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Are you working ON your business, not just IN your business?  I ask this question a lot because as small business owners daily operations can bog us down and we don’t stop to think about our company on a grander scale.

I encourage you to set aside one day a month for a MONTHLY REVIEW.  However you schedule this in, make sure that it’s on your calendar for EVERY MONTH.  I like to do the last Friday of each month.  Make this an intention for the next 10 months of the year.  Consider this an appointment with yourself and your business. This appointment is as important (if not more) than a consult with your best customer.

If you didn’t do one for February, do it this week. Mark your calendar right now with 3-4 hours to spend ON YOUR BUSINESS.

In the monthly review, complete the following:

• Read your company mission statement.  Are you living your mission?  (If you don’t have a mission statement, spend 20 minutes drafting one.)
• Assess your niche (the special thing that makes your business different).  Are you working with clients that are true to your niche?  How can you better attract those customers?
• Review your sales plan.  Are you meeting your quota?  If not, what can you change to increase sales?  How can you better promote your business?  How can you sell better?
• Review your networking plan.  Are you meeting other wedding professionals?
• Examine your advertising.  Are you making a return on your investment?
• Examine your expense budget.  Are you spending too much?  Are you under budget?
• If you have employees or contract workers, assess their contributions to your company.  (You should have a quarterly, bi-annual, or annual review with them.)
• Review your goals for the year:
  • Are you working to achieve them?  If not, how can you improve?
  • Have you completed your goals?  Are there new ones you want to add?
  • Look 5 years into the future.  Are you working towards achieving long-term goals?
• Review your intentions for the year:
  • Are you living them?
  • Do you need to reassess?

What else?  Share with me!  What do you like to examine in your monthly review?
Get in the habit of doing good things for your business. It will pay off in the long run!

Want this in a FREE DOWNLOAD… click here: Sage Wedding Pros Monthly Review.  Find other downloads by clicking here.

STOP.  BREATHE. REVIEW.

Today, let’s step back to January 1^st… and the weeks leading up to it.  Let’s grab those plans, goals, and intentions that we set for 2010.  Where are you at?

Here are a series of questions I want you to ask yourself when reviewing these items:

Intentions

• What was your intention?
• Are you staying the course?
• If not, what do you need to do to get on track?

Goals

• Where are you in achieving your goals?
• Have you broken down your goals into chunks of achievable micro-goals?
• Have you properly set milestones to guide you in accomplishing your goals?
• Are there any goals that you need to tweak and readjust?
• Are there goals that seem unnecessary or unimportant?
• Are there new goals you want to add? (remember, we left it to 5 goals for 2010… be reasonable)

Plans

• How are you sales coming along?
• Have you hit sales targets for January and February?
• If so, do you want to readjust your goals for the rest of the year?
• If not, what do you need to do or change to get there?
• Are your expenses in check with the budget you made?

Now that you’ve done this.  Make a date on your calendar to revisit these same questions on March 23^rd next month… and the next… and the next.  See how that works?

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Yesterday, we discussed 5 tips for realizing your goals.  The first of those tips was visualizing the end result.  Studies have shown that visualization can greatly improve an athlete’s performance.  It can also be used in accomplishing personal and business goals.  Today, we’re going to work on visualization a bit more.

Visualization is daydreaming with a purpose.
- Bo Bennett

Developing your vision…

Visualization can be powerful in moving towards your goal because it gives you a feel for what the result is like.  First, you need to create a vision of this result.  David Allen, author of Getting Things Done says “You often need to make it up in your mind before you can make it happen in your life.”  He gives 3 basic steps for developing a vision:

1. View the project from beyond the completion date.
2. Envision “WILD SUCCESS”!  (Suspend, “Yeah, but…”)
3. Capture features, aspects, qualities you imagine in one place.

Visualization exercises…

So, what does one do when they are visualizing?  It can be as simple as closing your eyes at your desk and letting your mind wander for a few minutes.  Or, you can fully commit yourself to this a part of realizing your goals.  Investing 15 minutes a week on visualization can not only move you towards action, but also get you totally FIRED UP.  I get really excited when I start to see the future.

Here is a quick and easy visualization exercise:

1. Get out of your office. If you work from home, go to another room (bedroom or living room).  If you have an office, go to a nearby park.
2. Close your eyes.
3. Clear your mind. It’s important to become focused.  Attempt to erase the things running through your mind a mile a minute.  It can help to focus on other sounds.  You can turn on light music if that helps.  But, I find it useful to focus on small little sounds, like wind.
4. Think of one goal and envision the end result. What is it like once the project has long been completed?  What are all of the positive things that will come about?  (No negative thoughts here.  You want to envision good things.)
5. Let your mind race. Have fun with this.  Enjoy the emotions that you get from having this dream come to life.
6. Where next? Before you close out your vision, think of the very first thing you want to do next and commit yourself to working on it at a specified time.

Putting your thoughts on paper…

It’s natural to have a million things run through your mind when you are working on visualization.  Resist the temptation to write things down while you are going through the exercise.  However, when you are done, use the energy and positive emotion to brainstorm.  I find it useful to have a pad of paper next to me, so that when I’m done with my visualization exercise, I can write it all down.  Part of writing it down is a journalistic exercise in expression.  And, part of it is so that I can identify the things I need and want to get done to accomplish my vision.

How do you work on your vision?  We’d love to know!

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In December we wrote down goals, made plans, and set our intentions.  We’ve started 2010 with bang!  We are eager and ready to take names, take charge, take action.  It is January 5^th and we are totally FIRED UP!  And, so it begins…

But January turns into February, turns into March, turns into… blah, blah… December 2010!  At that point, will you look back at the goals, plans, and intentions you made and smile?

I think you will.

But first… you’ve got to put your plans into action.

5 TIPS ON REALIZING YOUR GOALS, PLANS AND INTENTIONS:

1 – Visualize your outcome

Visualization is very powerful in realizing your goals.  It’s the premise of many books written to help people realize their dreams: The Secret and Think and Grow Rich.  It’s a powerful meditative tool that athletes use in achieving success.  I remember sitting in swim practice and having our coach walk us through meditation where we would visualize how we would swim, and what the result would be.  (First place, of course; shattering my personal best time!)

In David Allen’s book Getting Things Done he discusses that the first part of beginning a project is knowing what the outcome will be.  He says:

Choose one project that is new or stuck or that could simply use some improvement.  Think of your purpose.  Think of what a successful outcome would look like: where would you be physically, financially, in terms of reputation, or whatever?

Let’s try it.  Think of one thing you want to accomplish.  What does the end result look and feel like?  The more often you do this, the more tangible this goal becomes.  You can feel it, taste it, hear it.  It becomes real.  With good practice, visualization becomes a part of your life and your goal becomes highly integrated in the way you live.

So… where are the goals, the plans, the intentions that you made?  Do you have them readily at hand?  Take them out weekly and take the time to visualize.

2 – Define the first step

I’m a list-maker, so naturally I like to break down my goals and plans into hundreds of little baby steps.  But, in reality, once I’m done with my list, I can be a little overwhelmed: “1039 to-do’s just to get this website up!”  That’s not encouraging!

So… let’s focus on one thing at a time.  What is the very first step that needs to take place?  Focus on the first piece.  It’s that first step that you need to get the ball rolling.

This first step could be as simple as “phone Sally to ask her about her biz” or “spend 45 minutes researching web designers” or “email John to ask him for carpenter referrals”.  Make time to do the first step.  Once that’s done, move onto the next one.  Move towards your goal one step at a time.

This is how good habits are established.  You know how it goes: it’s soooo hard to go to the gym that first time.  But, once you’re on a roll, you’re on a roll.

3 – Find a method of accountability

If you REALLY want to make your plans a reality, you need to find a method of accountability that works for you.  This may mean taking on an accountability partner that checks in with you.  It can be a colleague, a friend, or a relative.  When I started mmm… paper, I formed a little random group of women who wanted to change their careers.  We got together monthly to drink wine and check in with each other.  This can also be as informal as telling your sister your goals and asking her to check in with you weekly.

Accountability partners can also help you get over the fear of accomplishing a goal.  Once you share your goals with someone, they become even more tangible.  Once it’s “out there” they’ve become part of reality.  There’s something powerful about sharing your hopes and dreams with people.

If you aren’t prepared to share your goals with the world, find something that you can do to hold yourself accountable.  This is where knowing your numbers can really pay off.  Tracking your performance – whether its sales or weight loss – can be very powerful in determining how you’re doing.  Open up an Excel spreadsheet and start tracking down your numbers.  Chart your progress.

4 – Review your goals

Schedule a small block of time to review your goals weekly.  It’s important that you do this weekly and not monthly.  A month is a little too long to let things slide through the cracks.  When I review my goals, this is what I’m looking at:

• Where am I at in achieving this?
• Do I need to readjust this goal?
• Is there something I’m neglecting on my list?
• How do these fall into the other things I have to accomplish in my biz?
• Do I need to reprioritize my workload?

And, then… visualize (see #1).

5 – Be flexible

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Don’t strive for perfection. Strive for excellence.  No one is perfect.  Perfection is not something anyone can achieve.  Excellence is a state of being and something you can BE.  It is a something you constantly work at in your life.  Be excellent!

And, with that… be flexible.  We’re hard on ourselves.  We really want to do things, be things… achieve our hopes, goals, dreams.  But be kind to yourself.

In your weekly review, if you need to tweak stuff, it’s OK.  Did something fall behind schedule?  As long as you don’t have a hard deadline (to a client or colleague) this is OK.  Do you realize that one of your goals is a bit more than you can handle?  Change it.  Flexibility is important to making sure you’re still having fun doing all of this.

Be kind to yourself and be flexible!

Happy New Year everyone!  May your goals, plans, and intentions become realities in 2010!

What’s your tip?  Share with us and with other wedding pros!

An intention is a determination to do something or act a certain way.

We like intentions, as opposed to resolutions, because they are so much more mindful.  We are intent on doing something in 2010.

When I think about this past year, two words sum it up: CRAZY CHANGE! I moved twice, had a baby, joined Sage Wedding Pros, and continued to grow my Wedding Planning biz (Sweet Pea Events). Needless to say, the word “rest” was nearly non-existent – both mentally and physically. A couple of weeks ago I got super sick with the swine flu (yick, I know!) and had a lot of time to reflect on some things that I want to change. I had a major wake-up call: I realized that even if I was healthy and physically resting (ie – watching a movie with my husband) my mind was still spinning. Instead of enjoying the moment, I was thinking about my to-do list and what goal I wanted to tackle next, checking my phone for new email/tweets/facebook messages. All this to say, I feel like I haven’t been “present” when I’m supposed to be – and wanting to be – enjoying spending time with my 8 month old baby Carson, chatting with one of my girlfriends, or listening to my husband tell me about his day.

My (Kelly’s) Intention for 2010:

With that, my intention for 2010 is to focus on REST in the midst of what is sure to be another busy year. Michelle and I have plans to take The Simple Plan across the country, which I am SO stinking excited about! However, what I do know is that when we have down time it truly needs to be down time. We all need to re-charge and I am always preaching that to other people…but not always do I take my own advice. So, in this New Year my goal is that you’ll hear me talking more about the following: treating myself to a massage, taking my son for a long walk to the park, reflecting and writing in my journal, enjoying a bottle of wine with a girlfriend, getting more involved at my church, not feeling like I have to multi-task while I watch a movie…and putting my family and friends first! Work is super important to me, but at the end of the day my loved ones need to be above everything else. If I’m not taking care of myself, I sure won’t be able to take care of them the best that I can. I’m off to do some yoga and REST my mind.

What’s your Intention?  SHARE & WIN!

We want to know what your intention is for the New Year.  Post a comment with your intention from now through Wednesday at 9pm EST and we’ll pick one person to win a free ticket to The Simple Plan in Dallas.

An intention is a determination to do something or act a certain way.

We like intentions, as opposed to resolutions, because they are so much more mindful.  We are intent on doing something in 2010.

Here are my (Michelle’s) intentions for 2010:

• Family Intention: PRESENCE & FOCUS
  Shut off the computer and the mind and be more present with my husband Andy and my daughter Lili.  Focus on them and prevent the mind from wandering.
• Organizational Intention: CLEAN & DO
  I’ve been reading Getting Things Done, by David Allen and am excited to put his strategies in place.  I’m a huge list-maker, so I like his easy techniques.  I also like his purpose: “Get it out of your mind, so you can focus on other things.”  By draining your brain of all the “to-do’s” you are better able to focus on getting things done.  (And, it ties nicely with my family intention too.)
• Business Intention: STUDY, LEARN & DEFINE
  With my move cross-country, I will do LOTS of homework before jumping in to this very different market here in the Southwest.  In case you didn’t know, Seattle and Miami are -  night and day – opposites.  (tee-hee, it’s true!)  I will research, plan, and define the 2010 course for mmm… paper.  I love learning.  So, I’m going to be digging in for lots of education.  (I’ll be sharing my learnings with you too.)  Exciting changes ahead!
• Relationship Intention: MEET MORE PEOPLE
  This is an easy and fun one for me.  I love meeting new people and hearing all about them and what makes them tick.  I’m looking forward to meeting people at Eventology this spring, at The Simple Plan in various cities… and hopefully a couple more conferences I have my eye on.  I’m also excited to meet more people here in Miami, in and out of the wedding industry.

My intentions are pretty simple.  They aren’t life-changing or earth-shattering.  But, they are purposeful and mindful to me, my family, and my business.  Bring on the new year!

What’s your Intention?  SHARE & WIN!

We want to know what your intention is for the New Year.  Post a comment with your intention from now through Wednesday at 9pm EST and we’ll pick one person to win a free ticket to The Simple Plan in Dallas.

Happy 2010 to all!

An intention is a determination to do something or act a certain way.

An intention can be a goal or a plan.  It can be a big change or a small change.  It can be something personal or something business.  It can be the breaking of a bad habit and developing a good habit.  The key to making an intention and seeing it through is in visualizing the result.  Being able to identify the result is important in actualizing your intention.

This week, we’ll be sharing our intentions… I’ll be posting mine tomorrow and Kelly will post hers on Wednesday.

What’s your Intention?  SHARE & WIN!

We want to know what your intention is for the New Year.  Post a comment with your intention from now through Wednesday at 9pm EST and we’ll pick one person to win a free ticket to The Simple Plan in Dallas.

Happy 2010 to all!

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As we gear up for the New Year we’ve been working on preparing ourselves for 2010.  Last week, we had a series of goal-setting posts.  In goal-setting we made a list of 5 things we want to do in our businesses next year and determined SMART strategies for accomplishing these goals.  It’s equally important to think about how much we want to earn in 2010 – creating a financial goal for ourselves.  Without pinning down some of these numbers, you’ll have a harder time actually creating a profitable business.  Our mission is to help you create a sustainable enterprise in the wedding industry.

This week we are going to work on financial plans.  We are going to cover the following:

• Budgeting
• Sales Planning
• Investment/Purchase Planning

Let’s get into Budgeting today…

Knowing where you’ve been…

The first important step in budgeting is knowing your history.  You must know where you’ve been to know where you are going.  For this reason, it is important to keep good records of your expenses.  If you haven’t been good about doing this in the past, start now.  This is akin to eating healthy.  I’ve been guilty of putting on a few pounds this summer, it’s time for me to get on track now.  The same can be said of tracking expenses.  If you haven’t been good about this, start now… before it gets worse.

Earlier this year, I wrote about some methods that I like for tracking expenses and accounting.  My favorite of these is Quickbooks.  They now have an online version which is easy to use and easy to access.  It sounds like an intimidating program, but it is actually quite easy and user-friendly.  This is especially true if you don’t plan on learning all the nitty-gritty details about debits and credits.

Once you have a system in place for tracking your expenses, determine where you spent your money in 2009.   How much did you spend on the following aspects of your business:

• Advertising
• Office Supplies
• Staffing
• Professional Fees
• Marketing
• Education
• Travel & Mileage
• Other

Plan for where you want to be…

Budgeting is all about setting goals for your money.  Once you know how much you spent in 2009, you can plan for what you want to do in 2010.  Here are some questions to ask yourself when reviewing your 2009 expenses:

• Which expenses were too high?  How can you adjust these for next year?
• Which areas would you like to spend more money on?
• How can you cut costs?  Are there things you don’t need?  Items that were wasteful?
• Did you have expenses that caught you by surprise?  Can you plan for these in 2010?
• What do you want to do with your money?

After looking at your 2009 expenses, flesh out a plan for 2010.  Here is an Excel template to help you build your budget for the new year:

SageWeddingPros-MonthlyBudget

Tomorrow, we’ll discuss your SALES PLAN and define how much money you want to earn in 2010.

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This week we are setting goals for 2010… woohoooo!  On Tuesday, we defined 5 goals we want to accomplish in 2010 and yesterday, we set strategies to ensure that these goals are SMART.  Today I’m going to give you some tips in setting and accomplishing goals.  I’m also going to bring in some tips given to us by other wedding pros.  And, I’m going to ask you to share your tips too!

10 Tips for Goal-setting Success

1. Write them down
   This may seem pretty basic, but if you don’t write down your goals, they may as well not exist.  You may have them in your head, but the tangible reminder of them is very powerful.  The exercise of defining your goals and determining SMART strategies is key to making them actually happen.
2. Print them out and post them in your office
   This is a great tip from Annette Warnick, owner of Swanky Tables.  She says, “This keeps me on track and focused. I also like to revisit them regularly, along with my business plan, to tweek where needed.”  The visual reminder is useful in keeping your greater goals in mind when your daily tasks can often clutter your time and energy.
3. Cut your 5 goals into a series of small baby-steps
   Some of your goals may be HUGE.  In the process of writing them down, this can be exciting.  But, when you actually get into the nitty-gritty, it can become overwhelming.  I’m a huge fan of making lists out of my goals.  I disect each goal into 5-30 steps – a to-do list of sorts.  I then allot a time frame for each step.  If I’ve given myself 14 steps and my deadline is 6 months, I break this down into weekly or monthly tasks.  This ensures that I’m actually ACTIVELY WORKING towards the goal.  Whitney Elizabeth, Wedding Photographer, uses the Mac Program called “Things“.  This powerful software allows you to create long-term goals and lists.  It’s a very comprehensive way to organize your to-dos.
4. Get a buddy
   Oooooo… I love the idea of having a GOAL BUDDY!  This is someone who you check in with from time to time to see how each other is doing with accomplishing their goals.  Make sure it is scheduled frequent enough that there is consistency and accountability.  It can be challenging being self-employed because ultimately no one know if I’ve missed a self-imposed deadline.  But, if I have a buddy, he or she knows!  It keeps me honest.  It also gives you someone with which to share your progress and successes.
5. Get a rival
   My  brother and I had a challenge last year.  The first of us to lose 10% of our weight would buy the other dinner.  I won!  (Paul, I’d still like to cash in on my dinner at Delfina. )  He was actually an unlikely partner for this because he lives in San Francisco and I was in Seattle at the time.  And, even though we are siblings, we don’t usually have competitions of this sort.  We would email each Monday with our weights.  It was a long battle, but it was a fun one.  Friendly competition can help you accomplish a goal.  Just remember to play nice and fair.
6. Keep a journal
   I love this tip from Jasmine Star, Photographer.  She says, “The best advice I have is to keep a journal of your goals, so you have something to keep you accountable to what you want to achieve.”  Jasmine uses her journal not only in looking forward by setting the goals but also to look backward to see how much she’s accomplished.  In my own business I often feel that I have so far to go and so much to do, but when I sit back and look at what I’ve done in 5.5 years I get really excited and proud.  The journal is a GREAT way to reflect on this.  It is also helpful in working through some of the challenges in accomplishing your dreams.
7. Reassess and restrategize
   It’s OK to tweek your goals from time to time.  In fact, constantly updating your goals will ensure that they happen.  You may learn that in the update of your website, you are looking 43 steps instead of what you initially thought was only 14.  This is OK.  Make the changes.  Do it right.  Don’t be discouraged.  Get back on the horse.
8. Be realistic with timing
   When Paul and I did our weight-loss challenge we both thought we would be done in 6 months.  We each fell off the wagon a few times, but 18 months later we were each at goal, or close to it.  What is more important: that we missed our deadline at 6 months, or that we hit goal at 18 months?  I say reaching the goal is more important than the timing of it.  Of course, there are time critical deadlines, and you want to ensure that you do things in a timely fashion.  (A website update that takes 2 years will be obsolete by the time it is complete.)  But, the message here is that a) you need to be realistic about how long a project might take, and b) if you realize the project will take longer than initially estimated, assuming it is reasonable, keep at it.
9. Reward yourself
   When you reach a goal, or when you hit a milestone, reward yourself.  In fact, incorporating this reward into your goal sheet can be very motivating.  A unique reward is even more powerful, so be creative.  Possible rewards for hitting milestones can be something like a pedicure, while reaching that goal could be a day at the spa.
10. Set more goals
    Don’t get too comfy… what else do you wanna do?  How do you want to rock the world?  Make a date each December to set more goals.

Sooooo… what are your goal-setting tips?  Post a comment below and share with our readers!

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Yesterday, in part 1 of our Goal-setting for 2010, we sat down to define 5 goals for 2010.  There may be a million things you want to accomplish in the year, but narrowing it down to the top 5 gives you a short list of prioritized things you want to achieve.  Today, we are going to work through the SMART approach for activating our goals.

SMART Goals

How can you make sure that you’ll achieve your goals?  They have to be SMART!  In order for your goals to be SMART, you need to ensure that they are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Acheivable
• Realistic
• Timely

Bring out the 5 goals that you defined yesterday, and let’s make certain that they are SMART.

Specific Goal…

How specific have you defined your goal?  Get into the nitty gritty details.  Define the who, what, where, why, and, when.  What exactly will your goal accomplish?  “I want to save the world” is not a good enough goal.  “I want to save the world of hunger in 2010 because there are too many starving people” is a more specific goal.

Measurable Goal…

What sort of benchmarks can you give yourself along the way?  How will you know that you’ve reached this goal?  How will you measure the success?  You may say, “I will accomplish my goal when each person in the world has 3 meals a day.”  You may also break this down into benchmarks: “Part 1: African people will have 3 meals a day, Part 2: Asian people will have 3 meals a day, Part 3: European people will have 3 meals a day… and so on.”  I like breaking it down because it gives you incremental measurements along the way.  It’s also a good way of creating baby-steps.  (This is something that I’ll go into a little more tomorrow.)

Achievable Goal…

Is achieving this goal realistic with effort and commitment?  This is where you have to take a long hard look at your goal list and be honest with yourself.  I think this is the hardest of the SMART goal strategies.  Some goals are not easy to accomplish in one year, or with limited resources.  This is a good question in helping you determine what is truly possible.  Maybe it isn’t possible for me to solve world hunger in one year.  Maybe I should take a step back and redefine my goal.

Relevant Goal…

Why is this goal significant?  Why is an important part of your business?  If your goal is to redesign your website, talk about how it is important to the branding of your company, and an important part of your marketing plan.  Make certain that your goal is not just something that is fun to do, but that will also take your company to the next level.

Timely Goal…

When will this goal be achieved?  How will you know that you have completed your goal?  This is something that I feel is also good if broken down into baby-steps.  You may want to break your goal into 10 part snippets with the last one being your due date.  Give yourself a deadline because it’ll hold you accountable to ensure that it gets accomplished.

Free Download on Goal-Setting the SMART way for 2010…

Sooo… we have a quick-n-easy little template to help you in writing down your 2010 goals and writing the SMART Strategies.  You can download it here:

Sage Wedding Pros – SMART Goal Planning Exercise

For other Sage Wedding Pros’ download, visit our collection of wedding industry downloads by clicking here.