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Strategic Planning for Small Businesses · Marketing For Tradies

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: We have been doing so much strategic planning in the business this month.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Being December, we've been reflecting on the year, making plans for the year ahead.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to do a podcast episode about the process that I'm going through to strategically plan for 2024 because I think it's such an important exercise to ensure that you can reflect, realign your goals, and make a plan for the future.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And this is especially important for business owners that want to grow their businesses because if you don't have clarity on these things and utilize strategic planning, it can cause you to end up running in the wrong direction.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: And trust me, I've been there.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: I have spent way too much time and money and energy on things that weren't really aligned to what I was actually trying to get out of my business.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so strategically planning is not just about making a plan, it's about making a plan that is going to strategically guide you in the direction that you are wanting to go.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: So in this episode, I'm going to take you through the process that I've gone through to strategically plan for 2024.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And this includes reflecting, realigning, and making an action plan for the future.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: 2023 has been an interesting year personally and professionally.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: The business has grown a lot this year.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the same business it was a year ago.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: We've really focused in on website design and SEO.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: I've stopped doing one-to-one consulting.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: I've only got minimal clients on that now.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And there's just been a lot of changes in general.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: The team's grown.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: We've had to make significant changes in our operational processes to ensure that we can manage increased demand and yeah, increased projects and things like that, which has been, you know, it's taken a lot of time and a lot of uh focus on my part and also key team members' part as well to make sure that we can do that.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then personally, you know, I've traveled, I've changed a lot as a person in the past year because of things that have happened and changes in in my personal life in general.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: So 2023 has been a very interesting year.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a great year, but it's been a year of big changes and growth personally and professionally.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: In terms of the business and the direction that we're heading in, our real focus in the upcoming year is just to do what we do best and try to do it better.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's I just I want to build a business that's simple.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Agencies and businesses like mine can get really overcomplicated really quick, especially once they start to grow with um more team members and staff.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And um generally the direction that businesses like mine would go in would be to, you know, open a physical office location or scale into new areas of services like offering, you know, paid ads or other marketing offers and things like that.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the direction I want to go in.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: I know this because I'm clear on my vision.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: I know what I want my life and my business to look like, and I don't really abide by the traditional kind of methods of growth, I guess you would say, that traditional agencies and businesses like mine would usually follow.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so when I was thinking about what the next year would look like, I've actually taken a lot of things away.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: So as I've gone through this process, it really has been a matter of me removing and simplifying things and making space for us to focus on those things that we do do best and serving our clients in the best way possible.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: But it has also been focused on what is the vision or like what is the kind of kind of business that I'm actually trying to build here.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a business on purpose, on meaning, that's um personally and professionally fulfilling to me and my team members, and is having a positive impact on the lives of others through content, whether you're consuming this just as a uh free audience member and obviously to clients that are working with us too.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: So the first step of this process is a SWOT analysis.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you may have heard of this.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: A SWOT analysis is um essentially breaking down or looking into looking into your business at the strengths.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, what are you doing really well right now?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And really looking at how you can do those things more and how you can do them better.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: The W stands for weaknesses, so obviously, this is looking at things maybe you didn't do very well that can be areas of improvement or that you just need to remove entirely.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps they're causing a lot more stress and overwhelm to you, or aren't really that profitable, or aren't things that you want to focus on anymore?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Or, like I said, they're areas of opportunity that you can look at and improve on to make your business even better.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: The O stands for opportunities.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Are there areas of opportunity that you could leverage in order to open up more profit, more impact, better client satisfaction, anything like that that you can leverage to make again make your business better?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And the fourth area, which is the T, is for threats.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: So uh this may be new technologies, competitors, maybe vulnerabilities in your business that you have kind of swept under the rug right now.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: A common one might be that you have a key team member that, you know, if you were to lose them, would the whole business crumble?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you don't have team members, which is completely fine, is a threat, a competitor coming in and offering exactly what you offer, and you're not really having a point of difference, for example.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: So a SWOT analysis is a very common business practice, and it's generally something that people think that just corporate organizations should go through.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I think it's just such an easy and effective way to become mindful of areas of opportunity or things that might need improvement that are easy to fix, and that you can create a plan on or initiatives around to improve that are going to help drive your business forward by fixing those problems and being mindful of them and just fixing things before they actually become problems.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: So finding issues or you know, weaknesses in your business and fixing them before they become big, big issues, you know.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: The second step is to audit yourself, audit your energy, your health, and your vision.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have a business that still relies heavily on you in order to operate, which is the majority of people, yes, we want to automate and optimize and delegate as much as possible.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the dream is to have a business that you can step back from if you want to, so you can work on high-level things or take a break when you want to.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: The fact is that it's going to take time and a lot of work to get to that point, but you want to be able to sustain yourself until you get to that point and still maintain your health and vitality through that process as well.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you can't work at full capacity, then neither will your business.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: And there's been a lot of studies to show there's a strong link between the well-being of a business owner and the success of a business.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're working or pushing through because the success of your business is so important, then you actually need to reframe that and remember that prioritizing yourself and your energy levels and your health is going to actually be the thing that allows you to grow your business further.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: 63% of business owners say that they've experienced burnout at some stage or another.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you want to avoid getting to that point.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because at the stage of burnout is when you're going to have no choice but to step back or reduce your capacity.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said, if your business growth is important to you, then you definitely don't want to get to that point, and you definitely don't want to push through that point either because you're going to have a lot of other issues to deal with.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: So checking in with your current health and especially your stress levels and frustrations and things like that.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: What is causing you to be overly frustrated or causing you extra stress, or what is feeling like it's draining you in your business and not giving you energy?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: They're the things that are going to be taking from you.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: You want to do more things that are going to like fill up your cup, give you energy, make you feel inspired and motivated.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: So the goal essentially is to repurpose or reframe the things that you're doing in your business to do less of the things that drain you and do more of the things that make you feel alive, essentially.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that's always going to come back to the work that is most professionally fulfilling to you.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so you should be mindful of what that is and restructure your days and your weeks around that work that you really love and feel inspired to do.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: In terms of your vision, this can change, and so that's why it is so important to check back in with where you actually want to go.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like what is your ultimate goal or what are you actually working towards?
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want the future to look like?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so writing this down and getting clear on what that is, and then realigning what you're doing in the business to make sure that you're on the path to achieve that, just brings everything together again and make sure that you aren't pushing towards a future that you actually don't even want.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're not sure what that is, I'm gonna come back again to three areas that I always talk about in all of the episodes of the Purpose-Driven Business Podcast because it really is the cornerstone of the entire concept.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Your vision and the business that you are building, in my honest opinion, should be the one that gives you personal fulfillment, professional fulfillment, and makes a positive impact on the lives of others.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're creating a vision for your future, that comes back to your personal fulfillment.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what do you want your life to look like?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you start building a business that isn't aligned to that vision, you're gonna end up being in a future where you veered that far off your path and the direction that you wanted to go in, that you'll be in a place going, How did I even get here?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not happy.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: So just those little tweaks and realignment of what you're doing in your business and the business that you're building to make sure you're aligning to that outcome and that goal and that personal fulfillment vision of what you want your life to look like in the future will help you remain inspired and focused on the things that actually matter and are going to bring you closer to achieving that goal.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you're really stuck on creating a vision, you can go back and do the perfect day exercise, which I mentioned in one of the previous episodes.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll also link that in the show notes.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: But some questions that you can ask yourself is what do I want my life to look like?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want more of in your life?
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want your business to feel like?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want your life and business to look like in 12 months?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want your life and business to look like in three years?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: And is my current business and strategy aligned to that vision?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: If not, why?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if not, how can I change it?
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: You definitely can and um it's entirely possible to change uh direction based on your vision, even if you've been going in the wrong direction for a long time.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: But come back to that vision, assess what it is that you want, and then make a plan to realign your direction and the path that you're on and the strategy or business that you're building to make sure that you are going in that right direction.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now that we've reflected on our current business, our energy levels, and we've realigned our business to our vision, we now want to set goals for the upcoming year.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to start at the top.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: What is the number one thing that you'd love to get out of the year?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you're doing this on a six-month or quarterly basis, then that is completely fine too.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Just what do you want out of that period of time?
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: What's the one thing you would love to achieve?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is sometimes or most commonly based on like revenue or profit and things like that.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that is completely fine.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Money is a very good way of like measuring.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: So it may be completely different for you, but we would generally do like a revenue target or something like that because it's easy to then create a plan to achieve that.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Totally up to you.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: What is that one thing that you want to achieve?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now that you have that one thing, you then want to break that down again into what needs to happen in order to achieve that one thing.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: So if we're looking at revenue, for example, we would then say, okay, we want to achieve that revenue goal.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: How many sales do we need in order to achieve that?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Or new clients.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you can break it down further until it's a very tangible or action-based thing that someone can make sure that they're doing that will ultimately get you to that one thing.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: So if we said our revenue goal was this, and in order to achieve that, we need this many sales or this many new clients.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: What do we need to do in order to achieve that many sales or clients?
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we have a certain conversion rate on our inquiries or leads to sales, and so we need this many leads in order to do that.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Again, we can break that down.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what do we need to do in order to achieve that many leads?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the things that you do have control over are things like where are you marketing?
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: How much content are you creating?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: What are the things that are going to lead you to get that many leads in that period of time?
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: And by the end of this process, you should have a super specific and detailed list of actions that need to happen.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And you're going to use this in the next step when we're creating our core initiatives and things that you andor your team are going to focus on in the upcoming period of time.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: I also want you to be mindful as you go through this process of why you want to achieve that.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like if it is a revenue goal, like what does that actually give you?
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what's the perf purpose or the why, or like what is it about that goal that makes you tick?
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you're just building a business to for the sake of building a business, or you have these arbitrary revenue goals, they're not bolstered on meaning or purpose.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to be really easy to be inconsistent or not really be accountable to the goal or just not feel like it's that important.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: So goals both bolstered on meaning and purpose are going to be easier to stick to because you have that why behind it and you know it's something that is of importance to you.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: So before we move to the next step, I want you to just reflect on the goal that you've set and just ask that question of why is this important to you?
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: So once you have those goals, we can then create core initiatives for the business growth.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: This can be broken down into different categories or different departments within the business.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: But you'll generally find even if there's one thing that needs to be achieved, there's probably a few different initiatives that need to happen in different departments in order to make that goal happen.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: So again, going back to the example of that revenue goal, the actual actions that need to happen in order to achieve that, we've broken down and we've got a super specific and detailed list of actions.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: There might still be things in other areas of the business that need to happen in order to, you know, facilitate that goal too.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say for us, if we had uh a revenue goal and a lead goal and we had the actions that we wanted to take in order to achieve that, there may be things in our fulfillment process that need to be improved in order to make that capacity possible, if that makes sense.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: So even though our goal might be marketing related and our core initiative related to the exact outcome we're looking to achieve, yeah, would be marketing focused specifically to get us that that amount of leads and that amount of new sales, there may be things in product that need to be improved.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: There may be things in our sales process that need improvement as well that will further support that goal and that outcome.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, in this step, what I want you to do is write down a maximum of three core initiatives in different areas of the business that relate back to that one thing and will ultimately help you grow and improve the business in these areas and ultimately help you achieve that goal.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: So this process will be made a lot easier if you go and grab our strategic planning process worksheet.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: I will put it into the show notes as well.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: It essentially gives you the tools that you need to go through this process with ease.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: But you can obviously just write all this down onto a piece of paper.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: But essentially, the process that I've taken you through starts with a SWOT analysis to reflect on the current state of your business, checking in or auditing your health and energy levels, setting or realigning your vision and making sure that you're driving your business in that right direction, and then setting goals and core initiatives for the upcoming year or period of time that you're planning for, so that you can have actions that need to happen in order to get you the outcome that you want to achieve, which is that one thing that you're focused on and driving the business forward with.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope this has been helpful in taking you through the strategic planning process that I have gone through for Eastbound Digital this month.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: And again, you can get the worksheet in the show notes.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: It also comes with a free ClickUp workspace.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: So you can also have this directly in your project management system if you use ClickUp.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, it's just a Google Sheet which will take you through step by step the exact process of strategically planning for your business for 2024.