Prompts to get your business shit together for the next 90 days
I'm feeling very keen to take some time this week to map out Quarter 4 in my biz, and see where that takes me. I don't know about anyone else but this side of being an entrepreneur is so fun to me?! The reflecting & the scheming and dreaming & bringing cool new shit to life. It's pretty cool. 😆 So I thought I'd share a few of the things that help me when it comes to planning all of this stuff.
Here's a few questions to sit on when you're thinking about the next 90 days of your biz —
Feel free to switch that number out, too. Maybe a month is good enough for ya right now... Maybe you wanna do 6-12 months. Whatever works.
Part 1 — Reflecting
What's worked well for you in the last 90 days? What felt like a real fuck yes, and it paid off?
What's felt like it took a LOT of time/energy/money out of me the last 90 days? Was it worth it? Or not really?
Take a look at your income streams, and break them into percentages for each service/product. e.g. Service A - 65% of your income / Product 1 - 10% of your income, etc. Does this illuminate anything for you? Is there a service or product that just isn't going anywhere that you could retire? Or a best-seller that you could go all-in on?
What have you achieved in the last 90 days? What did you launch, what clients did you land, etc. List 'em all!
Is there anywhere you got lost in the sauce recently? Got a lil too inspired by what everyone else was doing? Launched something that wasn't a total hit? Tried a new social media strategy that just didn't feel like you? Get honest, then move on from it.
Are there any themes you've noticed in your industry lately that relate to the specific kind of work that YOU do? What conversations do you see people having? Are you noticing any gaps in the market in terms of what people are asking for, or needing?
Part 2 — Visioning
Get messy and brainstorm all of the ideas and cool shit you want to do in the next 90 days. It could be anything from new products, to a new website, to a new free offering, really anything business related. It could be going all in on your best-sellers, you get the idea. Don't edit it yet... Just get all of the ideas down on paper. As you're doing this, be sure to constantly check in with your business values & mission, and check whether those things actually align with what you're doing, or if you've just got a lil case of shiny object syndrome. 😉
Then, from that list, get realistic about the time & energy that each project would take. Choose 3 at the MOST, assigning one per month. Or depending on the project, maybe you just chose 1 to focus on for the rest of the year. For example, for me personally I want to launch a new Squarespace Template sometime soon, and I ALWAYS underestimate the time it takes, lol, so I know that that just needs to be my one focus for the month that I choose. Putting too much shit on your plate is a sure-fire way to either get nothing done, or to half-ass all of it... And we're not about that.
Where can you make time for the shit that gives you life, outside of your work? Get it in the calendar and make it happen. Even if its just half a day off here and there. The more you can do the other stuff that lights you up, the more of that energy you can bring back into your work
Hopefully those few prompts are helpful! I'm so stoked to properly sit down and start using them myself this week and see what comes of it.
How I'm (literally) planning this shit out myself
All of the above questions are starting points to get clear on where you wanna go, and then for me personally I'm gonna be using the Quarterly Planner that lives inside our Notion Studio Dashboard Template!
This quarterly planner is actually based on the same one that was inside the iPad planner I had in my shop over the last few years — but we've now evolved it into the Notion Template, and it's AWESOME.
Honestly, it's always been pretty hard for me to keep my biz organised, because I've never found a system that was structured (but not too much, otherwise I'd be running in the other direction), and customisable, so I could make it LOOK NICE AF... Because when you're a designer or anyone who really, really appreciates aesthetics, that might be the #1 key to actually make you wanna use something, lol.
I'm not just saying this because I'm selling these templates, I'm saying this because they really make this back end side of my biz flow soooo much easier, to the point where I really love getting stuck into it, because I have the systems in place to keep me on track now. The hard stuff doesn't have to be hard when you find the shit that works for you.
Here's a quick look at my Q4 planner (before I get stuck in adding all of the things) —
Get your Q4 shit together with the Notion Studio Dashboard Template.
Ditch the scattered notes and disjointed tools, and say hello to a streamlined, simple solution that’s fully customizable to you & your business, with this rad Notion Template.
