Earlier this week I held my annual year-end planning hack, a 45-minute series of reflective prompts to quickly zoom into your vision for next year. While a 45-minute working session may not be the full amount of time you may dedicate to vision work, it often is enough to create a high-level overview, from which annual, quarterly and monthly plans can flow.

If you have a copy of either of my workbook planners, Coaching Business Builder, or PlanDoTrack, check out the Vision Questions which are found in both Sections 2 and 5. (Note there’s lots of repetition between the different sections to help you keep unlayering your vision and insights).

Several years ago, I also recorded a short 15-minute annual vision audio as part of the Inner Biz Leader Virtual Business Planning Retreat. Even though it is a few years old now, I wanted to share it with you here. Please grab a pen and listen in...noting what you want to create in your work 3-5 years from now. It will take you 10-15 minutes to listen to.

Grab a pen and listen in here:

​Want something shorter? Check out this 2 minute vision video here at my YouTube channel. 

​Questions you may want to consider are:

• As you step into 2020, what’s important to start a new chapter around?
• By the end of 2020, what do you want to have accomplished?
• What are the things you want to be known for?
• What are the relationships you want to invest in?
• What do you want people to reach out to you for?

All the best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Coaching Business Builder | Group Coaching Essentials
Supporting coaches to grow their business and skills in the areas of group coaching
If you want more like this post, join us at the CoachingBizGrowthLab in 2020 OR participate in the Inner Biz Leader Virtual Retreat.
Contact Jennifer to set up a call to see how her 1-1 coaching or group coaching support can help you move towards your 2020 goals.
Phone: (416)996-8326

​​Metrics are the heart of any business. Numbers and data provide patterns and insight for those who take time to explore what metrics are available to them.
​
As a solopreneur, or small business owner, it can be useful to take time on a regular basis to track what your numbers are saying.

Here’s a quick list of some of the metrics you may want to track:

• Sales
• Website visits
• Downloads
• Revenue
• Reads
• Sample sessions
• Products developed
• Speaking engagements
• Likes
• Numbers of clients
• Hours billed
• Net profit
• Social visits
• # of books sold
• Operating revenue

What else do you have metrics around? What else might you want to note?
Questions to consider:

• As you look at the list, what’s important?
• What are the metrics you have easy access to?
  • Pull those out – what patterns do you notice? What trends do you see over time? How does it stack up to what you had planned or envisioned?

Enjoy!
Jennifer

PS - Don't forget to join us today - Monday November 18th from 11 -1145 am ET for a special 2020 Planning Hack. Bring your pen and planner and join me in zoom room 270-302-0415. We'll start promptly at 11 am ET.

This week’s Solopreneur myth explores the notion of “I need to do it all alone”. While you may be choosing to run a solopreneur company, it may not mean that you have to do everything alone. Whether you are building a team of part-time or full time workers or are looking to bring different people onboard as sub-contractors for specific projects, being able to build your team is critical.

The September 2019 Coaching Business Builder call focused on building your own team. It explored what it means to grow your team as a solopreneur. You can check out that call here. Be sure to grab a pen and take some notes as you go!

As you grow your team, key themes to explore include:

• Delegation – what do you want to delegate? Who can you delegate to? Check out posts on the Teams365 on delegation for additional inspiration and information on this topic.
• What does grow your team mean? Is it a full time, part time or sub-contractor role?
• What type of support do you need?

​Questions to consider:
1. What does the team need to excel in the year ahead?
2. What will help the team be at their best?
3. What is going to be the major challenge for the year ahead? The major opportunity?
4. What development opportunities do we want to build in (retreats, team coaching, mentoring etc.?)
5. What requests do I need to make of the team right now?
6. How will we measure our success?
And as a bonus…
What will help to expedite or magnify what's working?

Enjoy your focus!
Jennifer

It’s getting to be that time of year to earmark some time for year-end planning, whether it is for yourself, your team or your business. This has become a passion topic of mine for many decades now as a retreat leader, and for the past couple of years, my authorship of two workbook planners – PlanDoTrack (for Remote Workers) and the Coaching Business Builder (for coaches) has brought me more into the landscape of planning on a regular occurrence.

As you go to develop your plans for 2020, and perhaps the new decade, it may be useful to segment your planning along the lines of PLAN, DO, and TRACK.
 
First, prepare. We know that planning and preparation can save ample time. An old project management adage is that “ten minutes of planning will save 1 hour of unfocused effort”. Before you go to sit down and work on your plan it may be useful to:

1. Schedule time for this. From a 45-minute planning hack (join me on Monday November 11th at 11 am ET for one!) to a four-hour virtual session. What’s the amount of time you want to earmark for your planning? Do you want to do this with others? Or alone?
2. Gather what you need. That might include:
   1. Last year’s plan to see how you reviewed your plan last year, along with last year’s metrics
   2. This year’s annual and quarterly plans so you can take stock of how things went
   3. Numbers – finances, dates, programs etc.

 Next , PLAN:
As you go to prepare for 2020 planning consider:

• What do you want to focus on?
• What will WILD SUCCESS look like?
• What are the elements of work you know you need in order to be fulfilled?
• What are the pieces your clients are asking for?
• What is the legacy work you want to leave a footprint around?
• What is the foundational work you want to undertake?

Then, DO:
Another important part of planning is the DOING. Consider what kind of plan is going to work for you. Are you the type of person who likes to review? Make notes once a week? Take a deep dive monthly? Both PlanDoTrack and Coaching Business Builder includes an undated planner with monthly, quarterly and annual planning pages. You can start using them at any time, and in seeing how people engage with these, it's fascinating to note the different preferences people have around planning. 

Once you have decided your responses to these questions, consider doing a big list of all the things you want to focus on (projects, tasks and activities) for 2020. Make a list according to your preferred style:

• Are you a visual person? If so, starting with a MindMap may work well. Grab a new notebook and write out your plans.
• Do you work best to deadline? Grab a set of post it notes first and with one post-it per idea list your activities. Then grab a calendar of appropriate size and place them in the grid.  If you are a color person, you might consider dedicating certain projects to certain colors and using that color of post it/index card. The dollar store is a great place to find these resources.
• Do you work best with peer accountability? This is where you might consider joining an annual group. I host two throughout the year – the Coaching Biz Growth Lab which meets the 1st and 3rd Fridays of the month between 3 – 4 pm Eastern, focusing on business growth and the Learning Lab and Design Studio which focuses on all things learning design such as how to create more impactful individual, group and team programs.
• Do you work best to numbers? Consider leveraging the questions under the track. Jump there!
• Do you work well with time and space dedicated to it? Consider scheduling time on a regular basis to your planning. Perhaps you join me every month for the Month End Planning sessions OR want to do it on your own. Schedule regular time to this right now for the next quarter or throughout all of 2020.

As Drucker is often quoted as saying, “what doesn’t get scheduled, doesn’t get done”.

Finally, TRACK:
Tracking is another part of planning and productivity success. What do your numbers say Without metrics around a plan it’s hard to know what really is changing. While some may only see numbers as numbers, the value of tracking metrics is that over time you will start seeing some interesting patterns.
If this is an area you want to get better at, check out the Monthly Daily Trackers, and Content Trackers in both PlanDoTrack and the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planners (see section 5 - the planners).

Questions to consider:

• What are the metrics you want to track? Consider profit (i.e. revenue, sales), productivity, staff or team measures (number of meetings held, number of 1-1s).
• What is the baseline you want to capture right now?
• Where are you going to track your metrics?

If you are looking for a framework, consider using the Monthly Daily Trackers which you will find in the 5th section of PlanDoTrack or Coaching Business Builder. There are 12 sets of them.

For more on metrics, stay tuned for next week’s blog post. I’ll be dedicating it to the topic of metrics.

Best,
​Jennifer

PS - Save the DATE! I'll be hosting an open invitation planning for 2020 session on Monday November 18th from 11 - 1145 am ET. Grab a pen and your journal and join us!

Welcome to November! What are your key goals this month? As we step into November it's a chance to focus on PLANNING, SCALING and GROWING, this month's topic in the 1BizStepADay series.  
This month you are going to be able to engage in prompts around visioning for your business, as well as planning. What's possible for you and your work? This month you are invited to dream a little, or a lot!
​
​The 1BizStepADay series includes a daily prompt to get you taking action on a different aspect of your business. Each month has a different theme. We've explored systems check (August), developing your signature program (June), major projects (September) and last month we turned our attention to client outreach. 

Please join us join us for some daily steps this month with the daily prompts, as well as connect in with some of the November planning sessions I will be hosting, including the complimentary Virtual Book Club call on Monday November 18th - the 2020 Planning Hack! Join me in my zoom room on 11.18.19 from 11 - 11:40 am ET that morning with your pen and paper.

You can download this month's 1BizStepaDay list here 

Enjoy the focus this month! What else is on your daily focus list for these last two month of the year (and decade)?

Remember consistent action + daily steps = momentum. How far  have you come this year?

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton - GroupCoachingEssentials
Join us throughout 2020 for a focus on your coaching business on Fidays from 3 - 4 pm ET bi-weekly for the Coaching Biz Growth Lab. Focus in on core topics for your business and fun, impactful coaching! Reach out to Jennifer to set up a call to discuss.
Phone: 416 -996-8326