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At the end of the year, I find it to be a good practice to reflect back on the past year – both the highs and the lows. Many times, I’ll see various business owners celebrating their wins (which is something I wholeheartedly support) or simply putting the past year behind and moving on to what’s next. I’ve noticed that it’s quite rare, however, for business owners to actively recognize both the highs and lows from the previous year.
The end of the year often comes with a flurry of activity, but for entrepreneurs, the brain keeps reminding you that you need to spend a few minutes on year end planning!
The problem is that it’s often challenging to know where to start.
Growth comes from action, and focused action is based on two things: effective planning and consistent habits. These two skills might seem like they are two different things, but they’re actually very closely intertwined.
“Show me your calendar and I’ll show you what you value.” Joel C. Peterson, Professor at Stanford Business School, said these words over 20 years ago, but they still hold true today. Your calendar and your checkbook, those two pieces of data quickly tell us about your priorities. Learning to realign the priorities to point you to where you want to go is the secret sauce.
Writing a business plan is a task that many small business owners shy away from – not because they don’t want a plan, but because it seems like a daunting exercise. What goes into an effective business plan? Doesn’t it have to have an array of confusing numbers and professionally designed graphs? How many hours will you have to spend? And once it’s made, what do you do with it?
Fortunately, the answers to these questions are easier than you might think!
At Upleveling Your Business, we help a lot of business owners develop strategic hiring plans and build their hiring and onboarding systems. The challenge doesn’t stop there, though! If you want to build a strong, sustainable team that will help you drive your business forward, you must be intentional about your leadership and culture.