Today I’m sharing (and perhaps give you some nudges!) on how you can set up your business for the year ahead – or at least start planning!

I probably do all the same activities each year in my business.  You don’t have to wait for a new year to do these things, but for some reason, they are what I do when I’ve got time – or realistically make time!

So, here’s some things I’ve been doing to prepare for 2022 – hopefully they might help you too.

The first thing is change my whiteboard!

My whiteboard has all my financial income streams on it and possible goals for the year – not set in stone, really just thought bubbles at the beginning.

I always take a photo of the previous year’s whiteboard, before I wipe it clean, just in case there’s some undiscovered gold in there I was unaware of!

Thinking about your income streams is such an important part of your business.  The rule of thumb is that you shouldn’t derive more than 30% of your income from 1 income stream or client.  You need diversity.

Heck if the past 2 years have taught us anything, it’s that diversity is key to success!

So have a think about and write down:

• How many income streams do you have?
• Do you need to think about how you can diversify?
• Or do you need to cut DOWN on income streams – aka you have too many?

Another thing I also do at this time of the year is review my Calendly calendar and mark out my holidays. My Calendly calendar where everyone who books appointments, discovery calls, podcast interviews etc, books through and I want to make sure I have my “unavailable” dates noted.

My dilemma this year has been that I am no longer a school Mum (like what the actual frig?). I’ve tossed around whether I should still mark out all the school holidays etc – but after a little thought, I did anyway.  After all I still have kids at University and that’s kind of like school!?!?

Besides school holidays, I mark out other “no work time” too – including when I’m taking a break in December 2022. Yep – in this planning I mark out the WHOLE year for times I am not available.

If you don’t do this – then hop to it and make it something you do every year.  It’s so important when we work for ourselves and own our own businesses.

Next, I review my goals for 2021 and reflecting on them as well as setting some new ones for 2022.

My goals sit front and centre in front of me every day of the year.  They are sticky notes pinned to my board.  I feel if I look at them each day, I will be reminded of what I’m doing and where I’m going.  It’s something that works really well for me.

A few other things I do to help me get myself organised is:

• Go through Canva and deleting photos from my gallery that I no longer need because I literally have hundreds in there and do not need all of them!  Plus scrolling to find what I want becomes too painful if I have too many.
• I also go through my emails and delete, unsubscribe, reach out to those I’ve not spoken to in a while with a quick “hey” and makeup “rules” so they don’t all land in my inbox, especially if I really don’t need to see them but don’t want to unsubscribe.
• Checking my “notes” book from 2021 and carrying over any old tasks or ideas into my 2022 notebook
• Checking through my “to-do list” from 2021 and again, assessing whether any tasks still need to be done or should be done etc, making a list from the list!
• Review my pinboard and tidy it up. There’s all sorts of grand ideas and notes pinned to it – time to spruce it up for 2022!

What jobs do you do to prepare for a new beginning?

Like I said earlier, these jobs don’t need a new year to do them, but for me, there’s something methodical in doing them in preparing for the new year.

I love a new year to conquer new things!  It doesn’t mean I don’t set new goals or do tasks like this during the year, but I do like doing these tasks in January.

In going through this process, I am often reminded of fabulous ideas I’d had but forgotten about or find inspiration in past photos, quotes, ideas, scrappy notes etc.  I think that’s why I love doing what I do at this time of the year.

Let’s do this in 2022!

CONTACT JENN:

If you would like to have a 1:1 session with me to chat about your goals, your struggles and roadblocks and what’s holding you back – then I would love to have a session with you!

Send me a message on any of my social platforms or book a call at: https://calendly.com/jenn-smm/discovery

And have you joined my amazing Facebook Group Like Minded Business Owners yet? If you aren’t already a member I would love you to jump in and join the group, and become a part of such a wonderful community who are so supportive of each other and in sharing of their knowledge!

Or you can DM me on Instagram or send me an email jenn@jenndonovan.com.au

I wish to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land, the Yorta Yorta People, on which I conduct my business today and pay my respects to their Elders past and present. I extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples reading this blog post today.

About the Author:

Jenn Donovan of Social Media & Marketing Australia.  Jenn’s a coach and mentor from rural NSW and is all about empowering business owners to earn what they’re worth so they can make a bigger difference in the world.  The Founder of Buy From a Bush Business, Co-Founder of Spend With Us – Buy From a Bush Business Marketplace and host of the very popular podcast Small Business Made Simple, Jenn is all about community and humans interacting with humans!  H2H Marketing – human to human marketing. Jenn talks the talk but importantly walks the walk! Jenn’s online  community is over 320,000 with her famous Facebook Group currently at almost 351,000 members and still growing every day.  She’s the major of her own little online city!

Get in touch – www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au

On Instagram – @jenndonovan_

On Facebook – Social Media and Marketing AU

Or on LinkedIn as Jenn Donovan