these every year and it helps me every time!

 

Lor Bradley.