Hey there, my fabulous listener, welcome to episode 248 of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast.

Thanks for lending me your ears today – I know you have lots of choices, so I sincerely appreciate me being one of them!

If you’re enjoying this podcast – I’d love you to take a screen shot and share it on your socials and tag me in it.  How cool would that be!

Don’t forget you can get the show notes for this podcast at www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/248

Did you have a listen into last week’s episode? Head back there if you didn’t get a chance to listen in already- click here to listen to ep 247 – www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/247

But before I get started, I wanted to give a shout out to this week’s podcast sponsor – Jo McKenzie of Call on Jo – the digital partner you have been looking for in your business.  Jo works with small businesses to reduce the tech overwhelm.  She’ll build your website, keep it updated and do all the trouble shooting.  Jo also does email marketing, social media and so much more.  So, if you need tech help, Call on Jo!  Get in touch via her website https://bit.ly/callonjo or check her out on Facebook and LinkedIn.  Those links are in the show notes at www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/248  –  If Tech is doing your head in, then Call on Jo!

So, we are almost at the end of June as one goes live – which means we are half way through 2023 – scary for some, amazing for others.  Which camp are you in?

As you know I am a good goal setter and although I find it hard to stick to them, I do my best to keep them front and centre every day – with my goals strategically placed above my office desk, and I do try my best to stick to them while chasing the odd bright sparkly object around the universe. I have and will probably always have BSO syndrome!

So, firstly, did you set goals at the beginning of 2023?  If not, that is ok, but consider this your nudge to set them up for the second half of the year. If you did set some goals, how have they gone? Are you checking with them regularly? Are you deciding, strategically, of course, if that or those goals are still relevant, achievable, or warranted in 2023? And if they are, how far into them are you? Achieved? On your way? Still on the to-do list?  It is ok to have things still on the to-do list – perhaps that is the nature of the goal.  Like my goal to get to 200,000 downloads of this podcast by the end of 2023 – it is tracking well, not there yet, but it was an end of year goal – I think we will smash it but I still need to keep working at it.

Goals can be things like that or they can be financial goals.  If I am honest, I am not smashing my financial goals, but I do know why and I do know what to do about it, I just need to make my financial goals a priority and stop doing other “stuff” and do the money making activities. Money making activities was a good podcast episode.  It was episode 135 – I recommend you head back there and check it out.  www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/135

Before you set new goals, or even if you’re still on the path you want to be, consider these questions:

In the first 6 months of 2023,

• What did you absolutely love creating and working on?
• What did you hate working on?
• What was tough? What felt difficult?
• What was your biggest money maker?
• What was your least money maker?
• What do you never ever want to do again?

When I do planning at the beginning of the year with my clients, and we are reflecting on the year that was, it’s that last question – what do you never ever want to do again – that’s trips them up.

Maybe it’s nothing.

Maybe it’s something that you just have to do because it’s part of your marketing strategy or business model – BUT perhaps it could be outsourced?  Maybe it has to be done – but maybe you don’t have to do it.

What was your lesson so far in 2023?

I have to say that mine, both through personal experience and from the experiences of my clients, has to be that we simply forget the power of the word YES.

Saying yes to opportunities brings both joy and frankly, other opportunities.  It’s a lesson I am seeing over and over again in 2023.  Reminds me of a podcast episode I did in my first year of podcasting – episode 48 – titled What Happened When I said Yes for a Year – go back and have a listen.  It might be almost 5 years old but the lessons are still there! www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/48

The lesson I am about to learn in the second half of 2023 is follow up.  The absolute need to follow up leads in your business if you want it to grow.  It is something I do badly in one sense (good in others) but it is about time I started to be more strategic with follow ups and making them a priority – just like I make my marketing!  I feel that lesson is coming at me like a freight train ….

If you’re setting new goals for the second half of 2023, the most important things to remember are:

1. Knowing why you want to achieve that goal
2. What’s the financial benefit for the goal?
3. What’s it’s going to take to reach that goal, and
4. What’s it’s going to mean to you and your business if you achieve it.

I cannot encourage you enough to take some mid-year time to reset your goals to help you refocus on what’s important and what you want to achieve by the end of 2023.

And regardless of whether that’s you or not, I have these pieces of advice for you:

1. Make marketing a priority in your business – stop making it a “if I’ve got time” priority and make it a real priority every day.
2. Take some time to look at your finances at the end of the financial year – yep bat crap scary but look at them. Know what’s earnt you money, what hasn’t and put more effort and energy, in the last half of 2023, into your money-making activities;
3. Give your workplace a “Maree Kondo” clean up. Clean and clear your workplace, invites a clean and clear mind to work with.  Spend an hour or two reorganising your workplace, giving it a clean and throwing out those thousand sticky notes that have all your important things on them (get yourself a notebook)!  Maybe cleaning your workspace also including cleaning out your inbox and computer files.  Let’s give ourselves maximum chance to start again clear and clean!
4. Put your goals where you can see them – every day you can see where you need to go. Consider doing a vision board.
5. Learn to delegate. Did you squirm just then or did your inner core shake?    Delegation can be a learned skill so if you don’t do it or aren’t good at it – take small steps to be a great delegator.  It’ll give you more time to focus on the goals you’ve now got in front of you.
6. If you are finding it hard to keep yourself accountable – find an “unreasonable friend” or an accountability buddy. If you don’t know where to start, head into my Facebook Group – Like Minded Business Owners and ask if anyone would like to pair up in there!  I have no double you’ll get a taker or two.  Accountability is one of the fundamentals missing from so many small business owners and it can make a massive difference to your output and input every day!

If you’re completely stuck and you feel like your challenges are too much at this point, then I’d love to invite you for a discovery call with me so that I can see how I might be able to help you.

There’s a link in the show notes for make an appointment with me or go to https://calendly.com/jenn-smm/discovery

We can have a chat about your goals, your struggles and roadblocks and what’s holding you back and how I can help.

Love to hear your thoughts on goal setting for the remainder of 2023. Get in touch or head to the Facebook group – Like Minded Business Owners and share with everyone over there. Email me jenn@jenndonovan.com.au or DM me on Instagram or LinkedIn – would love to hear from you.

So, that’s it for episode 248. If you loved this episode and found it valuable, please take 30 seconds out of your day to leave me a rating and review if you want where you are listening.  One more goal of mine is to reach more people with this podcast, and you can help me achieve that, by leaving me a review!  Thanks in advance.

See you next week on the podcast for episode 249!

Thanks again to Call on Jo for sponsoring the podcast.  Don’t forget it you need tech help, Call on Jo!  Get in touch via her website https://bit.ly/callonjo – links are in my show notes of course.

But in the meantime, let’s hang out on social and get social on social – you’ll find me on Instagram, Facebook and my fav LinkedIn.

But whatever you do,

……..remember small business peep, as my opening song says, there’s no point in dreaming small!