How I Used 4 Simple Goals to Transform My Business
It's hard to believe that it's now December and before we know it, 2019 will officially be in the books.
I thought I'd wrap things up by giving you an opportunity to think about YOUR year as a whole and how things are going on your annual goals! I can think of no better way to set you up for success in 2020.
I kicked off this fun year of challenges by sharing my new practice for setting actionable, simple annual business goals - a process I detail in the short video here. With this process, I set 4 simple goals in January 2019 and today, I'd like to give you a behind-the-scenes look and show you how this type of goal-setting worked really well for me and my business.
In fact, I'd say these simple goals directly led to a record-breaking year and my greatest revenue (and satisfaction with) my business to date!
I'm hopeful if you can see that goal-setting doesn't have to be scary or overwhelming, you'll finish 2019 strong and set yourself up for an epic 2020!! So let's take a look at what I was able to do with just 4 simple goals in mind --
My 4 simple goals for 2019:
Speak More
Make More
Work Less
Have Fun
I was nervous to just have these short and sweet goals in mind, but not only were they easy to set, I gained a ton of flexibility in how I achieved them - leading to amazing results and joy from my business overall.
Goal 1: Speak More
What this meant to me in January: At the onset of the year, I'd wanted to kick my paid speaking career into high gear and treat it with the same attention, client experience, and other investment I'd put into my work as a branding partner to small business owners. This meant making more money speaking, up-leveling my speaking opportunities, and optimizing my new book (Permission to Try).
A few key results:
Higher quality engagements - I partnered with amazing local organizers to produce higher quality speaking engagements, including a 3-session series with the Durham County Public Library and a workshop with the NC Triangle's female entrepreneurial organization - VendRaleigh
More events - I spoke at 28 events across the year (up from 24 in 2018), and co-hosted my first group workshop (a women's circle around my book)
Greatest paid speaking revenue to date - I made the most revenue from paid speaking to date in my business, up 40% over 2018 (and 140% over 2017!)
Both paid and complimentary events brought amazing, ideal branding clients to my practice - Between my own events like "Branding with Annie" and external events, these were the top referral sources for my practice (accounting for 40% of professional services and 46% of mentoring clients).
How I'm feeling about it now, at the end of the year: This is a goal where I think flexibility was key to my success and satisfaction. At the beginning of the year, I gave myself financial dream goals for each aspect of my business, including paid speaking. I set a really high bar and only met 8% of that goal! A big reason for this is that I scaled way back on my speaking business development and marketing after getting pregnant in the spring. However, all this said, my main goal was to "speak more" not make some dream revenue number. My success came in other ways, including making significantly more than I did the previous year and seeing speaking grow as a means to attract ideal clients and even sell copies of my new book as "passive income!"
Verdict: Though it didn't happen as I thought it would, I'm really happy with my goal of "Speak More" and felt like I achieved it in multiple ways!
Goal 2: Make More
What this meant to me in January: This goal was two-fold: make more money than 2018, and make more things / diversify how I make money through the work I do.
A few key results:
Record-breaking year and highest revenue to date - 2019 has been the BEST year ever for my work across both Greatest Story Creative and my speaking career. Overall, I'm up 12.5% over 2018. I also crushed / overindexed financially on 5 out of my 7 financial goals for the year, meeting many of these goals ahead of schedule / by August and September.
I more than tripled the mentoring side of my practice - By branding my mentoring sessions, offering special 3-pack deals on sessions, and generally sharing more about these services - I more than tripled the number of mentoring sessions I did from 2018!
I went from having about 4 sources of income to 8, including "passive streams" - In 2018, I only had 4 sources of income - all of them time-dependent: services, mentoring, retainers, and speaking. In 2019, I added book sales / royalties, digital products (a course), group programs, and a new one-day retainer.
I created new services AND new digital products! - To add the flexibility to my income and make it less reliant on my time, I used this goal to inspire me to create new things and ways of making money. This included starting a women's circle group event series with one of my clients (Coco, a women's empowerment coach), developing a course around my brand photography process (Brand Photo Plan), and a new, VIP-day version of my retainer program now called "Magic Marketing Days!"
How I'm feeling about it now, at the end of the year: This was an amazing goal that reminded me that making more isn't just about reaching financial heights, it's about creating. I felt empowered seeing so many results come from this goal and want to keep going with this mentality next year. I'm also thrilled that in a year where I truly worked LESS (see next goal) and got pregnant, I had my biggest (and most passionate) year ever!
Verdict: Great goal that gave me a lot of inspiration and flexibility - paid off financially and emotionally.
Goal 3: Work Less
What this meant to me in January: Who doesn't want to make more AND work less? 2018 was a really busy year, so coming into 2019, I was seeking a goal that would guide me on optimizing my time and resources so I could work less in the business than I had been previously (without sacrificing my other goal of "making more.")
A few key results:
While I made 12.5% more revenue in 2019, I worked 27% LESS! Specifically, 489 HOURS less! - If I didn't track my time in the business, I would not have believed this, but it's true. 489 hours is about 3 MONTHS of 40 hour work weeks. Now granted in 2018, I was doing a lot of the work to market and publish my book (a business endeavor). That said, even if I were to take out the time spent on writing, marketing, and publishing book entirely in 2018 (319 hours), that still leaves a difference of 170 hours - aka more than a MONTH less time spent to make 12.5% more!
Thanks to smart systems, I only worked about 9.5 months this year, took multiple breaks / vacations, and was able to take necessary downtime when I got pregnant this spring - This year, I took more time off than ever before - including every week-long break my husband had from PT school, a babymoon to Disney World in August, and I'm currently taking the week of Thanksgiving and the entire month of December (which I've done annually since 2016 for business development and/or recharging time!). I also loved having more time to be able to nap and physically handle the first trimester of my pregnancy (we're due in early 2020!) - this was the epitome of work/life balance.
I had more "passive" products to offer - Stemming from "Make More", I was able to work less and still make more money thanks to being more creative with my time through selling books, my photography course, and even pre-selling tickets to my new group workshop happening in 2020.
I attracted and gained amazing, ideal clients faster and more efficiently through continued clear marketing and branding - Though I had about the same number of complimentary consultations between 2018 and 2019, I was able to measure that the work I've done over time to refine my own branding, marketing, and visibility paid off. Compared to last year's 40/50% of fits, over 85% of who I did consultations with this year were great fits for my branding services, mentoring services, or both. Moreover, I closed more proposals, and raised my close rate from 31% to 76%! I had more ideal clients than ever in the practice, and they said "yes" more often (even though the investments were higher in 2019!) -- To me, this is the power of having consistent, clear branding, marketing, and visibility to grow your business - you can work less AND love who you work with!
Did you notice? I only "blogged" once this year! After years of writing weekly newsletters as in-depth as this one, I adopted a new, more easily repeatable format (the action challenge) and only posted one blog post to my business blog. I did this because writing in-depth letters was costing me 90 minutes a week and I wasn't seeing a justifiable return on that time. Now it's 15-30 minutes once a month or so, and next year's version of the newsletter will be an even more creative use of my time (plus my virtual assistant's) to create quality content without sucking up my bandwidth! So if you're thinking the only way to have a profitable business is to be blogging / writing newsletters constantly, there are other ways! Mind your time and its return on investment...
How I'm feeling about it now, at the end of the year: This may be my favorite of my four goals for 2019! I thought it'd be possible, but never would have imagined that I'd have my best year on record by being more strategic and working so much less than I did the year before. This was a great north star that kept me focused on the right balance.
Verdict: Total winner!
Goal 4: Have Fun
What this meant to me in January: After such a busy year in 2018, I was worried about burning out and realizing that my work needed to stay fun in order for me to want to keep doing it. The only answer: have more fun.
A few key results:
I truly enjoyed my time away from the business - Because I've spent years creating a smooth client process and smart systems for my practice, I was able to fully disconnect and take a lot of intentional time off, especially with my husband who's been buried in school books this year.
After four years of infertility, we got pregnant! - I told myself "having a baby" couldn't be a goal for the year because after 4 years of infertility, I learned there was no making that goal happen on my own. We were incredibly blessed and lucky to become pregnant this spring, so I've gotten to spend most of 2019 just feeling grateful and having fun getting ready to become a parent!
I loved the clients I worked with for services, mentoring, and retainers - I absolutely loved who I worked with this year. It was a wonderful challenge to partner with so many clients to mentor them on both business and branding. I had so much fun taking local branding package clients out for end of project coffees and lunches. It was also a joy to reconnect with past Greatest Story clients by offering my new VIP, retainer-in-a-day "Magic Marketing Days".
I continue to love what I do because it's both passionate and profitable - Because I haven't lost sight of both ingredients of a successful business (passion and profit), I'm ending the year more energized than ever to do this work and continue to grow it - because ultimately - it's still fun and it's still rewarding work.
How I'm feeling about it now, at the end of the year: This goal was the perfect perspective reminder to keep me growing the business in a way so that I and clients have more fun. Business can feel so serious, gloomy, and HARD sometimes - remembering to have fun can be a profitable exercise, financially and emotionally.
Verdict: So much fun! Can't wait for more!
Could you benefit from simple goals?
In just a few paragraphs, I've given you a snapshot of what it can do for you and your business to have simple goals - and now is the perfect time to be thinking about what your 2020 could look like.
I challenge you to pick your 4 simple goals and put them up in your office! I'd love to hear what you pick and how it goes.
