Hey there, my fabulous listener, welcome to episode 130 of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast.

Thank you 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 a first-time listener, super super welcome, I am so pleased to have you here.  I am your host Jenn Donovan, and, it’s my job, via this podcast, social media and everywhere else actually, to make your business life simpler. 

Business can be lonely and hard and complicated and it’s hardly ever easy, but it should be simple or at least simpler, so that’s my commitment you to on the Small Business Made Simple podcast!

One way I help to make your life simpler is by having a group of like-minded business owners all in one stop.  To ask questions, get answers and enjoy the journey of business! If you haven’t joined the Like Minded Business Owners Facebook Group, then hope over there after this episode and join!  Simply search Like Minded Business Owners in Facebook or come to the show notes for the like.  Show notes are at www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/130

www.facebook.com/groups/LikeMindedBusinessOwners

Well, we are officially, at the time of this recording, in week 26 of 2021 and what a wild ride it’s been  …. Again!

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

But mid year, 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 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 to “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 don’t you forget what they are – but somehow seeing them keeps you on track towards them and hopefully taking a small, but significant, daily step 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 podcasts now – Mid Year Check-Ins – episode 26, episode 78 and now 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 there and have a listen.

Of course, you can find any of these in your listen app or head to the website www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au and just put /episode number at the end and it will bring them up!

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’s the financial benefit of the goal?
3. What’s it’s going to take to reach that goal,
4. What’s it’s 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 bat crap scary but look at them. Know what’s earned your money, what hasn’t and put more effort and energy, in the last half of 2021, 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 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.  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.

But, that’s all for episode 130, I’ll be back next Thursday with another great episode to help you simplify your business in 2021. 

If you’re enjoying this podcast, which if you have listened to here – you hopefully are, don’t forget to subscribe, share this episode with another superstar business owner who’s doing the daily grind and would appreciate someone making their business simpler, and leave a rating or review to show how much you are loving this free weekly content.

Massive love coming your way if you do!

See you next week on the podcast for episode 131.  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 peeps, as my opening song says, there’s no point in dreaming small!