Latest / Travel Agency in a Year / Day 150 - Why do a review every 12 weeks?
Transcript
- Rachel K: Hello, thank you for joining me today. My name is Rachel Kay, host of the Travel Agency in a year podcast and today is 150. And I wrote down for the title of this episode because I just do all of this in my notebook. why I'm weird and do quarterly every 12 weeks instead of on time. So, and I also have a note here. Start now in case pushed off. Okay, that's the main point, I guess. It's got a little arrow. Anyway. So if you don't know the fiscal calendar, when you start your business or file your LLC, and I think when you register with the IRS for your EIN, the IRS I think is the one that in particular that will ask you when does your fiscal year start. Most companies will do January 1st, especially small business owners like us. And there are some who choose July. Okay so there's four quarters in the year and you think ⁓ four quarters, 12 months, that's three months, four months, four weeks in a month, that's 12 weeks. That's not really the case and that's why the seasons in Travel Agency of the Year, these actually go on the real actual quarters. So right now we're in season two. When July first airs that will be season three. The first quarter is 90 days exactly. 90 divided by 7 is not 12. It is not. So your quarters technically average like 90, 91, 92 days because there's 365 days in a year. And because of that, it's not a straight 12 weeks for every quarter. It's going to be more like 12 and a half, 13 weeks apart. something like that. Now, I like to do my quarterly reviews every 12 weeks, because I'm weird. Hence the title of this episode. Why do I like to do this? If you haven't, go back to, let me pull up my notes here. I believe it's like day 12 or something. And it's in this program I... have called the success circle. Let me look back at my notes, sorry. Marketing strategy, Dave 12, under promise. Okay, I'm getting there, folks. Just be patient with me. In the success circle, it's week two, which is time blocking, so I'd imagine it's gonna be in the first 15 days or so of the day seven. Okay, I have terrible notes at the very beginning. Sorry, it's like terrible notes. Daily versus weekly. Scheduling and goal setting is day nine of the podcast. Crafting your PTO and why. I'm not sure what day that is. 8, 9, 10, 11. I believe that is day 11. Okay, you can go back to day 11 of the travel agency near podcast save that episode for later So I highly recommend About every 15 18 months out like do this once a year make sure you're 15 to 18 months out Pat everything like you do your final payment dates, right? Give yourself time off. And so if you don't want to listen to day 11, which goes much further in depth, this is a tip I got from a real estate broker a long, long time ago when you're self-employed. Give yourself a three-day weekend once a month, a full week once a quarter, and two full weeks one of every four quarters. That will give you three weeks, four or five, five weeks off, like guaranteed. right on the weekly for the quarter and annual. And then you also get an extra three day weekend. So you get one, two, it works out to like six weeks time off. And I call it PTO because why not? Maybe you get large enough that you can pay yourself a salary and give yourself full paid time off. But until then to keep your sanity, you should be time blocking not only what you do daily, also when you want time off and I like to do it 15 to 18 months out because if I get a client, like with me, I used to do a lot of destination weddings and they'd be 15, 18 months out. So if I already had my calendar, then I could just be like, ⁓ I'm gonna be out of office the week of their wedding or whatever. I don't know if it's a good fit for us to work together because I'll respond to travel emergencies, so on and so forth. However, mm. It's also my time off. You know what I mean? So, if you don't have backup staff to help you, keep this in mind. And if you want to take vacations with your family, if you just want a day of rest, you can avoid, if you have that time blocked off that you are out of office for holiday, for personal holiday, well in advance, you can avoid accidentally taking on a trip when you're trying to relax, okay? With that being said, me personally, my two weeks off a year that I do kind of overlap and they start Christmas-ish and they go into the first few days of the new year. It depends on what day of the week January 1st falls on. And it also depends what day of the week Christmas Eve falls on. it also, so I will do like the last two weeks roughly. for Christmas. like December 20th or so, that is like 11 days, right? And then that'll take me through New Year's Eve. And then I've got three or four more days that I can carry over into the next year. And that's my two weeks. I do not have anyone traveling at that time of year. I never take anyone on. All of my business is wrapped up. My annual review is done by December 20th so I can just shut my computer down. if I want to and just enjoy time with my friends and family for the holidays. This is why I do my quarterly reviews every 12 weeks. This is reason number one because 48 weeks into the year is typically the beginning of December. So if I'm like, okay, I can schedule this between the 1st and the 15th and get this all wrapped up and have my plan in place for the next year ready to go. while I'm winding everything else down for the year. Another reason why I like to do it every 12 weeks instead of right at the quarter, on the off chance that I get sick or there's crazy disruptions, I still have a few weeks if I'm already ahead one week from the first quarter and I do it another 12 weeks, that's week 24 and. The first quarter ends, I think, week 13 and then 26. So already halfway through the year, I've got a two-week buffer. If I need to, push it off a little bit. But I'm also ready to go at the start of the new quarter so I can have everything kind of finalized a week or two ahead of time of what I want to do starting in the new quarter for sure, for sure. Like, this is what I got. This is what I like. This is what I'm doing in two weeks. I can prepare for it. So that is another reason why I like to do my quarterly stuff every 12 weeks. Thirdly, if you are doing estimated tax payments, they usually give you through the 15th, like the first two weeks of that quarter, but you will be that much more prepared financially to submit those estimated tax payments. You have a little bit more buffer time if you do it a little bit earlier rather than right on time. This is just my weird opinion. You do whatever you want when you're running your business as long as you have it done by the deadlines that you set, you're golden. ⁓ So back to the fourth quarter annual review in week 48. There's 52 weeks in a year. That gives me a full month to really just like two weeks off. So I have two weeks to just like wrap everything up. make sure I'm very, very intentional on how I want the next year to go. And I really, really like that system. I'm a weirdo. I'm just, I'm weird. Now, when it comes to scaling, you might have in your SOPs, if you have VAs running like financials or bookkeeper down the road, or someone helping you with your marketing and content strategy. This is also a good time for you to check in with them and be like, what do you need from me if they are like, this is done every quarter, period, the end, the first business day of the quarter. we are on day 150. So this should be May 30th when it airs. Excusez-moi. So the new quarter begins July 1st, which is a Wednesday. This is 2026 when I'm recording this. So it's a Wednesday in 2026. But if it were to fall on a Sunday, when you scale up in the future, they may ask for the Friday prior or the Monday after. But then you're just always on track. I love this method. You're like, whatever Rachel, it's fine, you do you. All right, thank you for listening to my why I'm weird and do quarterly every 12 weeks instead of at the end of each quarter. ⁓ I also do this because back to that PTO with the two weeks at the end of the year, I take a full week off each quarter and let me look at my calendar real quick. So my full week, I always do a full week for my birthday. for this quarter that we're in right now, that's my full week. And it is, ⁓ what do you know? Four days before the end of the quarter. So if I have my quarterly done around mid-June, two weeks ahead, I can just be like, whew, and then get back to it the last week of June going into the new quarter. ⁓ And then. I'm just looking at my Microsoft calendar in the little window over here. I think I've got a full week off and I usually do either like Labor Day week or a random week in August just because. And then the last quarter of the year I do the two full weeks. So for example this year Christmas is on a Friday. So I'm probably gonna start on Wednesday and then that's one full week and a day. And then going into the next year, I don't have to reopen until January 7th. This is just off the top of my head. I do have it on my schedule already, but that's an example. All right, thank you for listening today and feel free to come back.