Before we disconnect for the end of the year, let’s start thinking about what we want to achieve next year. As business owners, we want to start planning for the new year so we’ve got an idea of how to start the upcoming year, so we have a strategy to move on forward.
If you are into mindful practices, journaling is one of the best ways to brainstorm, organize, and make plans for your business.
Prompts to help you plan
I’ve got a few prompts to help your brain going:
- How do you feel about your business / career overall during 2022?
- How do you want to feel about it during 2023?
- What changes do you want to take in this regard?
- What was your biggest struggle during 2022? How can you get ready this year to overcome that struggle?
Remember that journaling prompts are not homework or a quiz. You are not supposed to write them down and answer them ASAP.
Want to learn more about journaling for your business? Check out our Journaling for Entrepreneurs workbook.
Write these questions somewhere where you’ll see them throughout the next couple of weeks (by your bed or mirror) so that as you are getting ready for Christmas dinner or New Year’s party, you have a quick reminder about what it is you want for next year.
Then, when you’re ready to sit down for a while and plan for next year, you can brainstorm all the different ideas that came to you over these couple of weeks.
As business owners, you don’t have to change your whole business model from year to year. But you may want to try out a different strategy, experiment a bit, change the things that are tiring, or time consuming, or that you just don’t love to do.
Planning Example
For example, thinking about these questions a last year, I realized I’d like to be a guest more often in other communities. It’s not something I had done much, but I had done it a bit in the past and I liked it. I think I could offer group program owners a 90-minute session where I’m in their community offering Q&A or quick website audits, and then I continued brainstorming ideas.
It could eventually grow into a collaboration, I could do monthly sessions like this inside some communities, or offer a lesson inside of someone’s course, or maybe even become a coach inside of someone else’s program! There are so many fun opportunities around this, and it all started from thinking about those questions I posted above.
So, now it’s your turn!
Where do you want to go during 2023? As a person? As a business?
Brainstorm ideas, have fun, choose the ones you think could work sustainably for you and your business, and start planning your strategy for 2022!
Business Ideas for the Next Year
At the end of 2021 we had an interview with Cassandra Le, founder of The Quirky Pineapple Studio, and brand strategist. We talked on how to brainstorm and plan new business ideas for the upcoming year. If you need some inspiration and gold nuggets to start your own planning session, listen to our interview here: