Wow, we’re almost a full month into 2016 and I haven’t yet shared any of my plans with you yet. Firstly, I started business planning for 2016 in October 2015 and secondly, I use a variety of tools to go through my planning process.
With our wedding in December and then Christmas and New Year rolling around, I dipped in and out of planning for 2016 but I’ve finally written the majority of it down. I guess I now recognise that it’s an ongoing work in progress, plans evolve and change and that’s beautiful.
I’ll talk a bit about the tools I use to plan my business year and then I’ll share some of my goals with you.
Leonie Dawson’s Shining Year Planner
Leonie’s planner is my go-to for any over-all big picture planning. It firstly takes you through a closing ceremony, which so many of us forget as we only look forward but it’s so important to look back, acknowledge what you have achieved, celebrate, learn from it and THEN move forward.
It always makes me feel so proud when I do the closing ceremony, especially because I keep my books from the years before so you get a real feel of how far you have actually come. It’s amazing!
Then it takes you through your goals and makes you set numbers for your goals, because if they’re not measurable, they’re not really goals. It’s pretty daunting the first time you do this and you do need to be realistic and flexible but at least you have something to work towards.
It also takes you through non-businessy things such as self care. Please please please plan this into your year and your calendar. It’s important to plan in holidays and look after your health and well-being.
Want your own Shining Year book? Order it here (this is my affiliate link, so I may receive a commission if you decide to purchase the year book)
Conquer Kit
I’ve only just started the Conquer Kit, but already I’m loving it. It’s a mixture of business planning, mindset and creative fun. I can see myself do this every year and so far I’ve slayed my dragons (negative mindset), set my intention word for 2016, determined my archetype and I really want to focus on writing my business beacon.
As I said, I’m not far into the Conquer Kit but it’s such a fun process and it’s going to give me a good road map to moving my business in the direction I want and really growing it.
Want your own Conquer Kit? Order yours here (ps. you can download the first chapter for free)
My own year planner
Ok, so this isn’t a planner like the ones above are. This is a year calendar for 2016 that I use to plan all my launches, holidays and workshops. I pretty much map out when the big things happen so that I always have it in an overview on my wall.
I then support this with a smaller calendar in which I scribble launch data such as email sequences, blog content and social media posts. There are numerous calendars around my office, all for a specific purpose. My gmail calendar is used for day to day things and client bookings.
I’m giving it away for free, so feel free to download your own copy and print it large scale.
Moon Calendar
This year I ordered myself a gorgeous moon calendar from the Cosmic Collective. Apart from the uber gorgeous illustrations, it also tells me important info about the moon each month so that I don’t plan launches around certain times. I really love looking at it on my wall. It gives me an instant overview of what’s coming up and a beautiful illustration at the same time.
Order yours here (they’re running out fast!)
90 Day Plan
I’ve also recently started using a 90 day plan in which I break down my long-term goals into manageable smaller goals. So each 90 days I set 4 main focus areas and then break them up into 30/60/90 day tasks to reach the focus area/goal.
Focusing on smaller goals and breaking it up makes me feel more organised and less overwhelmed. If you need to break up your goals into smaller chucks, do it, because it definitely makes it feel less daunting.
My 2016 goals
So, what are my plans this year? After two pretty hectic and no-so-clear years I’ve finally found my feet and I’m absolutely 100% aligned with what I want to be doing. Yes, it took me that long to really figure out what my strengths are and what I do and don’t want to do.
This year I’ll be putting a strong focus on growing my lists, launching Soulfully Social twice, run FB Ads for List Building as an evergreen course and my overall goal is to really step up and be seen as the expert in my industry. My word for the year is SHINE and I plan on doing just that!
Some of my smaller goals are to be interviewed for at least 6 podcasts, keep writing a weekly blog and newsletter, submit guest blog posts, connect with more amazing biz peeps and also to look after myself and make sure I don’t push myself too much. I’m looking forward to 2016, it’s going to be a fantastic year!
What are your goals for 2016? I’d love to hear about them!
