What a wild ride this year has been so far (…. Again)!

A total crap-show really for the last 18 months for many small businesses.

But mid-year, which is the end of the financial year, it’s a great time to check in with yourself, your goals, your lack of goals etc and make some strategic decisions for the back half of 2021 and beyond.

I know that’s what I’ve been doing.

So, let’s start off with goal check-in questions like:

1. What goals did you achieve this year so far?
2. What are you still working towards?
3. Are your goals still relevant, important and achievable?

Maybe we should start where “where are your goals” as a question!

Are they in your head, in a book somewhere, on your computer, or, hopefully, right in front of your daily workstation.

That’s where they should be – right where you can see them every, single day.

That way not only do you NOT FORGET what they are – but somehow seeing them keeps you on track towards them and hopefully taking a small, but significant, daily steps towards them.

I have goals such as doing a showreel for speaking, that’s taking longer than I had hoped, but it’s there, in front of me, every day, so I don’t forget it.  I’ve made a myriad of excuses why I haven’t done it (mainly the lack of ability to be filmed on stage due to lockdowns), but really they are just excuses – I simply need to more my tail feather on it.

And to be honest, I took my first steps towards getting it done just the other week, small steps towards the goal – I created a Google Drive and put all my footage into it – step 1 done!

I’ll keep working on it.

Another goal I have is to reach 100,000 downloads for my podcast.

It felt like a big hairy audacious goal when I set it back in January but every week, when I do the podcast, send out an email, talk about it on my social media, post in Facebook groups weekly about it – that’s my working towards that goal – small steps – but significantly impacting the goal.

Small steps!

So, take your goals out – wherever they are – print them, write them on sticky notes – whatever, but get them front and centre to your workstation.

Actually, before you do that, answer the 3^rd question above – are they still relevant, achievable and important?

And, of course, set any new ones you need to so that you can make 2021 the year of achieving!

I’ve done 3 of these mid-year goal check-ins in my podcast – episodes 26, episode 78 and episode 130.

I’ve also spoken about goal setting a few times over the years of podcasting. I think the most loved episode was actually episode 48 (which was all about the Year of Saying yes),  if you haven’t listened to that one – head to my podcast page and have a listen.

One activity that I’ve enjoyed doing, not exactly very professionally, but very “Jenn” like is mind mapping.

My client Jo from Expand Careers talked about it a lot last year with me, and Jules from Airtree Resort also shared her version at my Women in Business Retreat a few months back.

Do you do mind mapping?

It’s fabulous for getting all your ideas out of your head, onto paper and in some sort of order under headings etc.

If you’re looking for a new way to get your goals out of your head, google mind mapping and see if that’s something that might help you.

It’s basically words on a page with lots of arrows that make great sense to the person whose mind it’s mapping – might look like a wordy mess to anyone else – but that’s not the point.

If you’re struggling with goals – try mind mapping.

Perhaps I need to get a guest on the podcast to talk more about mind mapping with us!

Once you have your goals – no matter how big or how small – you need to break them down.

Break them down from annual goals to quarterly goals to monthly goals, to even weekly and daily actions if you are so suited to that way of working.

To help you with setting goals, reflecting on the year that’s been and looking forward, I’ve decided to give you access to my goal planning workbook.

This workbook is actually normally for my paying clients, but I really feel so strongly about helping you have the best possible end to 2021, that I thought if this resource can help – then I probably should share!

To get your hands on it – go to: https://bit.ly/GoalPlanner2021

You will have to exchange your email address for it – but I think that’s pretty fair – working through this workbook will help you so much with clarity of goals, but also taking small daily or weekly actionable steps to achieve them.

The planner also works through questions like

• What worked well this year so far?
• What are you most proud of?
• What do you want to do more of?
• What made you the least amount of money?
• What did you absolutely hate working on?
• What did you absolutely love creating and working on?

If you’re setting new goals for the second half of 2021 – despite the unknown, the most important things to remember are:

1. Knowing why you want to achieve that goal?
2. What is the financial benefit of the goal?
3. What is it going to take to reach that goal?
4. What is it going to mean to you and your business if you achieve it.
5. What does SUCCESS look like to you?

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 2021.

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

1. Make marketing a priority in your business – stop making it an “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 it can be scary, but look at them. Know what’s earned you money, what hasn’t, and then put more effort and energy in the last half of 2021 into your money-making activities;
3. Give your workplace a “Marie 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 transfer those thousand sticky notes that have all your important things on them in a notebook or document file on your computer!  And on that, when cleaning your workspace also include cleaning out your inbox and computer files.  Let’s give ourselves a 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.  Look for freelancers or virtual assistants/managers who provide services in the things that you hate doing, and bring them onboard to assist! 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!

How can I help you?

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.

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.

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

I would like 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 is a marketing strategist and social media extraordinaire, coach and mentor to savvy business owners. Owner and Founder of Social Media & Marketing Australia.

With a passion for making business simple, because it’s isn’t easy but it should be simple or at least simpler, she’s built a reputation for helping other small business owners simplify their marketing and businesses so they can reach their goals, be more profitable and live the dream (finding the freedom they set out to achieve when they started … the illusive small business owner freedom dream …!)

Jenn believes in giving before asking and that’s why she’s the host of the popular Small Business Made Simple Podcast.