Hey friends,

this is the last episode for 2018 – thank you so so much for all your support so far! Next year in addition to these solo episodes I’ll be interviewing wonderful small business owners who are doing things differently and I can’t wait to share those conversations with you!

This week I am talking about business planning for 2019 after running a really cool online workshop on this last week. Tune in to hear about: 

• What my year in business was like and what I learned
• How I’ve managed to built community and run more than 20 free live workshops
• What an ICA is and why it’s worth defining one for 2019
• How you can make sure to set goals that go beyond numbers, that feel good and that are sustainable
• Why journaling for business feels so good and important to me

And here are some of the journaling prompts I spoke about:

• Who are you serving
• What is your ICA struggling with?
• What is accessible to them?
• Where are they hanging out?
• What products or services are you most excited about creating?
• What makes you hold back or feel jealous?
• What motivates you the most?
• What does your body need?
• How are you feeling about your prices and the accessibility of your work?
• How much do you need in order to feel safe?
• What would you like to reinvest into your business?

Listen to the Embodied Business Podcast

on Apple Podcast // Stitcher // Spotify

⋒ Hi, my name is Yarrow and I am your host.

My Embodied Business podcast explores what it means to build a livelihood with integrity, joy and anti capitalist values. I offer practical guidance on tech, strategy, ethical marketing, creativity and money and interview other small business owners who do things their own way. 

You can learn more about my work, listen to other episodes or join my community at PinkWellStudio.com

You can also sign up for my newsletter - I share free workshop invitations, resources, ideas & new episodes about once per month! ⋒

Transcript

Hey everyone, my name is Yarrow and you’re listening to the DIY business magic podcast. So this is the last episode for 2018. I’m giving myself a little bit of a break over the holidays, and I’m coming up with some really cool episodes in the new year. So this year, as you will have noticed, it’s only been solo episodes, because I wanted to kind of answer some questions and give myself some time to grow into this new podcast. But for next year, I’ve asked some really cool people if they want to be on the show to talk about that journey in business and how to doing things differently. So I’m quite excited to share that with you. This episode is all about business planning for 2019, do a little bit of a recap of my year in business, and tell you about my plans for next year. And I’ll also share some journaling prompts from a live workshop online that I ran last week on this very topic. So if you couldn’t make that then this is your chance to catch up. And I hope that it’s useful in some way. So first, I want to share something big that’s coming up for me in January. As you might know, I run a programme under the same title as this podcast called do business magic. And it’s an eight module, really comprehensive, quite cool, affordable choirs, where I’m teaching you anything from social media strategies, to building software systems, to thinking about pricing in a way that feels good to marketing yourself to building your newsletter. And there’s also a section about self care for entrepreneurs, which I find very important. So there’s a lot of screenshare videos where I’m taking you behind the scenes, and I’m showing you exactly how I’m doing things. And then there’s also things like Tarot spreads or how to guides or stories for my business. And that’s available for anyone who pledges $11 or more on my Patreon. And because I’m really keen on building community, I’m offering a round life round of this programme, starting January 28. So this will mean that if you patch $11 on Patreon, you’ll get not just access to this programme, as well as the other two courses on web design and branding now for but you will also get invitations to to monthly live workshops, as well as an online community that’s not on Facebook, because that’s distracting this community will be unteachable, where you can get to know other like minded business owners, and also be part of a directory so that we can support each other. So the two live monthly workshops will be with me. Well, there’ll be different times as most likely that anyone can join, you know, we’ll alternate times. And there’ll be recordings if you can’t make it live. And we’ll go step by step through these eight modules you’ll get, you’ll get the chance to learn more, I will share resources and you get the chance to ask me anything. So that’s, that’s great if you want a community some support, gentle accountability, the possibility to ask questions, all those things, because I know it’s really, really hard to work through programmes on your own. Because you’re all busy, you know, I totally know that. And I wanted to create something that’s really affordable for people. So yeah, so this is what I’ve come up with. And I would love it if you wanted to join. And of course, if you think you know anyone else who might want to join, please join that please share this invitation, I’m able to offer this very low price, because I’m not spending money on ads, and I’m relying on people sharing word of mouth. So thank you so much for that. Cool. So business planning for 2019. I want to start with a recap of 2018 in my business. So I launched the DIY business medic programme in spring, which was a big leap of faith. And I made the decision to make it available at very low cost and to create ongoing mutually supportive relationships with this community through Patreon. And that has worked and I really love it. I started building the Patreon at the beginning of the year. And I continue to having conversations where the day draws podcast. And that’s really exciting. I love that work. And I have invited many people again for next year because I want to go deeper and dose conversations. And then of course, I started a second podcast called DIY business magic, which you’re listening to right now. I also focus more on building community in my business and I ran more than 20 free online workshops. That was a huge time and energy commitment. But I’m so glad I made it because it enabled me to really get to know people and to get a feeling for what people actually need. And I just I just love You know, I just love meeting everyone and hearing what questions come up with people and for people and how we can help them also learn new things and advice and the retainer based services they’re offering. So this means that you can book packages of time with me and you can use that time to have me help you with things like launching a programme
Tech integrations building software system design and branding, social media strategy and scheduling, all these things, so many things. So there’s a long list of things that I can help you with over@yahoo.com. I’m changing that, I bet I’m increasing my prices for these services in January, but it can be booked at the old price to the end of the year. I also finally put a great bookkeeping system in place. And I’m embarrassed to admit that the first couple of years, just had an extra sheet and it was pretty painful to do my taxes. But now, thanks to my friend, Lisa, and Intuit, which is a really cool bookkeeping system. And that really works for me, there’s a few things that I want to get better at next year. So one thing I want to let go of more perfectionism, which feels like a never ending kind of spiral journey of unpeeling. And learning things that don’t have to be perfect. I want to get more into batching things. So right now, every week looks different, which I love. And every day looks different to of course, but I want to get more into the habit of batching things as in planning social media content for the more hormones had recording podcast episodes, maybe five at a time, and scheduled them and, and that kind of gives me more flexibility. And, and it also To be honest, enables me to get ill go on holiday sometimes because I’ll have more kind of prepared for myself, which will be great. I want to book in more buffer for, like I said, holidays and getting ill. And I want to take more time off work and the internet. So I want to make sure that I have at least two holidays when leaving my MacBook home. And I’m not really present on the internet that was really beautiful to do this summer. And I need more of that because I work a tonne. And I pour a lot of energy and love into this. And there has to be breaks. Cool. So now I want to talk a little bit about next year, and what I shared in the planning workshop. So I really invited people to start by thinking about what has worked well for them this year, what they want more of and what was hard and what was been draining. And to really identify those areas that have been difficult to think about how they can ask for support. And it doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to hire someone, or that you need to budget for that. But maybe you can trade skills with someone. Or maybe you can find a system or software that will support you with repetitive tasks that have drained a lot of your energy this year. So really, this part of planning and business I think is all about stripping back and getting really clear and decluttering before New and New Year styling. And the next steps I invited people to consider were to really start with the foundation and to think about who they’re serving. And some business goals or thoughts. This is called thinking about your ICA, your ideal customer avatar. And this is a person that you’re making up in your head that you’re defining in as much detail as possible. So for example, you’re saying, the type of person that I’m serving is 30 years old, they live in California, they have a garden and they can’t and they really into Herbes, they have a full time job. So they don’t get a tonne of time to think about self care. Maybe they’re into social justice does the volunteering in a way they love swimming and biking in their free time. And, and they’re single, just as an example randomly. And of course, you’ll be serving people with all kinds of other characteristics. But it can be really helpful to to get very clear on who you want to serve, and to have that person in mind as you’re creating content and strategies and programmes and offerings and all of that. So when you think about that, what is that everyday live? Like? What is accessible to them? Where can you meet them? And what do they want to learn more about? And then think about your own needs around creation? What do you love making for people? What kind of services and products are really easy for you to offer? And what feels hard to do what’s currently distracting you? Maybe there are things that are currently holding you back in some way. So in this case, it might be great to journal a little bit on the questions of what makes you feel like you’re not good enough or what makes you feel jealous. And what are you hesitating to share, and what do you feel is missing? And then when you figured that out, you can think about what support you need. And again, that could have you know, that could take many different shapes. Maybe you need a support group of people. Maybe you need more like minded people that really get where you’re coming from. Maybe you need your family members or friends to be more supportive of your business and give you a little bit more time.
To share stories and how was up for you, maybe there’s a skill that you feel like you’re really missing and that you want to learn more about, and maybe you can make arrangements for that in the year. And then when you’re thinking about your goals, can you maybe do some work untangling what you think you should be wanting, because everyone wants that, from what you actually want, and what the values are that underpinning your goals. So for example, very common goal and online marketing is to reach the Holy Year, six figures a year in business. And that might work for some people, but it’s a very money based focus. And it’s actually also very hard to achieve. No shit. It involves scaling your business in a way, usually, and it might involve hiring a team. And those might be things that you’re not interested in. And you might also come from a place where you don’t have a tonne of money right now to invest in ads or campaigns or hire other people. All of which is totally cool. Recently, someone wrote to me and said, you know, honestly, what I want is to grow vegetables and live in peace. And I was like, Yes, this is why we run businesses, because we want to play by on ground rules. And we want to figure out a way to trade and be creative in a world that feels good. And so maybe your goals actually tend to totally different, maybe there is a certain amount of money that you do want to earn in order to feel safe and supported. And that’s super valid. But maybe in addition to that, you want to take a certain amount of time off each week, maybe you want to, you know, start a certain set of good practice, maybe you want to have more time and energy to nurture relationships, maybe you just want to feel more free, and that you can schedule your own time and take time off whenever you need to. And when you’re thinking about growth, and how you can make those things happen, think about how you’d feel comfortable experiencing that growth. So maybe, you know, ask yourself, do you want a bigger audience? And where do you want these people come to come from? Will there be social media growth? Or your newsletter about? How are you feeling about increasing your prices? Is there maybe a way that you can increase the prices for your products and your services while also keeping your work accessible by sharing free information, such as through a blog or a podcast or through an affordable programme? And then how do you want to go to be full fueled? Are you willing to put more time in? Do you just want to get better systems in place? Do you find some sense of routine that saves you time so that you’re earning more money or have more time building your list or whatever growth you’re you’re wishing for? And then ask yourself how you’re going to bring more people in, especially as an introvert, I think that’s super important to get clear on what social media spaces are you actually enjoying? And what kind of media Do you like making, maybe you love making scenes, or maybe you’d like to start a podcast. Or maybe you want to do some PR and reach out to other people that you admire and ask them if they want to interview you, or if you can write a guest blog post for them. And then also think about this software and its destructors that can support that growth that you’re wishing for. So ask yourself things like, am I excited to you to send newsletters? And if not, then maybe I need to change my provider? Do you feel good about your bookkeeping right now? Do you have systems in place or social media that feel good? Or is there anything that maybe you’re wasting money for that because you’re actually not using it, especially in the area of software? And then maybe think about how you can bring more humans into support you maybe make more connections? I mean that to that ask people if they want to start an informal mastermind with you. Think about networking and what that means to you, and what aspects of it feel really good. And then of course, also, there should be space to think about money, how you feeling about your prices right now? And how you’re feeling about the accessibility of your work? How much do you need in order to feel safe? And what would you like to reinvest in your business? So I noticed a tonne of questions and I hope some of them have been helpful for you. I just want to say that I think December is a beautiful time to spend some time with your journal and to really just turn inward and think about how this year has been not just for you privately. That’s super important, but maybe also for your business and for what you’re wishing for the next year. Like I said, I would love to see more of you in the programme. I really think it is a no brainer.
I’m so proud that I get to offer this at $11 a month. You can cancel anytime and I’m always updating the content. I I think the community that has already come together and that will meet for live workshop is really amazing. And I’m excited to start the directory as well. So everyone gets to live their business there so that we can all follow and support and love each other app. Thank you so much for considering this. And thank you so so much also for you for your support with this podcast this year. If you like it, please keep the reviews coming. That really helps. And if you have any questions at all, do let me know Have a beautiful day.