8 Practical tips to set up your business for success in 2020

If you Google “how to set your business up for success in 2020” you invariably get the same list of ways that we always see this time of year. It’s all about goal setting, getting clear on your vision, doing a review, etc etc.

 

Now, if you’ve encountered me before, you know that I’m a HOW kinda girl. I know myself how easy it is to say “ I want to make $10k a month in 2020”, or “I will lose 1 kilo every month until I get to my goal weight”, but soon after 1 Jan, they become a lovely wishlist. They might get carried over from month to month, or added to a brand new journal, and never see the light of day again.

 

As I said, I’m interested in the HOW, not just the WHAT. Don’t get me wrong, having clarity about the WHAT is essential, and you can’t really get the HOW steps up and running until you have the WHAT.

 

So, I’m assuming you have some ideas about your goals for 2020. (No jokes in this post about having 2020 vision – I’m saving them for something else!) I’m assuming you’ve researched the planner, or that you’ve been to a webinar about setting your goals for next year.

 

I want to get stuck into helping you work out HOW you are going to achieve your goals so that you actually can set yourself up for success in 2020.

 

Back to my Googling – once you click on the lists about how to set yourself up for success, you’ll see that there is a simple list of actions: Get clear on your vision, set your goals, acquire the skills or resources you need to achieve your goals. 

(For the record, this is what came up #1 in my search https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/334467)

Easy, right? 

 

When you’re running your business, keeping all of the balls up in the air, serving your clients, staying ahead of the content needed to keep visible, turning the big picture of your 2020 vision into a reality can become really hard.

So my list of tips on how to set yourself up for success in 2020 is focussed on helping you with getting the HOW up and running.

 

 

Use a giant 12 month calendar, or Asana to map our your launches, school holidays, retreats, etc to help you break down what each month’s focus is.

When you’re so busy working IN your business, the big picture can sometimes be forgotten, and that’s how bright shiny object syndrome can sneak in, taking you off track from your 2020 vision.

 

#2 Prep your content themes

Brainstorm 10-15 topics that help you frame the content for the month, so that you can have themes for each month. This then helps to create consistent content on your platforms, and makes repurposing a breeze.

This idea is a favourite of mine, because I know one of my weaknesses is that I take too long deciding what I’m going to write about. I created a little system for myself that helps my decide on the topic well in advance, and then the implementation of that content and topic is much quicker.

This is relevant for both your project type goals, that are step by step (linear) projects, as well as the improvement type of goals, that are about improving the regular tasks so that they are consistent or efficient. These types of goals require time for reviewing and tweaking, but still require time to be blocked out.
Examples of these might be putting your newsletter out eveyr fortnight, or improving your productivity by checking your Asana tasks every morning. They aren’t projects, but are about building better habits that ultimately support your business growth. 

Both project and improvement type goals need time and space for you to achieve them though 😁.

I have a really practical strategy for achieving this in my upcoming webinar.

 

#4 Block out regular time in your calendar for creating content.

Block out time in your calendar for batching content. I take one day a month to really knuckle down and create, so that I can batch a lot at once. I find that this is more time effective than having to think of something new each week or to just have a small chunk of time once a month to squeeze it all in.

Note: If being consistent with your newsletter and blog/vlog/pod is one of your goals then you need to assign time for it. Blocking it out now is a good idea!

If growing your team and outsourcing is one of your goals for 2020, then taking time to create the process for them to support you is essential. Identify 2-3 processes, write down the steps, and create a video of you doing the process, so that it’s ready to handover.

 

#6 Create a project in Asana to manage the tasks your VA will complete

Further to growing your team, you’ll also need to start to get more of your business out of your head, as you’ve probably already identified that trap of you being the only one who can do the job, means ….you have to do all of the work. Getting the regular, repetitive tasks out of your head and into a task management tool like Asana can help you start to assign additional tasks to your team.

Set up Asana with a new project that allows you to put all of the recurring tasks, that you can then share with your team, and assign to them. 

 

#7 Block out time for meetings with your team

Block out time for team meetings, so that you have time to brief your team, and time for them to ask you questions and improve. You could also block out a bigger time at the start of the year to share your goals. If they know where you’re heading their ideas might be worthwhile too.

Set up your Business Hub in Asana. It can be a central place for you to track all the projects, client work, internal operations, and team work for your business, so that it’s out of your head. Seriously, your business can’t grow if you’re running it from memory. It will be hard to get ahead, hard to change, hard to communicate, hard to grow.

This infrastructure is simple to manage, and will actually allow you more freedom to achieve your 2020 goals. Without it, you can be stuck in the chaos of just keeping your head above water, and that’s an exhausting, uncomfortable feeling.

 

If it’s time to step up in 2020, then these foundations might be just the right mix for you, to help you stabilise, improve and grow.

Decide which one of these practical tips you need to set up your business for success in 2020. Pick one or two, and see if you can set up some of the infrastructure you need for 2020. That makes the implementation of your goals SO much easier!