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One of the biggest parts of finding success in your business is by actually tracking it all – leads, clients, analytics, but also how you felt, what you enjoyed, what you didn’t enjoy, where you wasted money, and more. At the end of every year, it’s imperative that you do a full business evaluation, learn from your challenges and your wins, and find what goals you want to set and changes you want to make in the new year. Here’s how to do it.

The episode:

Hey everyone, it's Katrina. I wanted to start out my first solo podcast episode of the year by talking about how I do a little bit of goal setting. This episode was really inspired by some intensive requests I've had lately, some questions I've gotten on social media, and just overall knowing what this season is and how much people really love digging into setting new goals and kind of just like setting the tone for the year to come. So what I'm going to do is actually sit down and break down how I get started goal setting in this episode. So I hope that you guys are able to take some notes and understand where I'm coming from and why I started out this way and then really be able to go forward and set your goals for 2022 and any other year, with really the right intentions in mind and the right strategy and knowledge in your back pocket. 

So what I do when I start my goal setting every single year is I actually first do a really comprehensive year end audit. So I go back and I track the previous year before I even start thinking about the year to come. Checking leads, checking clients, checking analytics, but also tracking how I felt about things. What I liked, what I didn't like, what I enjoyed, where I wasted money or where I spent really, really valuable money. And by going through and diving into this, I've really been able to set goals each year that are one, achievable and two, are really impactful. Ones that are not just, "Oh, I'm going to make this much money." But also "I'm going to make money and feel really great about it." Which if you've been listening to this podcast, you know that's what I focus on. So I'm going to take you guys through exactly what I do in this comprehensive year end audit.

So where I start is with the money. I sit down and I look at all the income I made over the previous year. I will actually make a full bar graph. Even if you guys are not bar graph people or graph people, this is a great way to get a visual of where your money came from. So the first thing I look at is my income month-to-month. I do this so I can look at kind of some trends that I might be seeing. Did I make more in the fall or in the summer? Was one month in particular a really low month? Was one month in particular a really high month? Breaking down where my leads were coming from too, gives me an idea of how my next year may look and then I can plan my finances accordingly.

So I'll give you guys an example. I know in my business, December is always a slow time for me. And I know this because I've looked at my income month-to-month for the past four years of being in business. This means that moving forward and actually over the last couple of years, I've been able to plan for that. I've been able to say, "You know, I know I make less money in December, so maybe I'll save more money in my higher income months to accommodate for that." It allows me also to say, "Okay. These are the goals that I'm setting. When was I putting in the most lead-generation work? When was I doing the most marketing? When was I doing the most lead magnet creation?" And seeing if there was a direct correlation between the months I made a lot of money in the months that I didn't. So that also allows me to plan my marketing strategy based off of just the month-to-month income information from the previous year.

So if I'm looking at the months I was putting in the most lead generation work, I can also see was there a "I put in this work and immediately the money came? Did I put in this work and the money came three months later?" I can also use that information to plan to bring in that consistent income. So it becomes really, really beneficial for me to be able to look at my income month to month so I can see not only when I should play my finances accordingly, but when I can plan my marketing accordingly. 

And when we're looking at this income month to month, I'm also going to give you guys a bonus tip. When you do this every single year, you can compare your monthly revenue year after. That'll show you yes, growth you've had in your business, but also trends that you might have every single year. So like I said, I know that December is always a slow time for me. And I know that because I've done comparisons year after year.

So after you've looked at your year in revenue, I always say look at your year in marketing. So we know when you got paid, let's figure out why you got paid. What you want to ask yourself is where did the majority of my clients come from? For me I know I generally get around 60% of my clients from referrals, 30% of my clients from social media, and 10% of my clients from SEO. Knowing this information has allowed me to choose where I focus my marketing energy moving forward. What goals I set every single year in terms of marketing. This last year, because I've known this information for quite a while, I was able to set up a referral program to honor the people who are bringing me those referral clients. But also to kind of incentivize them to say, "Hey, I know people are sending me clients anyway. Why don't I give them even more of a reason to send me clients and increase my business that way?"

I also know I get the least amount from SEO. So that's an really easy opportunity for me to focus some on SEO and get that up higher. It also means that some things that a person coming to my website from SEO might be focusing on are not normally my number one focus in my business. Someone coming to my website through search engines might not have the same experience as a referral coming to my website from their personal network. And knowing that I get more people coming from referrals, I've set up my website to accommodate them more than people coming from search engines. Doing that audit of your year in marketing and again, looking at that year after year allows you to see where to throw your consistent energy, and where to maybe let some ideas sit on the shelf for a little bit. 

Again, if you guys want a bonus tip, I want to take it one step further. I'd recommend looking at how much money each of your services brought in. So yes, how many clients your marketing techniques brought in, but how much money each of your services brought in? I have done this every single year and have dropped many services accordingly. I used to do a entrepreneur book club. It was not a ton of work, but it was really not any money coming in whatsoever. And so I decided that amount of money I was spending to create it, the amount of time I was spending to create it was not worth the amount of time and money I was getting in return. So if you find that one of your offerings takes a lot of time and takes a lot of resources, but barely brings in anything, it's time to think about whether or not it is aligned with you and whether or not you want to keep that in place.

So now we've kind of talked about the hard strategy. The money, the clients, the marketing. But before I do any goal setting for the new year, I also look at my year in feelings. "My year in feels," I like to say. I like to say it's equally as important. I know it doesn't stand up to what traditional business might say, but if we look at the areas where we get overwhelmed, where we procrastinate, where we're burnt out, where we don't like working, and then we look at the areas that really light us up, that make us feel really good, that bring us a lot of joy? Those are just as important as saying, "Which services bring in a lot of money? Which services bring in a lot of joy?" So when we're looking at your year and feels, the first thing that I would say to talk about or to think about is the time and the money that you are glad that you spent.

So did you enjoy a mastermind that you really loved? Did you start email marketing and see huge return? Did you start to see the value in showing up at your local networking groups? I would even include personal things here that contribute positively to your business. Like moving into a house with an actual office space or finding your business best friend/confidant, who you can co-work with and get a lot of ideas from. Then we want to look at time and money wasted. I know for me personally, I have invested in programs. I've invested thousands of dollars in programs that were not aligned with me. Talk about frustrating. When we spend our time or money in places that feel like a waste, it's really important to note that so we can avoid doing that again in the future.

So did you pay for a course that did nothing for you? Did you try new marketing method your audience didn't respond to? Did you spend too much time trying to work in front of the television? Did you hold back from hiring a team member because you were afraid? These are the things that we want to say, "Where did I waste my time? Where did I waste my money? How can I avoid doing that again in the future?" 

The next part in your year feels is going to be the things that you enjoyed or the things that you are proud of. We want to both look at the good and the negative, because this is just going to give us again more information for our years and our business to come. So if you remember that the key to loving your business is taking the time to remember why you love your business, it's going to feel easier to bring more of those reasons why you love your business in. So are there any particular clients who are a dream to work with? Any personal freedoms you created for yourself? Events you really love being a part of? Opportunities that you're proud of? Resilience and personal growth you found within yourself?

And then as always, we're going to flip that and ask you what are the things that you did not enjoy, or you're not proud of? It is totally normal and okay for every good moment in business to have a hard or isolating or stressful moment in exchange. But when we can figure out what sparked them, it means we can make changes for the future.

So, great examples. Do you feel like you procrastinated too much or let fear stop you from making decisions? Did you have a client relationship that ended poorly? Did you forget to pay your quarterly tax payments? Right? These are the types of questions that are going to allow you to really change your business and set goals that are going to make it feel better on a day-to-day basis.

The first part, right? Looking at your monthly, your annual revenue, where your marketing streams are coming from, how your services are performing. That's really the kind of information that's going to allow us to make those hard business decisions in terms of, "I want to get rid of this service." But also if that service is something you did not enjoy, you want to double down and really get rid of it. If the service didn't bring you a lot of money, but it's something you're really, really proud of, or you really enjoyed? Maybe it's just time to edit it and switch it and adjust and evolve. When you look at the big picture, you're able to set goals and make shifts and changes that are really aligned with you. If we only looked at the bare numbers, right? We only looked at doing this one service didn't bring in enough money, you might be tempted to just get rid of it without looking at the big picture. And that's why we want to look at both your year in hard numbers, and your year and feels.

Once you've done all of this information, I actually have one last bonus question for you, which this is definitely the hardest one to answer. And honestly for all of you guys, I should have said right at the beginning, grab a pen and a notebook because these are ones you're gonna want to actually sit and work with. And you're really, really gonna want to actually take the time to journal about them. 

But this bonus question is: What did you avoid doing, but you wish you had done? This one can feel really hard to own up to, but it's really important because you have to be really, really honest with yourself. 

Did you hold back from launching a new service or a new podcast because you didn't feel ready? Do you wish you had signed up to work with a coach, but you were afraid to spend the money? Did you know that it was the year to try TikTok, but you allowed yourself to stay intimidated? Did you want to do like a big personal adjustment like maybe cut your hair or say goodbye to a relationship?

The thing is that when most people talk about facing your fears, they don't talk about actually facing your fears. And stick with me for a moment. When people normally talk about facing their fears, they actually are saying to push past them. They're saying, "I wish I had joined that coaching program, but I was afraid to, so I should have just done it anyway." That's not actually facing your fears. Sitting down and saying, "I should have joined that coaching program. I would have really liked it. I would have really benefited from it, but I was afraid not to. Why was I afraid? What is this tied to? How can I dig into this? How can I get curious about that?" -- that's facing your fear and that's giving you the information to move forward and to actually get rid of the fear. And if you don't do this bonus part where you're asking yourself these sorts of questions, you're not facing the fear and you're going to come up against it time, and time, and time again. 

So say now you've actually gone through and journaled and you've been like, "All right. I know what my year was in revenue. I know what my year was in marketing. I know what my year was in feels. I know what I avoided doing, or what really set me back or what I was afraid of." Then you can honor the growth and be grateful for where you started and use the information to make the next year even better. 

You can sit down and say, "What are the things that I want to do in 2022? Or what are the things I want to do next year? And how can I make a plan with flexibility built in and empowerment built in to achieve these goals?" You're able to say, "All right. I know that I had a really low month in May this last year, but I looked at the years previously, that's normally a common thing. So maybe I'll add a little bit more marketing and make sure that I'm consistent with doing a new launch every other month." 

Or maybe you are able to say, like for me, "December is always a really low month. I'm going to plan to distribute my finances accordingly throughout the year so that I don't feel like I'm low in December."

It's allowing you to see what services brought in the most money and when. And how you found those clients. And building out a marketing plan. And making sure that your business is full of the things you really love. And the money you felt was well spent, was able to bring joy into your business schedule and all of those sorts of things. It's allowing you to say, "You know what, I'm not going to let fear get in my way. I'm going to hire that coach to work on my mindset." Or if you notice you have a lot of frustration around client management, you're going to be able to start using HoneyBook or hire a VA or dive into different sort of automation system.

The trick to having a business that continues to grow and thrive is to take the time to sit down and plan for it. But if you're not planning for it from an educated, knowledgeable place, where you have all of the information and analytics and stats about your own business, you're not going to be able to create a plan that really makes sense for you moving forward. You're not going to be able to set goals that are aligned with how you feel and how you want to feel in your business, as well as bringing in that consistent income. 

So if you guys have any questions about doing this kind of year end audit, before you do any goal setting, please, please, please feel free to reach out and ask me. I'm more than happy to answer any questions you have around this. Otherwise, I hope that you guys have a great start to your year and I will talk to you soon. Thank you for listening. 

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