It's September and the start of a  new month. I've been so excited to receive lots of emails and photos of coaches receiving their copies of the Coaching Business Builder in the mail. Have you cracked open the cover yet?
My guess is - MAYBE.
Well, we are stepping into a new month, and I wanted to make it super-easy for you to get going on the planner.

First, you may know that each month I am starting to host a 60 minute one-hour real-time virtual planning session to create a pause for you to take stock of the "Month that Was" (the one wrapping up), and do some planning for the month ahead.  I call these Month End Reflection Planning Hacks. I hosted one yesterday (August 31st) and will be scheduling these paid sessions each month. During the session I get you to work "real-time" on your plans, capturing them as we go, so you leave the session with your monthly roadmap DONE!

As you step into September I'll invite you to grab an hour (or even 15 minutes!) for yourself to start setting out your plan for the month. With Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner in hand here are five things you will want to fill in, as you step into a new month:

1. Taking Stock - Monthly Reflections (There are 12 of thee in the monthly sections. This page gets you to note some of your key achievement, metrics, projects and items to look ahead for the next month). See page 154.

2. Monthly  Plan for - Use one of these 12 undated pages to start capturing your ideas, thoughts and images for the month ahead. For linear thinkers, bullet out your ideas. For creatives, use it as a mini-tablet for images, drawings, items. This may be your meta-view or 30,000 foot view of the month. See page 147.

3. Monthly Calendar - Note key business (and personal) dates of importance. Again, there are 12 of these in the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner. Use the right hand column to note anything else that is important for the month. See pages 148 and 149.

4. Monthly To Dos
complete this page with all the things you want to, and need to do this month. Refer back to your "Monthly Plan for " page to get inspire. See page 150.

5. Monthly One Pager:
Use this page to capture your top 5 goals, key financial, marketing and relationship goals, Key tasks for each week, as well as habits you want to employ. This one page can help you stay on track and serves as a quick go to. If you prefer more detail you've got the previous four resources to look at! See page 151.

Having a plan is key for business success. In today's ever changing world, it can help us remain grounded and focused on what's important, rather than getting distracted by the many "shiny red objects" which can seek our attention. I hope that you will schedule in a block of time for yourself to complete these pages (20-60 minutes) AND/OR join me for this month's Month End Reflection and Planning Session to work on October's plans!

The Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner (CBBWP for short!) provides you with 12 undated monthly sets of planning pages, along with quarterly and annual undated pages, and a variety of content creation tools. Pick up a signed copy directly from me, or you can also order through Amazon.

Have a great start to the new month! As I always ask in my planning hacks - What will WILD SUCCESS look like to you this month?

Enjoy!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Email
Phone: 416-996-8326
Coach and Author of Effective Group Coaching and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching
Interested in more on this topic? Join me for one of the complimentary Virtual Book Club Calls to go inside the book! Next call is scheduled for Thursday September 6th - Business Habits and  Mindsets. Download the upcoming book club call list here.

If you are interested in growing your coaching business this fall, join me for the Coaching Biz Growth Lab, a coaching group for coaches. We meet the 1st and 3rd Friday of each month from 3 - 4 pm ET, providing you the space to focus and accelerate your business actions. More information and registration here.

Content Creation – An Essential Step in Business Development
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For the better part of the last fifteen years I have been supporting coaches in developing and scaling their business. A large part of that has involved creating group and team coaching programs, webinars and also on-demand programs. Many coaches also use social media as a vehicle to get the word out about their programs. In doing this it can be useful to have a strategy around what and when you want to post.
One of planning sections I include in the Coaching Business Builder is a Content Planning Section. A great starting point to start generating different ideas is to start by thinking about who is your audience and what are the key topics of interest to them.

Using a Mindmap, or a series of post-it notes, you can capture your ideas in one place. To get you started, consider these questions about your ideal client:
·         What are the issues which are critical to their success?
·         What are the things that keep them up at night?
·         What are the things that are of interest to them?
·         What are the difficult vehicles they will use to explore information?

If you have a copy of the Coaching Business Builder, you can use page 244 to capture your thoughts with the Content Brainstorm Tool. From there, a next step is to step back and look at:

• What are the themes?
• From the themes, what are a number of different articles you can write or posts you can use?
• What content do you have already?
• What else would you like to create?
• What else is important to note for these?

 
I hope that you will grab a few minutes this week to capture your ideas on paper, either using the Content Brainstorm page, or your own journal. You don’t need oodles of time – 10 minutes is often enough for generating some great ideas!

Enjoy and more to come on content issues. Be sure to check out the 7 different content tools, including 12 sets of monthly content planning pages in the back of the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner!
 
I'm in the process of planning for this new blog - what topics do you want to hear about? Let me know using the comments below.

Enjoy!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Coach and Author of Effective Group Coaching and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching
Join us for an upcoming August planning hack - Dates include August 13 (Gearing up for fall - 45 minutes), August 20 (Fall Virtual Business Planning Retreat - 10-2:30 pm ET) and August 31 (Month End Reflection and September Planning Hack)

We are inching closer to the release of the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner and I am super-excited to have this become available to you in support of your business.

Whether you have been in a full-time business, or you are looking to transition into a part-time coaching gig, we can all benefit from having space and a place to plan!
The Coaching Business Builder has been designed to be part workbook, part annual planner. The first part of the 280 plus pages takes you through a series of reflective activities on different areas of your business. It includes questions and writing to get  you thinking about topics including:

• Your Business Mix
• Business Fundamentals 
• Not reinventing the wheel - purpose, mastery and republish
• What your clients want
• Creating your vision
• 9 Different Promotional Vehicles you may use for building relationships and marketing your services
• Your own internal business ecosystem - your strengths, values and opportunities

The second part of the book includes an undated planner which will support you for a year. You can start using it at any time! In it you will find:

• Annual Planning Resources
• Quarterly Planning tools and trackers
• 12 Monthly Planning resources, including Calendars, Goal and Project Planners, Monthly Trackers, Monthly Reflections
• A Content Planner section with Brainstorming and Planning sheets, a monthly Content Tracker and a Monthly Content Journal
• Plus a few Creative Tools in The Back Pages to support you with capturing your new ideas and thoughts!

The Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner has grown out of the almost 15 years of coaching I have done individually and in groups with business owners, and coaches. The Planning section takes me back to my roots as a Project Manager in the global sector with the UN and other humanitarian organizations. We have always said "10 minutes of planning a day saves 1 hour of unfocused effort".
How important is it for you to carve out some space right now to do some planning and visioning about your business?
The workbook and planner is designed as an ANALOG paper based planner, so that it's portable and also supports you in some digital downtime. Research continues to show the importance of handwriting in the creation of new thinking. 
Ready to pick up a copy? You can pre-order now over at Amazon and it will ship to you early August. Use this link: 
For those that pre-order I will be hosting a couple of special calls! Send me your invoice once you order.
Enjoy!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton -  Potentials Realized
​GroupCoachingEssentials.com
Also author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013), Effective Group Coaching (2010)