Episode 137: What will you do DIFFERENTLY in this last quarter of 2021?
We’re only three months away from welcoming 2022! For many small business owners this will bring with it a huge sigh of relief, for others it won’t. What can you do differently in the last quarter of the year to feel great about it? In this quick tip episode, Fiona talks about what to do in the last quarter of this year, how you can get started, and how you could use these last three months of the year to get your plans going.
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
Marketing for Your Small Business
The Last Three Months of The Year
Fiona's Suggestions
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Resources Mention
Episode transcript:
Hello, and welcome to Episode 137 of the My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you're listening to this in real time, it is the end of September 2021, which means we finally got three months left of this year. Some of you I'm sure will be exhaling and being like, "Thank goodness, let us like close the door on 2021." And some of you may be like, "Oh my goodness, how did we get to the end of September already."
Either way, whatever way you're feeling about this year, today's quick tip episode is going to be super important for you. So keep listening. Before I get stuck into that, I just want to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which I record this podcast the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation and just pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging and sort of pledged to work in ways that really advance and promote equality for all.
The other thing that I wanted to mention is that I have had quite a few people reach out to me and say, when are you opening the nine-week course and coaching program for Marketing For Your Small Business, again, we are almost finished the current course in the finishes mid-October. If you are interested in doing the course it is available anytime you can buy it anytime you could literally buy it right now, marketingforyoursmallbusiness.com. And then if you wanted to take part in the next opening of the nine week live coaching program, where we sort of walk through the course together, and you can ask me questions in one hour live calls every single week for nine weeks, you will actually get a discount. So, it actually serves you financially better to buy the course anytime, because then anyone in that course gets the option to opt in to the coaching program for a significantly discounted amount. Whereas if you buy it in total, that'll be the more expensive option. I know that sounds kind of crazy, doesn't it? And we do have like early bird promotions and things like that. But if you are like 2022, I really need to figure out my marketing, I would actually just advise you to go and buy Marketing For Your Small Business right now work through it at your own pace. And then when we open it up again, you'll be a little bit more advanced, because you would have already gone through some of the content. But also you really know what help you need from me, which means that you'll be able to really, really use those nine one hour sessions with me as incredibly well as you can. So if you are interested in that and you're sort of waiting and going our window will open up know that you don't have to wait you can literally jump on over to marketingforyoursmallbusiness.com and buy the course now and get started.
Anyway, let's get into today's quick tip episode.
So as I said, it is if you're listening to this in real time, it is the end of September here in Australia. It is spring time it's really getting some beautiful days happening where I live in Melbourne. We are still in lockdown at the time of recording. Goodness me. I hope we're out of it soon. I think we are set to become I think we're overtaking Buenos Aires as the city with the longest lockdown ever, in this pandemic. And yeah, I have to say it's been a total Corona coaster. I have written every single one of the emotions as have so many other people. And I also know what a privileged position that I am to you know, still have a career, still have money coming in live in a two-income household have health. so important. So yeah, just wanted to send my love to anyone who's listening to this who's also in lockdown. But also remind you that as I said at the start, we have got three months left, we've got one quarter left of 2021, one quarter of the calendar year. And I guess today's quick tip, tool or tactic is really a tool and it's getting you to think about how am I going to spend the next three months
Maybe there's one thing, just one thing in your business that you've been thinking about doing all year. And perhaps because of challenges or lock downs, or having no childcare, I'm raising my hand right there, you haven't been able to do it. And maybe you're gonna just break it down to just do the first step towards that. So say, for instance, you thought 2021 is the year that I'm going to really get to grips with my analytics. And maybe it's felt quite overwhelming. Perhaps in the next three months, the last quarter of the year, you are going to just hone in on one metric that you can start tracking. So that could be conversion rate, if you have an e commerce site, or even if you don't, if you have an a service based business, but your conversion rate might be people that sign up to the contact form people who click the call button, whatever the key action is, you want to start measuring that. So you could just think, Okay, in this next 12 weeks, I've got to figure out what it is that I want to measure how I'm going to measure it, and then a system for me to measure that regularly. And it could be the system, I know systems and processes kind of scare people, the system could literally be every Thursday at 10am, I log into the back end of whatever platform, I'm using Shopify Squarespace, whatever it is, or I look at my Google Analytics, and I just look at how we're tracking - how we're tracking on that one metric, so that you can get to the end of the year and think, yeah, sure. I didn't go full on into analytics. I'm not a Google Analytics guru. But that one thing that's been niggling me, I've been able to achieve it.
Likewise, it could be that in 2021, you'd really hope to hire more staff, or maybe hire your first staff member, even a freelancer or somebody on a contract. And you haven't got to that point yet. You may go Okay, in the next 12 weeks, I'm really going to figure out who I need, what will they do? What are the KPIs? And what kind of systems and processes would I need to set up for them to succeed in that role? And that might mean reading a book like Rocket Fuel, which is a great book about kind of staff and figuring out who's a visionary and who's the, you know, integrator and other things. It could be reading any one of the number of books by Mike Michalowicz. He has a new book this year, I can't remember what it's called. But we'll link to Mike Michalowicz in the show notes. I mean, there are so many books out there. Or maybe you could read Company of One, which is really about keeping your company really small. And maybe that will change your mindset.
But you want to use these next three months to figure out if you're going to get a staff member, what does that look like so that maybe you could start looking around for that person, interviewing people and start 2022 with that thing in place that you'd hoped to get in place 2021. And maybe it just didn't happen? For whatever reason. Maybe your one thing that you wanted to work on, is having a CRM system set up. So customer relationship management, a way of tracking your lead your people that you're nurturing, going back to clients, even a CRM system set up for, you know, your e-commerce. So it could be how much data do we have around people? Do we have their phone numbers, we can use SMS marketing for sales and other things.
So what I would ask you to do is to think about, what's one thing that I wanted to get done this year, that perhaps I'm not where I want to be with, don't put more pressure on yourself, but look at it and think, what's one step I can take towards this. And then because there's roughly 12 weeks, three months, you can literally map out 12 boxes on a page, and just think, okay, if I want to be here at the end of the 12 weeks, then where do I need to be, you know, four weeks prior, so eight weeks from now. And then again, where do I need to be four weeks prior to that, so four weeks from now, and really start mapping that out, put some things into your calendar, if you use one, put things into, you know, maybe just even keep that piece of paper, stick it up on the wall somewhere, so that you're utilizing this last three months of the, even if it's a really small step, and you can get to the end of the year and feel like okay, I did something, it could be that you go back to the three goals that you had for this year and just choose one of them. And just choose one kind of lever for that goal, or one thing that would impact that goal in some way. And then look at your 12 weeks, and realistically set some tasks and tactics for yourself to do. So that is it.
That is the quick tip today. It's really thinking about what do you want to do in the last quarter of this year? And how can you get started? In Usually, it's often we are the biggest obstacle, we are making things more complex than they need to be. We are giving ourselves all sorts of excuses. And sometimes, you know, there's valid reasons, but sometimes there are just excuses like, say for analytics. "Oh, I'm really crappy at numbers", when you haven't actually even looked at you know, "Oh, Wow, my Squarespace site actually tells me that information took all of 30 seconds to find it." So that's what I'd urge you to do to think about, what are the things I wanted to achieve this year? Is there one or one area that I'm not where I want to be? And then how could I use this last three months of the year to sort of get that thing going.
And if you're listening to this way beyond maybe you're listening to this in the middle of 2022, hello, future, then, you know, you can still use this tactic, regardless of where you are, you can think about where's the next three months taking me? What do I want to do? How can I map that into a 12 week plan? And how can I kind of set those deadlines, maybe you get an accountability partner, maybe you book in with a business coach, maybe you just, you know, find a fellow friend and you're like, let's check in on each other, this is what I want to do. Maybe you just share the plans with your spouse or your significant other, or your mom or your dad or your aunt. You know, but it's about taking action, so that your future self feels really good. But also so you finish off this year, if you're listening now, in a way that you think at least I got those things done. And also, if anyone finishes this year has just survived - Especially if you're in Melbourne, like me, you know, give yourself a massive pat on the back.
Maybe your 12 week plan is just I need a plan to survive and to feel good and to really look after my mental health. And so you're going to be putting in things to help you with that.
So that's it for today's quick tip episode. I really hope that you know, you find it useful, but I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to have a DM just send me a DM I'm at @mydailybusinesscoach on Instagram or you can always email us hello@mydailybusinesscoach.com.
And I'd love to know what's your one thing that you're going to focus on? I love love love hearing from people who are taking action on these podcast episodes. It just really makes me so happy like I'm smile every time I see these DMs coming in because it's like, Okay, this is the reason I started this podcast to help other people. And it just makes me so happy to know that so many people out there are taking action on this. So yes, send me a 12 week plan, send me your ideas, I'd love to hear from you. So that's it.
If you wanted to read a transcript of this, you can find that over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/137 as this is Episode 137 If this is your first time listening, thank you, thank you, thank you and if this is your you know, 130/7 time listening just as much, thank you. If you haven't already, make sure you hit subscribe. That means that you'll get these episodes as soon as they hit. And you'll be the first to know about any kind of events, early bird specials or anything else that we're doing over at mydailybusinesscoach.com And if you're not familiar with what we offer, definitely check out the shop over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/shop in that you'll find a whole lot of freebies you'll find everything about one on one business coaching you'll also find all of our ebooks courses like how to start a podcast how to get published Marketing For Your Small Business, even a content plan which gives you 100 amazing ideas for content if you're stuck on that. That's just again at mydailybusinesscoach.com/shop. Alright, that's it for now. I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to get in touch you can do that at my daily business coach comm or hit me up on Instagram at @mydailybusinesscoach.
