The Nurturing Power in Your Calendar

“A business is a living entity, breathing, growing, and making an impact on nature.” 

– John Omokayode

That quote isn’t the only one you’ll find on the internet to describe a business as an independently conscious being.

Your business needs a lot of the same things as a living organism to survive:

• Shelter (aka infrastructure)
• Food and water (aka revenue)
• An instinctual need to grow and reproduce (aka expand)

When these basic needs are met, it ensures the survival of itself and its community (aka its employees and customers). And while these basic needs stay the same, they can shift depending on environmental factors.

That’s probably why, some days, being an entrepreneur feels like trying to wrangle a relationship with a too-tired child or a needy romantic partner.

Having regular (play)dates outside of product delivery and marketing can help keep your relationship healthy and ready to respond with most changes in the environment. These regular dates will also help you stay inspired and maintain your responsibilities as your business grows.

Here are some regular dates to keep with your growing business. No matter what occasion you’re meeting for (yearly anniversary? Quarterly getaway? Weekly lunch date? Daily coffee?), try to include these 3 things: celebrations, planning, and numbers.

Anniversary Annual Date

Annually, take half a day to celebrate your achievements and growth over the last year and review your key metrics so you can set goals for the next year.

Meet with your Virtual Assistant or your mastermind buddies to choose a milestone from each quarter and share what you learned or why it’s important.

Then make some big picture plans for the next year:

• Revenue goal
• Growth metric goal (e.g., number or students or subscribers)
• 1 or 2 other big projects (e.g., a website rebrand or pivot)

These big picture plans will lay the foundation for the next year of your relationship with your business.

Financially, bring in the expertise of your accountant to ensure taxes are paid and get a general review of your revenue, profit, and loss over the last year.

Quarterly Date

Quarterly dates usually last 3-6 hours (depending on the size of the team involved) and focuses on deciding on the larger projects you’ll take on or continue this quarter that directly impact your annual goals.

Start with celebrations: What went well last quarter? What was your favorite win? What did you learn?

Review how things are going in the business so far. What areas need attention? Is Lead Generation suffering? Are you struggling with converting customers? Take an honest look at how each area of your business is running and determine what the weakest link is. 

Brainstorm all the ways/projects you could reinforce that weak area and then distill it down to the top 2 – 4 projects you’ll work on this quarter to address the need.

• If you want to increase your email list by 20%, you might decide to start increasing your publicity by pitching to a certain number of podcasts per month.
• If you want to increase your revenue by 20%, you might decide on a new offer or a new promotional schedule for your existing offers.
• If you’re working on a rebrand, decide what steps you need to take to complete it?

Check in with your accountant to take care of quarterly tax payments and review some basic financial KPIs:

• Total revenue – where are you in relation to your business’s annual planning goal?
• Profit – we highly recommend accounting for your profit before anything else, as documented in the Profit First method developed by Mike Micalowicz.
• Operating expense ratio compares your operating expenses to your total revenue, profit, and owner compensation.
• Owner compensation ratio compares your compensation in relation to your total revenue, profit, and operating expenses.

Monthly Date

This date likely won’t take as long and will probably be a bit more tactical and focused on specific categories. Set aside a long lunch date (1-2 hours) to make it feel special.

You guessed it – start with celebrations! What was your biggest win or lesson. They can be anything. Stuck? Try thinking of the following categories:

• Marketing
• Skill set
• Client relationships
• Operational
• Personal

Tactically, you’re going to look at what you want to accomplish this quarter and decide what parts of the project you’re going to do this month.

Review your financial KPIs and make your allocations.

Weekly Date

This may feel more like a brief check-in, sort of like determining who’s going to take care of which school runs for the week. Set aside an hour a week to give you and your business a head start and a plan for the week ahead.

What are you celebrating from the last week? Sometimes, these wins feel smaller…but they still count! You’ll celebrate the big wins anyway, so even if you’re celebrating that you stuck with meal prep for the entire week, that’s a major achievement with everything you have to do!

Tactically, take a look at the work you plan to do this month and decide what you’ll commit to doing this week in service to your monthly goals. 

Daily date

Before you start working, take 5-10 minutes to get a feel for what you and your business will do for the day.

If you have a team, implement a brief, highly structured daily check-in with them so everyone is on the same page and has an opportunity to connect with one another.

Regular, loving attention to your business helps it grow, just like in any healthy relationship.

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• How to identify your ideal clients (in real life)
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• How to get that full-bodied yes from your next client

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