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Planning for the year ahead as an online entrepreneur

Planning for the year ahead as an online entrepreneur

by | Goals, Planning-Organization-Productivity

Planning for the year ahead as an online entrepreneur

Wow, another new year is upon us, are you planning for the year ahead as an online entrepreneur? 

You may resist planning in your business because the thought of it feels difficult. Friend, with even an outline of where you’d like to go and what you’d like to accomplish it, will keep you from feeling insanely busy EVERY single day. 

I’m sure you’ve heard if you don’t know where you’re going how will you know when you get there. This holds true in business as well. 

You’ll always have people and things that will pull you around in your business. 

But, you put together a plan it will create the focus you need to move ahead. Cause I know you do not want to be in this same place next year. 

Reflection

Reflecting on the things that worked, areas of improvement and dropping what you need to walk away from. 

What was really successful this past year? What did you achieve?

What didn’t go as smoothly as you hoped this past year? What challenges did you face and overcome or not overcome?

What pulled your attention away from your goal?

What were the numbers?

Gather all the status of your business. How many followers you have on your social media accounts. 

What was your profit, expense, income, clients? 

You’ll want to make sure that you’re measuring your progress.  

What is the vision for the next year?

What’s the vision for your business? 

Do you have an idea of where you want to be in three years? Come on, it’s time to write down the vision you have for business, where are you going?

From your three-year vision, what can you do in the upcoming year to move in that direction?

Planning for the year ahead as an online entrepreneur

Let Me Guide You Through An Annual Plan

Firstly, pull out the calendar and figure out the actual number of working days you’ll have in the quarter. What days do you plan to take time off for vacation, rest or leisure? 

Block those days off in your calendar now. 

Secondly, grab your notebook it’s time to create an exhausting list of all the projects that you want to accomplish in the next year. When I say exhausted, I mean get it all out even those crazy ideas. No project is too small or simple for the list. Write down everything that pops into your head, without any judgment.

What projects are in aligned with your vision

With your exhausted list of ideas, which projects do you feel is the most aligned with the vision and mission of your online business. Next, go on and cross off anything on your list that is unaligned or doesn’t bring a sense of joy. 

Then, circle all the ideas that you feel are aligned with the vision of your online business and rank each of the tasks by importance to you and your ideal clients. This will aid in where you need to start. 

Each quarter will be assigned three projects to achieve! Basically, one per month. Start with the projects that have the most impact on the growth of your online business or is the quickest path to cash. Either highlight the three tasks for Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 with a different color or note the Q in front of the task.

Mindmap the Quarters

My favorite way to create a plan is, to begin with, a mindmap. I’ve talked about mindmap previously in the post if you’d like to read it. 

In the center of a new sheet of paper pick one of the ideas from your list. This is how you start your mindmap.

Circle your idea in the center of your page and begin to create lines off of this idea with all the items that need to take place in order to bring it to completion.  Then create small accomplishable tasks off of items that need to be completed. 

For example, if one project in the next quarter is to create a new opt-in. You’ll need a landing page for one of the items. What are the small accomplishable daily tasks to create a landing page? Here are a few ideas. 

  • Find images 
  • Write Copy
  • Create Wireframe

What else do you need to do? 

l

Little Side Note

If you’re planning to create a new offering this should be your single focus for the one whole quarter.

Get it scheduled

If you have a project management system you can set this all up inside, so that you know what to do when. If not, a paper calendar or Bullet Journal will work just fine. 

At the top, write out your online business mission, vision, and goals for the first quarter. Under this breaks it into three columns. One for each project. 

Looking at your list if you had to pick just one project what would it be? 

Start with that one. 

Under the Project Header

Now we are going to put in all the tasks that need to be completed by who and when. Will you need any resources, such as a new software application, to complete the task? 

Not all the tasks must be completed by you. It’s very important that you stay in your lane and delegate out the tasks that can be done by someone else.

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Action Steps For A Clean Inbox

Action Steps For A Clean Inbox

by | Planning-Organization-Productivity

Action Steps For A Clean Inbox 

Does your cluttered inbox cause you to feel scattered and chaotic? Not to mention out of control and a total time suck. If you feel this way, these are action steps for a clean inbox that will have you feeling calm and in control.

In reality, either you control your email or it controls you. Here are the action steps I use when clearing and organizing an inbox. Once completed you’ll take control of email organization and keeping your inbox in check. 

I’ve gotten a look or two when I ask clients does your inbox control you or do you control your inbox? While most want to say they are in control, the facial expression will tell the truth. 

An inbox that is chaotic will cause a waste of time and energy. 

Your inbox should be treated as a tool in your online business, it should not be where you spend the bulk of your time. Here are the action steps for a clean inbox, therefore giving you the steps you need to finally take control of your inbox.

Labels and Filters make for a clean inbox

Setting up labels and filters is the first step to an organized inbox. In the past, I've created a number of labels, but I've scaled that back a bit. 98% of the time if you go looking for an email, likely you’ll search for a keyword or person before you go and look for it. If that’s not the case, how are you finding those emails? Searching is quick and easy. 

Here are the best labels or folders that I’ve found to use;

  • 0-Immediate
  • 1-Action
  • 2-Active
  • 3-Hold
  • Finance
  • Finance/Payable
  • Finance/Receivable
  • Review
  • Unsubscribe

Any specific folders that are needed in your business. Such as client or product folder. 

Let's talk about these labels or folders and the purpose they serve. 

If you notice I have a number in front of a few of the labels. You may also use a character, such as an exclamation point or dash. It’s really your preference, you can change these later if need be. 

0-Immediate 

Immediate is the emails that must have immediate action, as in less than 24 business hours to complete or respond. 

1-Action

Action is the emails that require action by you but doesn’t require immediate action.

2-Active

Active is to store the emails for active projects that are getting a number of emails. Generally speaking, I would suggest creating a filter to put them directly into the active folder. The filter can be on an email address or subject. As a result, you know where to go when looking for an active project. 

3-Hold

Hold is for emails for meetings, travel, reservations, activities. Usually, anything you need to hold for a later time. Hence they are tied to a specific date or an agenda that will no longer be needed after the event has taken place. 

Finance

Finance is used to hold the emails that need to have an action done with them. Such as added into your accounting software or anything that may take longer than a couple of minutes to complete. Once the action has taken place, the email can be moved to either the payable or receivable sublabel/folder pending what it is. 

Review

Review is for emails that do not have a timeframe as to when they need to be reviewed. This is where I put the marketing emails that I like to skim and archive. 

Ashlyn from Ashlyn Writes calls her folder Read At Leisure which I think is a cute name. 

Unsubscribe

Unsubscribe, is for all those emails that you signed up for but no longer read. This folder can either be manually added to or a filter can be created. 

Although, I’ve done it both ways, personally, I prefer to manually add these when I’m sorting through my emails. Since some of the marketing emails will be added to my review folder to be skimmed later and possibly archived. 

Inbox Applications

You have options, options and more options when it comes to inbox applications. I can’t even remember all the inbox applications I’ve tried out. At the present time, I regularly use Spark and  Kiwi as they both have a certain set of features that I like to use. Do not be scared to try different applications, you need to figure out what works for you. You have so, so many possibilities! 

Why I like Spark

I like Spark because it has an app for my iPhone, while Kiwi is for my desktop. I can pin emails, save canned responses, schedule emails, and have emails come back into my inbox. 

Not to mention, they also have a paid option for teams to chat back and forth on emails. One other feature is Quick Reply this option allows you to set up canned responses that can be sent with a click of the mouse. 

For example, this can be used to send a quick email to let your client know that you’ve received the email and will take a look at the request. It is handy dandy. 

Why Kiwi

Kiwi brings your Gmail to your desktop and if you have multiple Gmail accounts they receive tabs to jump back and forth with. 

Kiwi, together with Boomerang you’re able to have a number of the same features as Spark. Including, setting up emails to be sent at a later time or to snooze an email to review later. 

l

Little Side Note

When cleaning an inbox filters will be your best friend. Filter like messages together to either file, delete or mark them read.

Get out of your inbox

As an online business owner, it’s important that you get out of your inbox. After all, your work should not be driven by the emails that you receive.

Instead, it’s best to block time to work on your email. Schedule when you’ll check and sort your emails. 

As an entrepreneur, it’s important that you plan and schedule inbox time. Otherwise, you’ll find that you’re using it as a procrastination tool instead of revenue-generating activities.

To begin with sort your inbox when it’s first opened. Everything gets filed in the correct label or folder so that it is completed in the correct time block. 

It is possible to get a clean inbox, it just takes a bit of time to clear out the clutter. Once you have the system in place email is so much more. 

Get'em while they last

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Quarterly Planning May Not Be Sexy

Quarterly Planning May Not Be Sexy

by | Goals, Planning-Organization-Productivity

Quarterly Planning May Not Be Sexy ​

The fourth quarter is just around the corner, while quarterly planning may not be sexy, it’s necessary for the success of your online business. 

You may resist planning in your business because the thought of it feels difficult. Friend, with even an outline of where you’d like to go and what you’d like to accomplish it, will keep you from feeling insanely busy EVERY single day. 

We all pick our difficult. Would you rather have a couple of hours of difficult or day in and day out difficult? In the end, it is always your choice. What do you feel is the best use of your time and energy?

Let Me Guide You Through A Quarterly Project Plan… 

Firstly, pull out the calendar and figure out the actual number of working days you’ll have in the quarter. Are you taking any time off for vacation, rest or leisure? 

Block those days off in your calendar now. 

Secondly, grab your notebook it’s time to create an exhausting list of all the projects that you want to accomplish in the next three months. When I say exhausted, I mean get it all out even those crazy ideas. No project is too small or simple for the list. Write down everything that pops into your head, without any judgment.

What projects are in aligned with your vision

With your exhausted list of ideas, which projects do you feel is the most aligned with the vision and mission of your online business. Next, go on and cross off anything on your list that is unaligned or doesn’t bring a sense of joy. 

Then, circle all the ideas that you feel are aligned with the vision of your online business and rank each of the tasks by importance to you and your soulmate clients. This will aid in where you need to start.

Quarterly Planning May Not Be Sexy
l

Little Side Note

If you’re planning a large launch to take place in the next quarter and you know all focus needs to go into this. This would be your only project for the quarter. 

Mindmap the project

My favorite way to create a project plan is to begin with a mindmap. I’ve talked about mindmap previously in the post if you’d like to read it. 

In the center of a new sheet of paper pick one of the ideas from your list. This is how you start your mindmap.

Circle your idea in the center of your page and begin to create lines off of this idea with all the items that need to take place in order to bring it to completion.  Then create small accomplishable tasks off of items that need to be completed. 

For example, if one project in the next quarter is to create a new opt-in. You’ll need a landing page for one of the items. What are the small accomplishable daily tasks to create a landing page? Here are a few ideas. 

  • Find images 
  • Write Copy
  • Create Wireframe
  • What else do you need to do? 

Get it scheduled

If you have a project management system you can set this all up inside, so that you know what to do when. If not, a paper calendar or Bullet Journal will work just fine. 

At the top, write out your online business mission, vision, and goals for the upcoming quarter. Under this breaks it into three columns. One for each project. 

Looking at your list if you had to pick just one project what would it be? 

Start with that one.

Under the Project Header

Now we are going to put in all the tasks that need to be completed by who and when. Will you need any resources, such as a new software application, to complete the task? 

Not all the tasks must be completed by you. It’s very important that you stay in your lane and delegate out the tasks that can be done by someone else.