Hey there, my fabulous listener, welcome to episode 274 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!

Did you know it’s about 6 weeks until the end of January? Crazy yes? Why am I telling you this? Well because my Nine Week Marketing Transformation program is perfect for you if you want to get your marketing humming and booming before February next year – when lots of businesses really hit the ground running.  If you want 2024 to be different in your business, maybe that starts with your marketing being different – and my Nine Week Transformation program could be just the answer.  It’s currently on sale for $497 – save $500 – plus a bonus of 2 x 30 minute sessions with me – worth almost $300 – so really you are paying $197 for the course!  Check out the link in the show notes or go here: https://socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/9-week-marketing-transformation-program/

Don’t forget you can get the show notes for this podcast at www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/274

Did you have a listen into last week’s episode? Last week it was all about the preliminary results of the 2023 Big Small Business Survey.  I went through what you are telling us about what it’s like in small business land, especially from a marketing point of view. If you haven’t already listened in, to and do so after this podcast! www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/273

So, today, if you’re listening live, is about 4 days until Christmas Day – whether you celebrate Christmas or not, the world really does stop!  I had one Christmas lunch at Maccas in the city many years ago, it was the most depressing Maccas lunch ever! I had my two year old and my husband was in hospital after a very serious farming accident.

Given this, I wanted to keep today’s episode pretty short and punchy as you are either winding down or keeping up with consumer demands if you’re in retail!

Today I thought I might share some of the things I will be doing over the “break” and yes, I use that word in inverted commas because I don’t know how much of a break I will take.  Which leads me to my first point:

1. There is work that absolutely needs to be done over the next few weeks and that work is working ON my business and definitely not in it. I am halfway through updating my speaker kit, my media kit, my podcast kits and my bio needs a refresh.  Over the last month I’ve invested in some professional video and a professional photo shoot – so now these documents can be finished off.
2. I will be workshoping my keynote topics and workshop topics for 2024, because speaking will be a big part of income streams for the year.
3. I will be updating my website, changing some pages, adding some more pages and making sure it has a real 2024 feel to it.
4. I will be reassessing what to do with this podcast. It’s been 5 years – it’s time for a change. No idea what that means, but I am definitely up for a change. You might not notice the changes as a listening, until I told you I guess and then you’d be like “yes, I have noticed that”, but the backend and the reason for the podcast needs work.
5. I will be delighting in unsubscribing and deleting probably about 50,000 emails because it’s time for the annual audit! I normally sit on the couch, put on a movie or TV show, put all my emails in alphabetical order of sender and then start culling.
6. My Canva is a freaking mess – holy moly it is – so that is going to go through a big delete/overhaul/create loads of folders audit. I really need that to be easier when I go looking for things!  The pictures folder on my desktop probably needs the same overhaul, but that job does seem overwhelming, so I might not get to that one!
7. And lastly, or not really, but lastly for this podcast chat with you, I will be setting up 2024 for success with writing my new goals and sticking them in front of me, looking at the mindmaps I did last month re getting to those goals and reassess anything that needs to be tinkered with, and coming up with a whole board of podcast subject ideas and a list of potential guests for 2024.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I will two thousand percent be taking a break – maybe not all day every day, but I will not be working loads. I love what I do, and therefore coming into the office (which is in my house) for a few hours a day, that really lights me up and when it doesn’t I won’t do it.

My hubby is a farmer and there’s always, always, always work to be done on the farm, so often over summer I’ll go to work when he does, so then we have the rest of the day off together to do whatever – although sometimes he leaves at 5 am and honestly, I’m not that keen!

So, what’s on for your break – your summer? Total shut down, or like me, you have a few things to do?

If you are having a total shutdown, and full kudos to you if you are, make sure you then do have some time scheduled to work ON your business.  To set those new goals, to mud-map how you are going to reach those goals and more.

All I want for you is for 2024 to be amazing.  I want it to be exactly what you need and want it to be.

And maybe to help a little with this, I have a FREE webinar coming up in January, in fact on the 18^th of January from 1 pm to 2 pm all about what marketing is going to look like in 2024 – what’s changing, what’s different and what you, as a small business owner, need to know from the start -literally from the start – it’s January!

Here’s the link: https://bit.ly/marketing2024Jenn

There’s no sell, I have nothing to sell from the webinar – so don’t stress about that – it’s just me sharing my research and knowledge about marketing and answering your questions.  And yes it will be recorded, so if you can’t make it live, register anyway and I will send you the recording for sure.  I just want to help.

Here’s that link again: https://bit.ly/marketing2024Jenn or of course, head to the shownotes at www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/274

I’d love to hear from you in the Like Minded Business Owners Facebook group. You can join the group here and then come tell me what your thoughts and feelings are about 2024, marketing and your business https://www.facebook.com/groups/LikeMindedBusinessOwners

But, that’s it for episode 274. 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 275!  Last one for the year – it will be short and sweet but oh so worth tuning in for.

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!