It is hard to believe, but it's already almost Q2 and we are a quarter of the way through this year.
As you look back on Q1, are you feeling happy with your results and excited for the new quarter ahead, or are you feeling a bit behind and worried you won't hit the big bold goals and revenue targets you set for Q2?
There are a few things you can do to set yourself up for massive success in Q2 starting with reflecting on the last 90 days and then strategically planning for the new quarter.
Tune into Episode 64 of the Lean Out Your Business Podcast to explore the key questions to ask yourself to assess what’s working and what’s not, and how you can plan for a highly successful Q2.
If you want to eliminate all the noise and distractions as you head into Q2 and instead have clarity and focus on what's most important, you won't want to miss today's episode.
In episode 64, I dive into:
- How to leverage reflection to improve your results in Q2
- How to recommit to the goals you still want to pursue this year
- Where to include your team in the planning process
- A simple technique for determining what to cut or continue going into the new quarter
- What you need to get clear on to create your 90-day plan
- 2 important types of numbers to pay attention to while planning
- The amount of open space to leave on your calendar
- How committing to less helps you achieve more
Tune into Episode 64 of the Lean Out Your Business Podcast or keep reading below.
There are 4 core components of a 90-day plan that is achievable without overwork and overwhelm.
Get Clear On Your Major Goals and Revenue Targets:
The first thing is to get really clear on what your major goals are for the upcoming 90 days, as well as what your revenue targets are. Your goals and revenue targets can be tied to one another, or they can be different, but you want to know both.
For example, a goal might be to launch your own podcast, do a book launch, or finish writing your book. There's any number of goals that you could have that don't have a direct monetary tie in the short term, but you always have revenue goals for each 90 days.
Know Your Focus Number:
Once you have your goals and your revenue targets, you want to get really clear on what your focus number is.
If you're unfamiliar with focus number, listen to episode 63 of the Lean Out Your Business podcast, where I gave a behind the scenes on one of my workshop series, where I walk you through what a focus number is and how to leverage a focus number to really simplify growing and scaling your business.
Once you know your goals, revenue targets, and your focus number, there is one more piece that's critical when you want to avoid overworking overwhelmed and that is defining your capacity.
Define Your Capacity:
When you look ahead at these next 90 days, what is the capacity that you have available for your business? When you look more broadly across your entire team, what is your full team's capacity for the business in the next 90 days?
If everyone on your team works 40 hours a week, everyone's individual capacity is 40 hours and the collective capacity of the team is 40 hours x the number of people. With that knowledge, you want to leverage capacity-based planning when deciding what you will be committing to do in the next 90 days. Not only should everything you commit to be able to be done within the capacity, but you also want to ensure you are leaving at least 30% of open space on the calendar. So, in a 40 hour week, that's only 28 hours of work being committed to.
Why leave 30% open space?
When you fill every single hour that you have allocated to your business, how often do you underestimate how long something is going to take, or how often do unexpected things come out of left field that you never saw coming? Sometimes these are challenges and issues you need to address but sometimes they're great opportunities that you want to be able to take advantage of.
If you have every single second of every single day scheduled and these unexpected things happen, or something takes longer than you thought it was going to take, you're left with 2 choices - you either overwork to try to get it all done or you have to say no to prior commitments in order to move forward and it ends up making you feel constantly behind.
Instead, you want to go into your 90 days really clear on what your capacity is and what your focus number, goals, revenue targets are so you can feel confident that you are working on the most important things.
References Mentioned:
- Want to do a deeper dive into the CHuCK technique? Listen to Episode 12 of The Lean Out Your Business Podcast.
- Want more information on focus numbers? Listen to Episode 63 of The Lean Out Your Business Podcast.
Ready For More:
- Ready to simplify and scale your business? My *new* Scale Without Burnout Program is a hybrid program that blends an in-depth assessment, a private 1:1 strategy call, and a self-paced digital program and toolkit. To learn more and join, click here!
by Crista Grasso
Crista Grasso is the go-to strategic planning expert for leading global businesses and online entrepreneurs when they want to scale. Known as the "Business Optimizer", Crista has the ability to quickly cut through noise and focus on optimizing the core things that will make the biggest impact to scale a business simply and sustainably. She specializes in helping businesses gain clarity on the most important things that will drive maximum value for their clients and maximum profits for their business. She is the creator of the Lean Out Method, 90 Day Lean Out Planner, and host of the Lean Out Your Business Podcast.
