It’s so critical for small business owners to allocate time to work ON the behind-the-scenes components, to make your business a success!
For me at the moment I know I spend so much time working IN the biz, that I really have to be consciously allocating time to also work on it. Generally, for me this is what I do over the quieter time of January (well, quieter for my business anyway!).
So here are a few of the things I did to work ON my business last month – and I’m sharing this with you too because I truly know the value in encouraging all business owners to take stock of where they are at and get clear on where they are going!
- I’ve been writing down my goals and reflecting back on the ones I had for 2023 – which ones I hit, what I didn’t and why.
- I also did some tidying up – both electronically (emails, Canva, photos etc) and in my physical office.
- I found some to-do lists from 9 months ago, 6 months ago etc and again looking at what I did and didn’t do and why!
- I worked on my 2024 speaker topics – although I am finding that harder than it should be. Producing a compelling headline that will be attention grabbing, stands out from others and says what the talk/keynote is all about is messing with my head. I keep telling myself to use the KISS method – KEEP IT SIMPLE SUPERSTAR!
- I have updated my Speaker Kit, my Media Kit, my Speaker Contracts for 2024.
- I have started adjusting content on my website and looking at the SEO on key pages I want to see improvement on.
- I started to create themes for my podcast.
- I have been through all the Facebook groups I belong to (there was 270 odd) and removed myself from loads, checked out others to see if they are still current, looked at their rules and updated my spreadsheet so that I know what days I can do promotion in them, what days I can put in a tip or trick and so forth. My spreadsheet lives above my desk on my corkboard along with my goals, my elevator pitch and my brand colour codes (you’d think I’d know them by now!).
There is still lots of working ON my business to go, but I was so happy I set the time aside to tick off those things in January, and now I feel I am getting somewhere.
This month I’ve been reviewing my social media and looking at my insights, planning big chunks of content and scheduling them. The blocks of content I can plan are, for example, tips, testimonials, speaker posts, join my community posts, promo of the book and my programs. Some of these I will plan and schedule the whole year in.
As mentioned before, I have finally got around to taking my goals from my goals workbook to sticky notes that live above my computer desk so that I look at them every day.
I’ve been a little more defined and metric orientated with my goals this year. Rather than 25 speaking gigs, it’s 2 a month. Rather than more PR articles, it’s one a month and so forth. I feel that my goals just needed some improvement in their measuring.
Of course, I am looking to mix up my podcast a little too – so I am still working on those goals and what that might look like.
My biggest goal is taking people from listening to my podcast to come deeper into my world – eg/ joining my Like Minded Business Owners Facebook group or reaching out on LinkedIn or joining my Instagram Channel. I need a strategy for that – some of it happens organically, of course, but some needs more strategy to make it happen.
I also start my goals with the end in mind. It’s a philosophy I live by in business. It has served me well for many years now.
So, what that looks like is:
- How much money do I want to earn this year?
- How much do I want to grow my email list/community/fb group/Channel etc by?
And a few other questions like that and working backwards from there.
One big area I’m focusing on is how much I want to earn for the year for instance. Let’s just say it’s $100K. How am I going to do that? I look at my income streams and work out how much each one of those has to earn to get me to 100K.
My income streams for example are:
- My Nine Week Marketing Transformation Program
- My Book Sales
- Speaking
- Private Clients
- Government Work
So, if they earned:
- My Nine Week Marketing Transformation Program $25K
- My Book Sales $5K
- Speaking $40K
- Private Clients $20K
- Government Work $10K
That gives me $100k.
Then I break down each component. For example, I need to work out how many people do I need to put through my course to get to $25K. How am I going to market to my community and get new people in the community to buy that course?
So for my goal of $20K from private clients – how many is that? Again, how am I going to attract them?
And with my goal of $5K from book sales – doesn’t seem like much but that’s almost 240 books! Where am I going to sell those? What’s the marketing strategy look like?
So, you get the gist of what I am doing here – starting at the top and working backwards.
Before when I said I will sit down and plan out my socials and marketing – this is what I am looking at. How much marketing needs to be done to get to the goal of that income stream!
Do you think that process would work for you? Your brain needs to work this way for sure – but hopefully these examples might ignite something in you and your goal planning will get simpler.
Because remember – you can start doing this at ANY TIME! Today, tomorrow, next week – as long as you do it!
One simple way to start is to get going with a list of all the things you need to do to work ON your business – no matter how small – eg/ look at my Instagram bio and update it, or see if I have any SEO on my website at all or maybe it’s even simpler than that and you need to take an hour or so to clean up your work space and start shredding – tidy desk, tidy mind!
I love this time of the year – it feels so clean and fresh and I feel like I could literally make a plan to do anything.
Of course, plans and goals do stray and change. Heck writing a book wasn’t even a goal for 2023 and yet it become one and got done – so don’t believe you are constrained by goals!!
If you have any questions or want some support with working ON your business, I would love to hear from you over in my Like Minded Business Owners facebook group, and you are welcome to ask any of your other marketing or business questions too!
Or if you want to chat, get in touch. Email me jenn@jenndonovan.com.au or DM me on Instagram or LinkedIn – I would love to hear from you.
CONTACT JENN:
I would love for you to book a free discovery call with me to talk about how I can help your nail your business goals, planning, strategy, marketing and social media! Simply click the link and grab a spot!
My Like Minded Business Owners Facebook group is also a great community to join – full of awesome people in small business!
Or you can DM me on Instagram or LinkedIn, 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 an expert marketing coach and mentor from rural NSW. She is all about empowering business owners to earn what they’re worth so they can make a bigger difference in the world. Not only is she a sought after expert on all things marketing for Small Business, she is a keynote speaker, author of Small Town Big Impact, was the Founder of Buy From a Bush Business and a Co-Founder of Spend With Us e-commerce marketplace, and is the host of the very popular podcast Small Business Made Simple and Stories from the Bush. 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!
Get in touch – www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au
On Instagram – @jenndonovan_
On Facebook – Jenn Donovan
Or on LinkedIn as Jenn Donovan
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