6 Things To Review As We Wrap Up the Year

As we begin to wrap up 2023, it's the perfect time to review your business. I'm sharing the 6 things I'm reviewing to help me identify areas of improvement and uncover changes I need to make to my offers, marketing, and more.

READY TO PLAN 2024 IN A SIMPLER WAY? Register for the 2024 Planning Party: https://www.heymegking.com/2024-planning-party 

Transcript

0:58

Welcome back to this episode of mommy knows business in this episode We're gonna chat about how I'm reviewing my business as we wrap up November Start the last month of the year and look forward to 2024. So there are basically six questions or either six questions I answer or six different things I look at that is more than just, you know, money, right. And like stats, but are more qualitative, deeper, strategic questions that allow me to really reflect and review. on the business and identify any shifts or changes that need to happen. So let's go ahead and jump in and this is not a super structured process. I don't have like a template that I fill out every year, but I really think these six things are a great starting point. And I think you should absolutely write down what these six things are. And if you're kind of sitting there saying. You want to review the year you want to not do like a month to month review, but like you want to do a holistic, like, where are you now? What's working? What's not working? What needs to shift? Then these six areas are 100 percent the best place to get started in your own review process. experience. So the first thing I'm looking at is my client experience. So with all of my programs, all of my offers, especially my ongoing programs and offers right now, where could things be improved? What's going really, really well. Where do I feel like people are getting stuck? Where do I see questions happen or where are people kind of dropping off? Where is there a disjointed experience? And you know, is there something here that could be automated even too, right? So the solution is going to look different depending on what's going on. But what's the client experience like from what I can tell from the feedback I've gotten and from what I can deduce based on my point of view, this is the number one thing I look at because this does influence some of the other. prompts and questions and areas too. So it's really worth sitting there first thinking through the client experience that you're currently giving and really giving it an honest thought. Right? No one has to know these answers. So just be real with yourself. Like, what is working really well about it and what's not? And are there things that are worth changing? Um, adding, removing that you believe would improve the client experience. Sometimes when I do this, there's even stuff I realize that I'm like, eh, like it's kind of neutral, but I can tell it's not really doing what I wanted it to do. Like, Oh, I intended for this part of the program, this part of the client experience to do a certain thing. And I can tell it's just not hitting the mark. So does it need to be removed or reformatted or done a different way? So again, this is a. It's not a big bucket to think through, but it's worth really sitting there and getting honest with yourself. How is your client experience? Where do things need to shift in order to be a better client experience so that your clients truly feel supported throughout their time working with you? The second thing I'm looking at is my. Tech stack. I'm a tech person. This one probably doesn't surprise you. And I'm not sitting and looking at my tech with the intention of like radically changing anything. But I have made some platform changes this year. I've implemented and migrated and canceled accounts. And so it's really worth it for me to look at the current platforms I'm using and not only identify, you know, what subscriptions can be canceled, what apps am I not using, but also Are the software and apps that I'm using doing what I want them to do? Are there things that aren't doing what I want them to do? Where are things redundant? Where are there gaps? So, you know, especially when it comes to what I use to run my programs and the business. You know, am I enjoying using school for my membership? How am I viewing Kajabi? You know, what am I liking about it? What could be improved about how I have it set up? What about Slack? How's that feeling? What about Airtable or Notion? You know, what are all these tools that I'm using and which ones are, you know, need some tweaking, either there's some issues or they're unnecessary. Or maybe I realized while I'm doing this that there's just kind of like an, a problem, like no software is solving for me. So this is just a really big check in on like. Um, you know, especially now that I've thought about the client experience often for me, that may run into something related to the software I'm using. So we really like to spend a minute, a couple minutes thinking through the platforms. And if there are either migrations or cancellations, then I will like figure out what that's going to look like. Sometimes there's a new software that is needed, or sometimes there's a redundancy that needs to be resolved. So that's the second thing. The third thing I look at is my marketing and sales strategy. So of course this is a great time to look at the dollars and cents of where your money went, where the money came from, your marketing strategy and how it performed. But from a more qualitative standpoint, I also like to say like what content has been working really well. What content has gotten me in front of, especially on Instagram, has gotten me in front of new people. What content has really resonated with people and what content has converted. And, you know, I don't really pay attention if something flops, like that doesn't really matter, but I'll take a note. If I see that, like the same type of content or the same type of format isn't resonating, that's worth noting. But I really focus more on like, what can I identify that's working? Well, that resonates that I can continue to. You know, refine and implement. Another thing is, where do I want to recommit? You know, maybe I set out with an intention to post everyday on Instagram, wasn't able to. Do I want to recommit to doing that? What is my strategy? Did I follow through on it? If I did, great. What needs to change? If I didn't, do I want to recommit to the strategy, or does something need to change about it? Similar, you know, what platforms was I focused on and do I want to continue to focus my efforts there? Have I seen benefit from it? Do I want to add any other platforms take away a platform? How can I you know post more consistently that was the thing I've had some personal stuff going on where I've not been posting frequently or not frequently consistently. And so if my strategies that I want to get back to that, what are some ways I can do that? Are there systems I can implement, you know, a batching process, things like that. So this is a great time to really just look at your marketing and sales strategy. Where are the sales coming from? Are most of my people still coming from Instagram or are they coming from email? Right? So any of those things you can look into and explore and basically just check in on. What do you want your marketing and sales strategy to look like now? The fourth thing is your offers overall. I'm looking at my offers, what's included in each offer, the positioning, how I'm delivering it, how things are set up, the pricing, if it's feeling sustainable for like the season of life I'm in, if there are boundaries reestablished or. Established in the first place. So again, this is a very holistic, not just like which offer makes the most money, but really looking at the offer as it fits into my business and most importantly, my life and the goals that I have and what I'm working towards. And this is often where I will identify some bigger shifts, you know, if I need to change how I market or position a program, or I need to increase the price, or maybe I need to really shift what's included in it and how I deliver it. So this is going to be a really big one that will often lead to the most. Not necessarily projects, but the most things that need to shift, because when you are realizing there is a change you want to make to an offer, especially if it's an ongoing offer where people are already members or clients, you want to be really intentional about rolling out changes. You don't need to be afraid to do it, but you just want to think through the client experience of that and how you can make it feel really, really good. So then the fifth thing that I'm looking at as I review my year is where do I want to be supported more? So for example, I have been working with several mentors in different capacities over the year, and, um, you know, I decided I want to join a mastermind with my mentor. It has some one on one involvement, you know, intern to a deeper, longer, more intimate mentorship relationship. I also may, you know, want to hire a virtual assistant next year. So those are some things I'm thinking about when I'm thinking about support. So there's like support for you as the CEO, then there's support for you and personal development and growth. And like, I always believe in mentorship, so that's always a big piece of the support factor. But then there's also things like automations, right? So are there things you're doing in your business that technology could support you with? Um, I admittedly have not done a ton of automations since coming back to business because I've been a little bit more in the like, I'll just do it real fast mode, which worked at, worked fine at first. But now that I'm entering kind of the refining stage of my business going forward, this is a great opportunity to say, you know what? I don't need to be doing that manually every time there are automations I can do. And especially when I go back and look at number one client experience, there's often a lot of things. In client experience that you could automate, whether it's like check in emails or someone hasn't submitted their onboarding form or renewal stuff, you know, there's a lot you can automate that not only improves client experience, but supports you and maybe allows you to even do things you haven't been able to do. Right. So when I talk about looking at where you want to be supported more or differently, it is your personal mentorship and how you can grow as an individual. It is your team and then it is technology. And then the sixth thing and final thing I'm looking at as I review my business as we wrap up November is, is the business adding value to my life? That's really why we're doing this, right? Monetary value, emotional value, mental value. Um, the business should be adding to your life. That's a big, you know, cornerstone of how I do business as a mom right now. Business needs to be adding to my life, not taking away. If it is taking away my happiness or if it's adding stress, those are, those are red flags, right? Like this isn't meant to be adding stress. So that doesn't mean I never feel stress, but it means when I do, it's a big indicator. So as I'm looking back over the past couple of months, the past year. Have there been moments where it added stress and what needs to change to shift that going forward? And if I'm currently feeling stressed, what needs to change immediately, right? Is the business adding the monetary value I want it to? Am I able to pay my family what I want to pay our family? Am I able to invest how I want to in my business? Am I able to set goals for contributing to our family more? And is it adding fulfillment and pleasure and enjoyment? And am I like enjoying running the business? And these are all kind of qualitative questions I'm looking at around the idea of does the business add to my life? Um, where is it not, where is it not doing what it's supposed to be doing and what needs to shift, right? So if it's not adding the monetary value you want, what needs to change? If it's adding too much stress and pressure, what needs to change? Is it the delivery? Is it your pricing? Is it your business model? Is it your niche? So this can take you a lot of different directions, but it's really important to check in on, are you enjoying this? Like, if you're a mom and you're choosing to have a business, Like, there are definitely sacrifices that come along with choosing to have a business while you're a mom and it, it better be where I want you to feel like it's worth it. Right? Like I want you to get mental stimulation and personal fulfillment and like pleasure and enjoyment from running your business. And whenever we notice it's adding stress or taking away from our family, taking away from our enjoyment of our life, that's when we really need to dig deeper and evaluate. So these are the six things that I'm looking at right now as we wrap up the year. So again, number one, client experience, number two, your tech stack, the software and apps you're using. Number three, your marketing and sales. Number four, your offers. Number five. Where you want to be supported more or differently. And number six is the business adding value to your life. So I hope this gives you a great starting point for reviewing your business as we wrap up the year. And if you had any big takeaways or aha moments, I'd love to hear from you. Send me a DM on Instagram, or if you liked this episode, share it to your stories. Tag me at, Hey, Meg King would love to get that feedback from you. And if you enjoyed this episode, please go ahead and leave a rating and a review. It means so much for getting the word out about the podcast. So I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of your day when you're listening to this and I will see you in the next episode. Bye.