Welcome to a new year of the Create & Thrive Podcast!
In this episode, I outline a series of 10 questions that will help you review your last year in business.
I’m also running a mini-course to take you through these questions – head on over here to sign up for that (it’s free!) if you’re not already on the regular Create & Thrive email list. (If you get my emails about the podcast, you are on the list).
I’ll be sharing each lesson in the Thriver Circle FB group so we can discuss it, and I’ll also be running a FB live each day of the course on the public Create & Thrive FB page.
Further – in this episode I explain some changes that are happening with the podcast in 2018.
I will outline them in a blog post soon, but the most important change you need to know about is that I am moving from weekly to twice-monthly free main episodes.
There will also be a third members-only episode each month, which will only be available to members of my community for makers, the Thriver Circle. Members of the Circle also get all the main episodes a week early, AND promo-free.
There may also be some mini-eps each month! I’ll be doing some Q&A videos, which will be published to Youtube and Facebook, and I plan on publishing the audio of these to the podcast too. They’ll be pretty short, about 5 minutes max.
So! If you want to make sure you don’t miss an episode, head on over and sign up to become a member of the Thriver Circle.
Oh, and there’s also new podcast artwork, so don’t get thrown when the picture changes! 😀
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Highlights and quotes from this episode:
- Your end of year review does not have to be an overly onerous task – grab a notebook and pen and tackle the prompts in small chunks.
- Begin your annual review with these reflection questions:
- The Big Three of Success and Failure
- Ensure you analyse both the wins and losses from this year – don’t just focus on the negative.
- The analysis of these moments is as important as the actual wins and losses.
- What were my three biggest successes this year and what did I learn from them?
- What were my three biggest mistakes this year and what did I learn from them?
- Risk and Hindsight
- If you are going to grow a successful business you need to get comfortable with feeling the fear and doing it anyway
- If you can’t bring ourselves to take risks you will often stall and stagnate.
- What risks have I been avoiding and why?
- What would I do differently if I had the year over again?
- Money
- Keep track of your income and expenses and review these regularly.
- If you are avoiding looking at the money because you know it is not doing well – that is the time to look at it.
- What was my business revenue and what were my expenses for the year? How does this compare with my expectations and goals for the year?
- Am I spending more money than I should be and/or am I spending it in the wrong places?
- Vision and Time Management
- We all have a vision on where we want our business
- Time is our most valuable business resource – you can always make more money but you can never make more time.
- How does my vision of where my business would be by now compare to where it actually is? Keeping in mind my previous answers in this course, why do I think that is?
- How was my time management? Did I choose and stick to strategies and systems that work for me?
- Sales and Marketing
- This process helps you see where you are and the potential on where you could be.
- How did my sales this year compare to previous year? Furthermore, how did my sales this year compare to my expectations?
- Where did I focus my marketing strategies? Were my chosen marketing strategies effective or should I change my strategy for the coming year.
Don’t miss the FREE #LookBackMoveForward mini-course!
Sign up here.
