Latest / The Matriarchy Would Never | A Promote Yourself to CEO Podcast Series / Long-Term Planning for a Life-First Business

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Long-Term Planning for a Life-First Business · The Matriarchy Would Never | A Promote Yourself to CEO Podcast Series

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey there, CEOs.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Rachel Cook here, founder of the CEO Collective, and your host for the Promote Yourself to CEO podcast.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in the last episode, I talked about how to set yourself up for success in the last 90 days of the year.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: We are in Q4 officially.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: It is the end of 2024, which to be honest, I'm pretty excited that we are nearing the end of this year because it wasn't an easy one for myself and for a lot of other small business owners.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was a little chaotic.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: There was a little bit of uncertainty going into this year.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, we're in election year, which automatically makes it a little bit different than a traditional end of the year, a traditional Q4, just because of all the all the noise and all the conversations and all the feelings and emotions that go around an election.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: But today I want to help you in looking forward towards 2025.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're going to start doing over the next few episodes.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to start talking about how to set yourself up for success going into the new year.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: I really like looking at Q4 as kind of ramping up into the new year because it reminds me that I'm not trying to race to some arbitrary finish line, right?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not trying to force myself to do more than I actually have the capacity for, especially when I have the holidays coming up and I really, I really, really, really love having that time to completely unplug and be with my family.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure you do too.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to make sure that I'm setting myself up for success so that when I'm back in the office at the beginning of January, then I feel like things are already in motion, that I'm not starting from a place of no momentum, right?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: I want to build the momentum.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: So when January hits and I'm back in the office, I can just jump right back into it.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And we haven't lost the momentum that we were building over this year.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So today I want to talk about some of the top mistakes I see entrepreneurs make when they are planning, especially planning for the year ahead.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe you're already thinking about your 2025 planning.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're not quite there yet.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: We have resources available for you, especially as we are rolling out the plan your best year ever challenge.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to start giving you some insight into how I want you to think about planning and how to avoid some of the biggest mistakes I see small business owners make.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: So let's get into it.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: The first big mistake I see small business owners make when it comes to planning is they are making really vague goals.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: They're vague and you know they're vague.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know they're way too broad and they're not really attainable because they're not checkoffable.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And this is something that anyone who's worked with me, you've attended a CEO retreat, you know I'm saying this again and again and again.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Your goals should be check-offable, just like anything you're putting on your to-do list.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when that task is done.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know when you've achieved that goal because you've crossed it off the list.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the big reason things are check-offable versus vague is a lot of times I see people setting goals that are these big, bold, aspirational goals, but they're not actionable goals.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're creating goals for your business, we love the aspirational goals.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's great for getting us motivated, but we need to commit to goals that are actionable, that are within our control and that are checkoffable.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you've heard about SMART goals, which I think anybody, anybody is listening to this, I'm sure you've heard of SMART goals, you know, making sure they're specific, making sure they are measurable so you can tell if it is complete or if you are successful in it, making sure that it is achievable.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: So you know you can make this goal happen in the timeframe you're giving yourself.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's relevant to your business and also time-bound.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a timeline here to achieve this goal.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Those are gonna be much more actionable goals.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna be goals that are easier to follow through on because you're committing to something that you're doing.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: You're committing to the actions you're gonna take in order to make that happen.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: So here's an example here between setting vague goals and setting actionable goals.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: In my business, one of the best ways for me to grow my visibility is podcast interviews.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it would be really easy for me to set a very vague goal of I want to increase my visibility for the CEO collective.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: But that's really vague.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know when I've achieved that.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, there is no limit, right?
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: There, the limit does not exist.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: There's no amount of visibility that, you know, makes sense in that context.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's not specific enough, it's not clear enough, there's no metric assigned to it.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: So it's very vague.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, if I say I want to have 26 podcast interviews next year, that is instantly checkoffable.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: I can tell, did I hit 26 or did I not hit 26?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I can also tell over the course of an entire year if I got close.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: I can see if I'm on track, I can see if I need to increase what I'm doing to have that many interviews or if I need to do something else.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: So we want to make sure we're being very, very clear and we're being very actionable in the goals that we are setting.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: The next part kind of builds on this, which is not breaking down goals into actionable steps.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is where a lot of my clients at the CEO Collective really get clarity in our 90-day CEO planning process.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: When they're attending the CEO retreats, they set these goals for themselves.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: But then it's like they have their goals over here and then they're trying to put the plan together, but there's this huge gap between the goal they've set and what it will actually take to make that goal a reality.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And when things feel too big, when they feel too amorphous, we tend to fall into overwhelm.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: And when we're feeling that overwhelm or we're feeling like we don't know how to get started, we tend to procrastinate it.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then suddenly it's the end of the year and we didn't make any meaningful progress on those specific goals.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: So this is why our framework for setting goals is so different because we are really focused on helping you look at the things that move the needle in your business and then making goals based on that.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: We like to prioritize first building out that client growth engine and setting goals around your marketing goals, your sales goals, and then your client delivery goals and chunking those down into checkoffable, actionable steps that you can make meaningful progress towards every single quarter in your business.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: So playing off the example I just gave about podcast interviews, right?
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: If I just left my big picture goal for next year as I want 26 podcast interviews, but I just left that on, let's say, a post-it note or a sheet and I put it in my office, but I wasn't looking at it continuously, then what would probably happen is looking at that number of 26 interviews, I would probably put it off and put it off and put it off.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then the end of the year, I haven't done very many because I haven't proactively been making that a priority.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: So instead, we want to break it down a quarter at a time.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So if it was 26 for the year, it was 13 every six, every six months.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that means what, six or seven every quarter?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Suddenly that's a lot easier.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: I could break that down even more and say, I need to do two or three interviews every month.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now I feel like this is clear, this is actionable.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I can start to take action on that by setting myself up for success, knowing exactly what I need to do on a monthly basis in order to move myself closer to that bigger year-end goal.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, third.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Third mistake is failing to review and adapt and adjust your plan.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is a big one.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is a big mistake.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I see this happen all the time because often entrepreneurs really only sit down to plan once a year, to be honest.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like most entrepreneurs and small business owners, if they don't have this kind of operating system in their business built on having a clear annual plan where they are moving towards it consistently and tracking their progress towards it.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: If that's not in place in your business, then it's really, really easy to say, yes, I'm gonna do some goal setting, but you don't have a process in place to hold yourself accountable.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where things start to fall apart.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we want to make sure that you're not just setting goals at the beginning of the year and then never looking at them again.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: We want to build in a way that we are holding ourselves accountable.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: We want to build in self-accountability.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, you can work with a coach, you can join the CEO collective, you can get a lot of accountability externally.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: But as the CEO of your business, this is one of the biggest habits that you can build for yourself.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest CEO skill sets you need to have is that self-accountability and ability to stay focused on a plan through to completion.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: So one of the things that we have built into our process, doesn't matter if you join us for a retreat or the collective or you just grab the CEO planner, is we make sure that every week we're kicking off with our CEO date, where Monday morning you're sitting down and checking in with your plan and adapting and adjusting as you need to.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe you didn't get everything the previous week done.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, no big deal.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: We can create space and catch up, or we can adjust some timelines, or we can ask for help and delegate.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: We can bring in more support, whatever that needs to be to adapt and adjust.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: But the key is that you have set time in your calendar to review your plan.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we recommend doing that every single week at your CEO date.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's why it's in our planner.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's why it's part of the CEO collective, because we believe in this practice so strongly to help you catch things before they snowball.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because we all know what happens.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like you start falling behind on your plan, and then suddenly it snowballs and you're just way behind.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's no catching up.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's so much easier if you're checking in and looking at it consistently every Monday on your CEO date.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: The next big mistake we see for people when they are planning is ignoring their cash flow and financial planning.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I know this one is not as much fun to talk about.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is a pain point for a lot of small business owners.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, 82% of small business owners struggle with cash flow.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: And even the most successful entrepreneurs, it doesn't matter.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: You can struggle with cash flow if you have a multimillion dollar business or you have a$200,000 business.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like businesses of all sizes struggle with cash flow.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is an important thing that we all need to wrap our heads around.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's been a weak point for you, then this might need to be one of the big priorities as you are looking at planning for the year ahead.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: You might actually need to sit down and get familiar with your numbers, look at where things worked and where things didn't work, what was profitable, what was not profitable, and actually start looking ahead to figure out what needs to change in order to improve your overall financial position in your business, which then means you can improve your financial position personally with what you take home from your business.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, the next big mistake in planning is one that I see over and over and over again.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Overloading your plate.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: How many times have you sat down to think big picture about your business and you're brainstorming and you're in the creative flow and all these new ideas are hitting?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna create this, I'm gonna do that.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: And suddenly you've got all of these things you want to do, you want to create, you want to bring to life.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: But then you can't decide what is gonna be the priority.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: And when you can't decide what's gonna be the priority, guess what?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing's the priority.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that means all of these ideas, they could all be amazing.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: None of them really get the attention they deserve to make sure that they'll be successful.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: So one of the most important things you can do as you are planning is actually limit how many things you are going to put into your plan.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: When we are focused on planning with the CEOs and our programs, we always say just focus on your top five goals for the year.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you're going beyond that, chances are they're not going to get enough time, energy, and attention, resources, people to work on them, financial resources.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you aren't able to fully support those items, those goals that you have, they're not going to reach their true potential.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: So we want to start with fewer goals, accomplish them, and put everything else in an idea parking lot until you actually have the time, energy, and attention they'll need in order to thrive.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we just went through five big mistakes that people make when planning, but we have five more.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And these are just as important.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I think these are all just totally human nature.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're nodding along and going, oh no, I've done this, I recognize that I've run into this challenge before, know that you're not alone.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: And this next one is huge.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that is not considering long-term sustainability.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: I get it.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is totally normal for small business owners, especially if we're feeling particularly pressured, if we're needing to have some short-term wins, right?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: We need a revenue goal to hit right now.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: We need to bring in something right now.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: That can make us really in this kind of panic mode where we feel like it's all or nothing.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: If I don't make this work in this moment, then my business is going to fall apart.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is when we're running our business that way, when we're only focused on short-term gains, we're not setting ourselves up for that long-term success and that long-term sustainability.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: If we can't hold both the short-term wins and the long-term wins at the same time and make sure we're doing both justice, then what tends to happen is we end up cannibalizing long-term success for those short-term wins.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll see this often when people, especially if they're stressed out about revenue, they will suddenly go out and promote, promote, promote.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: They'll run all of these sales, all of these promotions, offer all of these discounts.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: But what ends up happening is often they end up burning out their list to the point where they haven't contributed, they haven't given value, they haven't added new people to that list.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: They have just been kind of pounding nonstop.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Buy from me, buy my thing, buy my product, buy my program.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: And they haven't given their list a break.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: They haven't contributed, they haven't given value back to them.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have to know that as small business owners, if all we're doing is asking for the sale all the time, we're going to exhaust our list.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: And not everybody is always ready to buy from us.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: So we have to balance out that, you know, I need money right now, I need to make sales right now.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: We have to balance that out with providing value.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where the marketing systems come in.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: We want to make sure that not only are we providing value and nurturing potential clients so that they're ready to buy from us, but we also want to be attracting new potential clients and making sure we have that steady stream of new, fresh faces hearing about our business at the same time so that we always have new potential clients coming into the mix.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Another big mistake we see is when small business owners neglect to involve their team.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: And let me know if this has happened to you, because I know I have also made this mistake.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, this is one of the biggest disconnects for small business owners when they start to build a team, is we are walking around with so much information just stored up here in our brain.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we forget, like we literally forget that our team doesn't know what we know.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: They're not thinking what we're thinking.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: They don't know the vision that we are envisioning.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're not really articulating that to them, if they're not clear about our vision, if they're not clear about our values, if they're not clear about what our goals for this year are, then it is so hard for your team to take ownership over their role and to be proactive, be able to take the ball and run with it for you.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, when they don't know those things, they're gonna have to constantly come back and ask for more information.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna have to constantly come back and ask you to make decisions or have to constantly come back and get feedback.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that is exhausting as a small business owner.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of the biggest challenges we see over and over again.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, this is one of the parts of the planning process where depending on your business and who's involved in your business, you may want to involve your team in the planning process, especially if you have a right hand who's very involved in the operations of your business.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Or you simply want to communicate the plan with them.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: Sit down and walk through your goals for the year.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure everybody's on board, make sure everybody's clear about what our priorities are.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is a great way to make sure you're catching things.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna ask questions that maybe you haven't thought of and make that plan even better.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: And this will keep everyone on the same page.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: You really, really, really want to make sure that people are all on the same page, that they're aligned, and they're cleared about what the priorities are in your business.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Next big mistake: not planning for contingencies, not planning for emergencies, not planning for life to happen.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: And we all know life is going to happen.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Things are gonna happen.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: It is inevitable.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I think one of the biggest frustrations for small business owners is it often feels like, especially if your business, you know, relies heavily on you, the business owner, something happens in your life.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you lose someone, you're sick, you have to take time away from work for a certain period of time.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: It can make it feel impossible to keep moving forward with your business.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: But we want to actually contingency plan for our businesses.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things I talk about with all of my clients is we want to make sure that if you had to disappear for two weeks, that you have a contingency plan in place so that business could continue humming along, even if you're not there.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a contingency plan.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's not I'm going on sabbatical for a month or two.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: That is an emergency happened.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: I need to pull myself out on how do I, you know, eliminate most of, if not all, of my responsibilities and let the business continue running.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: That is what a contingency plan is about.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I know it doesn't sound fun, but I can tell you it is necessary, especially if you like me are a working parent, you're a caregiver, you have a lot of outside responsibilities on your plate.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes life happens things beyond your control.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you need to be able to have that backup plan for when you need to pull yourself out of the business temporarily.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, mistake number nine.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, this is one of the biggest mistakes.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: And again, it's something I'll talk about all the time because we believe in having a life-first business.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: That means you have to also think about when you're planning for your year, your plan for you, for your life, for your self-care, for your health, for your well-being, for your relationships, for your hobbies, for your personal growth and your personal development.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: If all we're looking at when we're looking ahead to 2025 is goals for our business, but we're not stepping back even further and going, what do I actually want this year to look like?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: And asking yourself, what would it look like if I had more time to focus on taking care of my health and well-being?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: What would I love to do?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: What would those goals be?
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: If I had more time to spend with each of my kids like one-on-one.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking about this a lot as my kids are all in high school and middle school now.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, trying to get that one-on-one time with my kids is just very, very precious and important to me, knowing that we're now closer to them leaving the nest than being in the nest.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to make sure I'm thinking about that for next year.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: What would it look like if I had more one-on-one time?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: What would I want to do with my kids?
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: What would I want to do if I invested more into my friendships and my relationships?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to be thinking about that, right?
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a part of our process and plan your best year ever, because we always start by looking at your personal definition of success.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: We always start by looking at what does your life look like?
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of the day, I can tell you being in business for myself for almost 16 years now, that means I've had to prioritize the things that keep me able to show up at this level with all of the responsibilities I have on my plate and on my shoulders.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: I have to make sure I'm filling my own cup continuously.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: I can't wait till it's empty and then fill it up.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: I need to constantly be looking at how do I fill my cup so I'm serving everyone who depends on me from the overflow instead of from the very bottom.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, the last big mistake we see with planning for the year is focusing on only the end goal and not the process.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: I have to say, small business owners, this is such a shift for a lot of people, especially if you're just a goal-oriented person, you like achieving things.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: But the challenge with a lot of us that are high achievers or we think of ourselves as high achievers is that often we'll set the first goal and then we hit that goal and we go, okay, next.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then we start looking at the next goal, and then we hit that goal and we just keep going next, next, and we keep just raising the bar and raising the bar and raising the bar.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we get so caught up in achieving that next level goal that we don't want to actually build the strong systems and processes that will help us get to that next goal with more ease.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: And when it comes to business, systems and processes are the most important thing that start getting those things out of your head that you already know how to do because you've done it so many times.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's how you get it out of your head and make it consistently available to happen, even if you're not the one making it happen.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: So we want to make sure we're thinking about the processes that generate results in our business.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we talk so much about our client growth engine.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is where we talk about your team growth engine.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: We everything we do is built around what is the process that gets you to the result.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: It could be you need a referral process to proactively bring referrals into your business.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: It could be you need a clearer sales process to proactively bring people into your products, programs, and services.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever the process is, if you know you're going to do it more than once and you're going to start to scale it, if it's not documented, automated, put in place so anyone could step into your shoes and run that process, it is going to be really, really, really hard to continuously raise the bar when you don't have that support behind the scenes.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: You need the strategy, the systems, and the support behind the scenes to make your business more sustainable next year.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: We just covered some of the biggest mistakes we see when small business owners are planning for the year ahead.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to let you know that we consider all of these typical challenges.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that is why we want to invite you to join us for our annual plan your best year ever.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is our signature planning process to help you look ahead at the new year using our 90-day CEO operating system framework to make sure that you are looking at both how are you going to prioritize your life and how are you going to set your business up for more sustainable success next year.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: You can get all of the details and join us at the CEO Collective.comslash BYE, BYE for best year ever.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: You get all the details and get instant access today.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: We'd love to see you dive in and then let me know how it goes for you.