planning day

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#43 Planning for 2017

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Can you believe it's almost 2017? Tomorrow is December 1st and I'll admit that yet again, another year has flown by faster than I could have imagined!

Today on the podcast I'm sharing tips on how to start planning for 2017. I think planning is SO important - I run a planning day every year for other business owners and I also make sure I plan out my own year.  In addition to sharing my own tips, I also asked some fellow female entrepreneurs how they prepare for the new year.

Susan Murphy, Jester Creative

planning for 2017

Susan Murphy has co-run a digital media production company, Jester Creative, for many years. She believes wrapping up the previous year is just as important as preparing for the new year; including getting caught up on expenses, closing your books and cleaning up your electronic files. She believes making sure things are organized and cleaned up make it easier to start with a clean slate in the new year.

The other thing Susan does to plan for the new year is to think about her three words for the next year. Chris Brogan started the idea of coming up with three defining words for the new year. Susan believes this is important because it helps you align yourself and your goals for the next year.

Gini Dietrich, Arment Dietrich

Gini Dietrich is founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, a digital marketing communications firm based in Chicago. She plans ahead for her business by reserving one day a week to work on her business rather than in it. People wonder how she is able to accomplish so much – and setting aside a day a week is how she does it. When she tells people this they often wonder how she is able to do that and come up with excuses as to why they could never take a day off to work on their business! Gini believes, "either you can make excuses or you can move your business forward quickly."

Her company also use the EOS model outlined in the book Traction. This plan makes it easy for businesses to set for their big plan and then break it down to smaller rocks for easier execution. Gini started this in 2014 and continues to out sell and out profit the previous year. For Gini, "planning success for the following year is ridiculously fun!"

Maggie Patterson, Scoop Industries

Maggie Patterson is the Chief Marketing Officer at Scoop Industries and she believes on getting clear on what your goals are before planning anything. Maggie believes if you work on a business where you are getting external inputs all the time it can be easy to lose sight of your own goals, so getting clear on your personal and professional goals and what is important to you and your business is necessary.

Maggie's second tip is to not feel pressured to do everything right away. Remember it is a whole year process, so break it down into 12 week chunks. Why? Because things change and this adds a more dynamic and flexible way of reaching your goals and also helps with procrastination. Maggie also thinks business owners need to write it down and make it real – and not just in a Google Doc. Write it down where you can see it and track it.

Lara Wellman

I believe it is really important for you to know what you want your life to look like. What kind of hours do you want to work and not work? How much time do you want to take off for vacations, etc.? How much money do you want to make? Once you are clear on these questions you can then plan your business goals around them. What is it you value? How can you can incorporate those into your business?

And finally, make sure to do regular brain dumps! Every time you have an idea write it down – in a journal or on a Post-It note! This will help you to sort your ideas and prioritize them where you're doing the detailed planning and putting things into your calendar.

How do you plan for the new year? Have you considered participating in a planning day with other determined entrepreneurs and business owners?

#25 - Simple Digital Marketing Tips with Rebecca Stanisic

Planning, blogging, email marketing, Facebook, Instagram and content creation –these are topics familiar to myself and this week’s guest, Rebecca Stanisic from A Little Bit of Momsense. You may remember Becky from episode 19 where we discussed how to create engaging online content for your community. It was through this discussion as well as many coffee dates that Becky and I decided to put together a one day live Digital Content Framework Planning Day on May 5th in Ottawa, Ontario.

Create Digital Content: A Framework Planning Day

The Framework Planning Day will focus on blogging, Facebook, Instagram and content creation – with the idea that attendees will leave with the ability to create a digital content plan and with content ideas and a plan they can put into action right away.

Here is some of what we will be discussing:

Planning Tips

One of Becky’s biggest planning tips is to utilize any common planning tools available – for her it is a Google calendar and physical planner. She uses her Google Calendar to input and keep track of deadlines. She also inputs fake deadlines that act as a reminder i.e., if she has not started a project by such-and-such a date, she is reminded by a pop-up reminder on her smartphone, computer or tablet that she needs to start now. This allows her to effectively plan her work days.

Another planning tool Becky uses is a physical planner in which she also inputs daily deadlines and events in a way that shows her what her week looks like. This allows her to easily say yes or no to last minute opportunities as they arise.

I use goals – and not just the goal to make more money. I write out specific goals in my planners and calendars. Think about what your specific goals are. These goals could be growing your mailing list by a certain number by a specific date or getting a certain number of likes on your Facebook page by a specific date. By writing these specific goals out or inputting them in a digital calendar, it will keep you accountable. These goals can then help with what content you want to share and create online.

Blogging Tips

Becky built her business around her blog. One of her blogging tips is to write in drafts. This helps get content out there even on days when your creative inspiration is at a minimum. Write out your ideas in drafts and then they will always be there for you when you need them.

My blogging tip has to do with format. Make sure your blog posts can be easily skimmed. Readers are often overwhelmed at the amount of online content available to them, so sometimes a quick read is what they are looking for. You can make your blog 'skimmable' by adding an image, and using headings and subheadings. The use of headings gives readers the outline of your blog and they can then decide whether or not they want to read further. Images and headings also increase your search engine optimization (SEO).

Email Newsletter Tips

As an avid newsletter reader, Becky prefers nuggets of information with links and images she can click that redirects her if she wants more information. Doing this drives traffic back to your website, which is your ultimate goal.

Many businesses and bloggers have a tendency to think they don’t need to send newsletters frequently and then when they do send them, their newsletter is jam packed with too many articles, images and news. Newsletters should be as brief, therefore instead of sending your newsletter quarterly, try sending bits of information once a week or even bi-weekly; send less information more frequently versus sending a lengthy email every three months.

Social Media Tips

According to Becky, businesses and bloggers need to pay attention to Facebook and Instagram for sales conversions. Curate your content based on your followers or who you follow. Constantly paying attention to your followers and those who follow people similar to you, helps you find potential new relationships and find new people you may be interested in learning more about. Doing this creates a rich feed that will tie into quality content that you can then share with your readers. 

Facebook, and soon Instagram, rely on engagement in order to show more people what you post. A common question I get is how to get people to engage with content. My main piece of advice is to ask simple questions. Keep your questions simple so that people can answer without thinking. Your goal is to get people talking and simple questions are the most effective way to do that. Once people get used to engaging with your content they may be more inclined to consistently engage.

Content Curation Tips

Finding good content does not mean finding and sharing viral content because there is no guarantee that it will do well on your page. Instead find content that is equally or more interesting and share that – become a leader in sharing things that are new and different.

Look for content by looking at your stats; where are people coming from? Are there certain social media posts that were popular and drove people to your website? Find similar content to those posts and share them.

Think about what you want people to know. Keep your content in line with what you want people to know about you and your business.

 

Becky and I will be digging deeper into these tips and sharing much more in our live one day Content Planning Framework Day on May 5th. If you’re in the Ottawa area we hope to see you there!