In the last post I told on myself about being a planning nerd. It’s is my weakness. I love planning. So you can start there if you want. It’s the first post in this business planning series.
Last year I used Leonie Dawson’s planner as jumping off point. I loved all of the questions that were asked and all the reflection. I think it made me really drill down and focus more in my business. I wrote a little bit more about it here. The only problem was I didn’t exactly feel like the design fit with my personal style.
This year I started off with my new Day Designer for the year and then supplemented with questions that looked at my business more deeply. I’m kind of obsessed with my new planner because it really makes me focus on what I want to get done each day and also forces me to think about what I can realistically accomplish based on the time I have available. It also has some questions at the beginning to focus on what you want from the year. You can check out my post here if you want to know more about the planner and my love for it ;) Now back to planning the 2016 biz year.
I think the most important place to start in planning is reflecting on what happened previously and then focusing on what you want from your business going forward. So that’s exactly what I did. I looked at a series of questions about my business, and then answered them honestly.
These questions were the foundation for planning 2016. From here I knew exactly what I wanted and didn’t want from 2016. Here are some questions I found really valuable to focus on in my business:
- What worked well in my business in 2015?
- What did I not like or do I want to change?
- What are some biz accomplishments?
- What lessons did I learn that helped me improve in 2015?
- What drained me in my biz that I should change ASAP?
- What else do I want to improve this year?
- How much did I make?
- What were my expenses?
- What goals did I achieve and are there any that I want to carry forward?
- What do I want my business to look and feel like in 2016?
Each of these questions really helped me be intentional with the goals I set in 2016. I had more focus and clarity after really spending time thinking about my business more deeply.
I think it’s important to look at what went really well, and what didn’t work. There are so many lessons to be learned in each. I know in my own business I discovered that I definitely wanted to continue to try to put myself out socially more. I have found that it was struggle for me to share my work and thoughts because of my own inner critique. Once I discovered how much it held me back in 2015 I realized that I had no choice It had to change immediately. So this is one my bigger goals.
More on goals in my next post. Sign up on the LIST to get a pdf copy of the BUSINESS REFLECTION questions.
Business Planning Series
- Biz Planning for 2016
- Reflecting on Business – this post :)