I’m about to let you in on a big secret…

Planning is a NECESSARY ingredient to the recipe for success in your business. Okay, maybe that’s not a big secret and maybe you already knew that. BUUUT, how often do you truly create time to plan for your business AND follow-through on using that time to actually work on your business.

Probably not as much as you like. Don’t worry, I’m with you. Investing time in my own business always seems to get bumped to the bottom of my list.

OR, maybe you did make some awesome plans for this year way back in January. Then, we entered into a global health pandemic that has rocked everyone’s world in ways that we couldn’t possibly imagine and your plan got tossed out when being a working homeschool mom became your new title. Or, maybe your dog ate your plan. I get it, it happens to the best of us.

No matter what circumstances you find yourself in right now, this is the right time for a mid-year biz check-in. 

Let’s start off by taking a look at why business planning is “the secret” to success.

There are a few different factors that come into play here.

The first is efficiency.

When you go in with a clear plan, you can focus on what’s most important.

Instead of spending time trying to figure out what you should be working on, what pieces of the puzzle are missing from your product funnel, or what you need to do to break through to the next income level, you know exactly what needs to come next. 

As we’ll explore in a future blog post, with a clear goal in mind and a plan for the year, it becomes easy to walk backwards to create effective and efficient daily to-do lists.

Work on what needs to get done each day and you will reach your goals. 

Next, setting a big goal for yourself helps you think outside the box. If you don’t believe me, try it. Decide on a big income goal for the coming month.

Write it down. Keep it in front of you.

Then get to work and start to notice what happens next. You start to think of things that didn’t occur to you before. You come up with creative ways to get more traffic.

You decide to run a fun promo that adds dollars to your bank account.

The same happens when an important deadline comes up unexpectedly.

Think back on that time in college when finals rolled around, or the last time your in-laws told you they would stop by later in the day.

You got very creative about studying and cleaning respectively. 

Last but not least, let’s talk about the subconscious.

So far we’ve been focused on what we are actively doing to make progress by making a plan, setting goals and following through.

There’s another dimension to all this and that’s what’s going on in our subconscious mind. While we are busy plowing through our to-do list, cooking dinner for the family, and even sleeping, our subconscious mind is working towards those goals as well.

In short, planning and setting goals is important because it helps you grow faster. That means you end up with more money for yourself and your loved ones while spending less time slaving away at your desk.

SOOO…because this biz check-in is about taking ACTIONABLE steps, there are three things I’d like you to do this week.
 

FIRST, take a look at your calendar and TIMEBLOCK 2 one-hour time slots or one 2 hour time slot into your calendar every week for the next 6 weeks and call it BIZ PLANNING.

SECOND, grab a post-it note and write down ONE BIG GOAL. Stick it somewhere you’ll see it everyday.

THIRD, use this week to check-in with your mindset regarding your business. Note how you are feeling in your business right now. Then, identify how you want to feel in your business. If you need a few tips to help you get over your mindset hurdles, check out this article in Forbes.

Check back in next week as we assess our businesses so we know where we are and can start making that plan for where we want to go!