Jade Boyd: I’m thinking about how I can make more money from what I already have in my business instead of creating something different because I’m not in the season of my life or my business right now where I have the time to create something brand new from scratch.

Jade Boyd: Welcome to the business edit podcast, a podcast about redefining productivity for the modern woman in business and finding ways to work smarter, not harder in business and life. I’m your host, Jade Boyd, an MBA business minimalist and productivity coach. I help overwhelmed business owners simplify and scale their service based businesses by doing less but better.

I help my clients create business minimalist strategies and systems that allow them to pursue ambitious goals while working at a human pace. On this podcast, podcast. We’ll explore simple ways to grow your business with a life first approach. If you’re ready to scale your business, bring order to chaos, ditch the busy work and spend more time living your life than managing your life, you’ve come to the right place.

Welcome to the business edit [00:01:00] podcast.

I don’t know about you, but annual planning is one of my absolute favorite things as a business owner. And so I thought it would be fun to take you behind the scenes and show you a little bit about how I am personally planning for 2025 in my business, um, based on the season of life and business that I’m in right now.

And take you behind the scenes for all things goal setting, annual planning, marketing strategy, what’s working in my business, what I’m going to stop doing next year. We’re going to chat about all the things. So because this episode actually got pretty long as I started to outline all the things that I wanted to tell you about, this is going to be a two part series.

So as you’re listening to this, if you have a moment to hit subscribe, if you’re not already subscribed to the podcast, you won’t want to miss part two, which is going to air next week. I’ll see you So you can catch the last half of this episode because there are quite a few things that I would like to share with you.

So without further ado, let’s dive right in. So the first [00:02:00] thing that I’m doing this year that is different than other years is I’m actually scheduling a retreat to go to a hotel for two nights and get the first full night of sleep. two full nights of sleep that I’ve had in months and get the time. Um, away from home having a five month old, even if I’m in a separate room, like I can always hear her right.

And with breastfeeding, like I’m going to have to pump or feed her. And for me, it’s easier to just feed her. And so if I don’t want to get interrupted, I literally have to leave the house and I’ve never. Scheduled a business retreat. I mean i’ve scheduled like an extra night in a hotel to get a project done But i’ve never done an annual planning retreat.

So i’m pretty excited for that and it’s coming up in december But leading into my retreat i’m already doing so much reflecting. Um And making a lot of decisions, honestly, preemptively, and I’m going to use that time away to finalize the planning, to finalize the reflecting, solidify my plan for [00:03:00] 2025, and then actually dig into some of the bigger projects that I need to do to actually implement my plan and maybe even batch some podcast episodes while I’m away as well, which would be phenomenal.

Um, but this is the first year that I’m scheduling a retreat and I would highly recommend it if you’re having trouble stepping outside of your business or finding time to work on your business rather than in your business. Scheduling some time away can give you really good accountability for actually digging into your numbers and getting clear and sometimes just getting distance from your business and getting that outside perspective is so, so helpful to help you realize things that you cannot see if you’re sitting in your daily environment, just sitting at your desk.

If you think of any time that you’ve taken a business retreat or even gone on vacation. Our minds work differently when we get outside of our everyday environment. And so if it’s not something you’re in the habit of doing, I would highly recommend at least going to a coffee shop or your local library or a co working space, whatever that might like, whatever that might look like for you [00:04:00] and getting some distance from your day to day life so that you can get that creative spark and that, um, like outside your business perspective as you’re looking at 2025.

And, if you’re the type of person who schedules this time away, or schedules time to go to a coffee shop, but continually schedules over it. Like a client has an emergency and you’re like, you know what? I have this time open, right? So I’m just going to schedule it then and push my time for my own business to the side.

If you find that you’re in the habit of doing that, please, please, please make sure you get the accountability that you need to set this time aside because this is just so important and so huge in terms of building a business that is supporting your life rather than running your life because there are sometimes big changes that need to happen And the sooner that you’re able to plan for those and get that perspective and make those decisions The sooner you’re going to step into a business that actually feels good for you So, please do not neglect this get the accountability like I did schedule [00:05:00] time with another business owner or a friend, um, so that you have somebody holding you accountable to actually showing up, um, put in your earbuds so that you’re not distracted, whatever it takes to make this time work for your business.

And this is one of the most common things that I hear from people who signed up for my quarterly reset program is that it really just helps them have the accountability that it takes to go through this process of planning and have the time set aside and have the accountability knowing that this is only like the first step.

five days that I’m going to get to, to work on this and go through this process, um, with one on one support from a coach. And so it actually makes a real deadline for yourself, right? So whatever you can do to give yourself a real deadline, do it. And if the quarterly reset can help you do that, it is open right now for enrollment.

So you can definitely head to the show notes and join that five day strategy intensive and get started. built in accountability and also an outside perspective from me and other business owners on your business as well. So the first thing I’m doing this different is scheduling time away from my [00:06:00] house and from my office to go through my annual, annual planning process and solidify all these decisions and start actually getting into the work of prepping 2025 in December.

The second thing that I’ve been doing over these past few weeks, um, as I’ve been working in my business and as I’ve just been reflecting on this year as a whole, is just taking notice and jotting down what’s working and what’s not working. And so, a few different things that I’ve noticed so far. First of all, digging into offers that are working and offers that are not working.

And even within your offers, even if it’s the best selling offer, what within that offer is working for you and not working for you. So a few episodes back, I talked about maternity leave this year. How I took eight weeks and how it felt coming back being that my daughter was diagnosed with hip dysplasia, and we moved Unexpectedly the right house came up and so it was just a really hectic season coming back to business after maternity leave Especially [00:07:00] having it be my first pregnancy maternity leave and first child, it was a big adjustment.

And so in the future, knowing that my offers need to work around me having at least a 16 week maternity leave. And that is something that I realized this year that I’m going to be making adjustments to my offers for next year in terms of coaching and passive income, making sure that I can hit my revenue goals if I take 16 weeks off.

And I do not plan to take a maternity leave next year immediately. I mean, anything could happen, but fingers crossed we do not. Have two under two. That’s not my plan A. Um, but I do want to start making those changes now so that I can set myself up for success and my business up for success knowing that I can take 16 weeks off and still pay myself consistently every single month.

And so if you right now, if you’re looking at your profit and loss statement for the year, and all you have is one big line item that says revenue, and you don’t have that broken down by your different offers. Make sure you take the time to actually break that down in the financial [00:08:00] metrics spreadsheet that We use in the quarterly reset and we use in all of my coaching programs to project your financials it does make it really really easy to break down your numbers by your offers and also by your Months.

So making sure that you understand what your seasons in business are, what the busy seasons are and aren’t. And what I noticed is that for my business, at least for coaching, people want to invest in coaching and get into coaching programs in September and December. And that’s kind of the busy season and where I noticed the height of interest for my programs.

And so next year I’m definitely going to be planning my launches around that. And just understanding that that is going to be the easiest season for me to sell my offers and why not just lean into that instead of trying to fight it.

So again, along the lines of noticing what’s working and not working for you, dig into your offers, not only which offers are selling the best, but also which offers you’d like the best, which offers are most aligned in your business, which offers you feel [00:09:00] best about selling and most confident in things that you want to tweak in your offers to make them feel better to you, to make them more aligned to the type of life that you want to live.

And also which month your offers are selling the best. So you can plan your promotions around selling the offers in the seasons that they’re easiest to sell in and work a little bit smarter instead of harder.

Another area that is good to notice what’s working and what’s not working, broadly speaking, marketing, right? We want to know what, not only what channels are working, but also the types of content that are working and not working. And overall in my business, what I’ve noticed time and time again, month after month this year, is that the podcast and my email list are the Best marketing channels for me, the podcasts, especially nobody comes to me for coaching without having binged my podcast.

I think every single person who’s applied to work with me has listened to the podcast consistently and already gotten the vibe check that we’re a good fit to work together. And and already got a really good idea of how I think about [00:10:00] business. Um, from a minimalist perspective, my ideas on strategy and marketing, just my values overall, knowing that it’s a good fit before they even ask me or apply for one of my programs.

So the podcast is definitely the number one. It’s also the funnest for me to work on. Honestly, it feels super fun. I get to collaborate with a bunch of different business owners. And, um, you It’s feeling a lot lower lift after 100 plus episodes, 110 plus, I guess at this point. And then repurposing that into email, but also, um, noticing that other than Instagram, which is like fun to hang out and I’ve built relationships and like keep up with people and potential clients on Instagram.

But when I’m trying to fill seats in the coaching program or trying to sell an offer. Both ongoing emails, like the regular emails that are in live time that I’m sending to my email list every month, and also the sales funnels that I set up before going on maternity leave that lead into my passive offers.

That is the number one way that I’m actually making money. [00:11:00] I know that’s harder to track from Instagram and that relationship building piece definitely plays a role in my sales funnel. So it’s not going away, but it’s definitely not the most impactful channel for actually driving sales in my business.

And then the worst channel that’s not working is Pinterest. And I have tried to get Pinterest to work for the podcast mostly, getting more, traffic to the podcast, more listeners and downloads for the podcast, and getting more downloads for lead generators. That’s really what I focused on as a service provider, not directly selling my services through Pinterest, because I don’t think that’s how people are using the platform, but creating content that people want to consume and marketing it on Pinterest.

And We’ve been trying, we’ve been really, really consistent and month by month have tweaked the strategy for over a year now. And it’s still just like for the time and effort that we’re putting into it. And for me, since my VA is doing it, the money I’m paying her to do it every month is just not worth the results that we’re getting.[00:12:00]

Not that it’s not worth it to be on Pinterest. I think that there’s value there. But if I’m paying for it, I would rather put those marketing dollars into a different channel like the podcast that I’m already seeing work. One

other thing to think about when you’re thinking about what worked and didn’t work this year, I find it’s helpful to think about like, what was your best month or your best day every year? And then what was your worst month and your worst day of the year? So for me, I think my best month of the year was really being able to go on maternity leave and get paid regularly, knowing that my clients were having a great experience with support coaches and also having set up my funnel so that I was getting passive income through digital course sales and seeing those come in as I was like completely able to have ownership of my own time and give my daughter all the attention that she needed and rest as much as I wanted to during that time.

That was definitely the best season for life reasons, obviously becoming a mom and [00:13:00] having that time was. Really, really special, but also in my business, just seeing that it could be successful without me having to be physically present. That was the best feeling ever. The worst feeling, and I already mentioned this, was coming back from maternity leave with everything that was unexpected that went on during my maternity leave and coming back so soon.

Like literally the week that we moved into our new house felt very, very chaotic and was still not sleeping well, obviously, because I had like, a six week old. So that was the hardest and something that I’ve already said moving forward, like, let’s not do that again. Let’s plan to at least have the option to do things differently.

So again, just coming back overarching, looking at your year, maybe flipping back through your journal, um, flipping back through notes that you’ve taken during CEO days, whatever that might look like for you, just take note of what worked and what didn’t work. And that can give you a really good idea of how you need to tweak your strategy or change your [00:14:00] processes moving into 2025.

Okay. My last tip for this episode before we take a break and leave the rest for part two is I’m thinking about how I can make more money from what I already have in my business instead of creating something different because I’m not in the season of my life or my business right now where I have the time to create something brand new from scratch.

And so instead I’m thinking about how can I take what I already have, what’s already working in my business, make it even better or make more money from it. So. I would highly suggest you think about this in this way as well because I think as business owners, especially if you’re a creative service provider, you get so many good ideas, right?

And it’s so easy to get that fresh start energy and that emotional high from wanting to do something brand new. It’s very shiny and it’s very distracting, but unless you take the time to actually go all in on your ideas until they are as successful as they can be, they’re profitable, they’re running on their own.

Um, Transcribed [00:15:00] they’re updated and like a really great experience for your clients, right? Until you get to that point, it’s probably not a good idea to start doing something new from scratch because any offer you create is going to take time for it to be successful. It’s going to take that learning curve.

Um, and of course, if you’re creating something upfront from scratch, whether it’s a course or a group coaching program, or even doing one on one coaching, knowing that you want to offer a framework or something like that, it’s going to take to set everything up in the beginning. So for me, Um, I actually had this aha moment by talking to one of my business edit clients because a few of my business edit clients are going to roll off my coaching roster in December and so I was chatting with some of them on, you know, whether they wanted to renew for next year, how I can best serve them if they want to.

They are not wanting to commit to another 12 months of coaching. And most of them are in the place where 12 months of coaching and going through the business at it once gave them a really solid framework moving forward. And they don’t need another 12 months, but they do want some support moving forward.

And one of my clients gave me the idea to continue doing quarterly resets for them, because it’s [00:16:00] something that we’ve done in the business at it. every three months. Um, so every three months we have a longer coaching call where we go through my quarterly reset process. And that’s been a really, really helpful process for them to go through.

I also launched it live for the first time this spring as a five day coaching intensive for people who were not in the business at it, but wanted a shorter term coaching program. And it went really, really well. Um, and actually the previous fall I did it I did an in person workshop where I went through a similar framework to the quarterly reset doing quarterly planning.

It wasn’t as in depth as I rolled it into in the live group coaching program, but it was basically the same process. And then I turned it into a course this summer. And knowing that that is something that I can offer new clients who aren’t ready for the business at it, who aren’t ready to jump into a

12 month coaching program, but also offer to my past clients who have already done the business at it But still want seasonal support and creating that plan and getting that outside perspective as they’re planning every [00:17:00] 90 days That was just a really big light bulb moment for me And so as far as offers go that’s not something that I did regularly especially This year I only offered it in q2 mostly because I was on maternity leave this summer But that’s also something that’s a little bit more sustainable for me because I can definitely serve 10 clients in that capacity for a whole week.

That’s not an issue The problem is with the business at it being 12 months. Can I can I serve like 10 clients or 15 clients? every single week out of the year and still live the life that I want to live and take a 16 week maternity leave? Probably not. And so moving forward, the business edit is going to be a even smaller group coaching program.

I think in 2025, I’m going to limit it to five. And again, I haven’t done my planning retreat yet. So that might change a little bit. And also based on who applies and if they’re really good fit, you know, um, That’s a little bit flexible for now, but I know that I can’t get 16 people in that offer, which originally when I created the program was my goal.

And now I know that’s just not sustainable. So the [00:18:00] quarterly reset has been a light bulb moment for me, knowing that I can solve, I can serve more service providers as a coach in that capacity really easily and serve my past clients. So As far as making more money or not creating something from scratch, using what you already have first, that was huge for me, or is going to be huge for me in 2025.

And then the other thing I’ll say about making more money from what you already have, another thing to think about before you jump to creating a new offer, like have you actually, like I see so many business owners be like, well, this isn’t selling, it isn’t selling and I have to ask the question, are your numbers just reflecting the effort you’re putting into selling?

Like, does it even have a sales page? Is your sales page good? Um, do you have an opt in for it or a sales funnel for it? Are you talking about it regularly? Um, have you put the effort into making it a program or an offer that you’re really proud of? Have you even tried it? Like, have you taken anybody [00:19:00] through the process just to learn what works and what doesn’t work and to iteratively improve on it?

Or are you just sitting, you know, thinking about this offer, having it on your website? And just overthinking it to the end of time and not talking about it at all because you’re not confident yet. Like, you have to be really honest with yourself about those questions, um, but something to think about if you want to make more money from what you already have, instead of constantly being in that cycle of creating something new that isn’t successful before you trash it and start something else?

Have you talked about it? Have you really done all that you can do to sell that offer and be confident in selling that offer before you go on and create something new?

Another question one of my clients asked me recently is Like, should I invest in this course that I’m thinking about? Do you think it’s a good idea? , and she was asking me about a very specific course, but what I will tell anyone who’s thinking about investing in a course is have you already gone through the courses that you already have access to and implemented them or whatever learning or education that you currently have access to [00:20:00] that you’ve invested money in?

Have you made the most, the most of those actually listened to them, actually applied them to your business and implemented them fully? If you haven’t. Then maybe it’s time to go back and access some of those things that are collecting dust on your laptop and make the plan to actually use them before you buy something else.

And for me, two things that I want to make better use of in 2025. First of all, I enrolled in Digital Course Academy with Amy Porterfield a couple of years ago and I did go through it and I did use it to recreate my Organize Your Business course about two years ago. I haven’t jumped in it since and I know that it’s been updated since then and it definitely is a course that is way more about, it’s way more than just creating digital courses.

There are so many marketing lessons in terms of creating sales funnel and how to launch an offer. How to create landing pages. And I know that there’s just so much more that I could learn and apply to all of the other offers in my business from that [00:21:00] course. So that’s something that I really want to go back to.

And then the second thing is a membership with my friend, Jenny Roth, who has been on the podcast before she was actually one of the very first people to come on the podcast. So maybe we’re due to have her back because her email insiders membership is Absolutely amazing. And if you haven’t heard of it, I’m going to link it in the show notes.

This is something that I use on a weekly basis. She includes weekly email templates, but she also includes so many different sales funnels. She has a Voxer channel where you can ask her any email questions. She does regular, um, like copy audits. There is just so much included in this membership at a phenomenal rate.

And I know that there’s so much more that I could do with this membership. And like I said, I’m already using it on a weekly basis. But there’s just so much in there that I want to use so much more than what I’m currently using right now. Like I said, email is my, one of my best marketing channels and I want to be able to fully utilize that and optimize my email funnels that are working [00:22:00] okay, but I know could be better.

And so that’s another area that I’m using what I already have access to. And if you’re interested in that, it’s something that I recommend to all of my clients. And if you’re DIYing. Um, any of your email, or if you want to build an email list, , in 2025, you need this membership. So head on over to the show notes and grab my link to join email insiders.

Okay. So to recap what we talked about so far, first of all, making intentional time to set aside and look at your goals. Something I’m doing new this year is going to a hotel for that. Second, just generally taking notice of what worked and what didn’t work this year. And this can be in the categories that I talked about, but also just in general, as you’re thinking back, your mind will tell you the big things like, you know, what worked and didn’t work, right?

Definitely dig into your numbers to get more insight, but overall, what worked and didn’t work for you. This will help you. This year, what felt good and what didn’t feel good. And then third, how can you make more money by implementing what you already have access to, or what you already have created instead of jumping to creating something new in your business [00:23:00] in 2025.

And there is so much more to dig into as far as how I’m planning for 2025. So again, if you’re not already subscribed to the podcast, go ahead and hit follow or subscribe depending on what platform that you’re on and join me next week where I will take you through part two and a few more things that I’m doing and that I’ve noticed this year, and I’m going to change for 2025.

So until next time, business minimalists, take what you learned today and get 1 percent better this week.

Jade Boyd: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the business edit podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, I’d be so grateful if you take a screenshot and share it on Instagram, tagging me at jadeboyd. co. I’m on a mission to empower a new generation of women to become the type of Of wives, moms, and business owners that they’ve always wanted to be because empowered women change their families and communities for the better, and this is how we’ll change the world.

Sharing your takeaways from this episode on Instagram will help more women in business discover helpful episodes and level up in life and business each [00:24:00] week. Don’t forget to check out the show notes for the tools and resources mentioned in today’s episode because good ideas don’t grow businesses.

Action does. I’ll see you next time on The Business Edit podcast.

Jade Boyd: And I know that This is a habit of mine when I dig into my numbers Whether it’s my financial numbers or my marketing numbers my mind goes immediately to the strategy And what’s possible what can be optimized and how we can make it as best as possible How we can make this as profitable as possible. I know that that’s where my mind goes And I have to remind myself what I want outside of business and set limits for myself Before I decide what I want inside of my business

Welcome to the business edit podcast, a podcast about redefining productivity for the modern woman in business and finding ways to work smarter, not harder in business and life. I’m your host, Jade Boyd, an MBA business minimalist and productivity coach. I help overwhelmed business owners simplify and scale their service based businesses by doing less but better.

I help my clients create business minimalist strategies and systems that allow them to pursue ambitious goals while working at a human pace. On this podcast, podcast. We’ll explore simple ways to [00:01:00] grow your business with a life first approach. If you’re ready to scale your business, bring order to chaos, ditch the busy work and spend more time living your life than managing your life, you’ve come to the right place.

Welcome to the business edit podcast.

Jade Boyd: Welcome to part two in the series of taking you behind the scenes of how I’m planning for 2025 as a business owner, everything marketing, goal setting, annual planning. And so if you missed part one last week, make sure you scroll back and listen to that episode first before you hit play on this one, because it’s definitely going to set up the context for what we’re talking about today.

So in part one, we talked about three different things that I’m doing to plan for 2025 and continuing that today. I have Three more things that I am doing and planning and thinking about, but also might be helpful suggestions for you as well as you’re planning for 2025.

So another thing that I’m doing this year, and this isn’t necessarily [00:02:00] new this year, it’s something that I’ve done every year, but it feels new. Much, much more important of an exercise this year. And that is projecting my finances, but month by month, planning out my sales for every month of the year in 2025, and getting a very clear picture of what my business needs to make, what my expenses are, when they’re going to hit throughout the year.

and how much I’m going to pay myself every month next year. And if you listen to the episode that we did recently where I had nine different women who were both full time business owners and stay at home moms, they talked about what it took for them to keep their kids at home while also growing their business.

This is something that I heard from a lot of them as well, that you have to be really, really realistic about your season of life. And how much time and energy you have to give to your business and set realistic goals for yourself and understand your capacity. And so now more than ever, I’m definitely looking at this through the lens of wanting to work two days a week and not have to be available for my [00:03:00] business outside of that and maximizing the amount of money that I can make and the amount of people that I can serve while, while knowing during this season of my life, or at least for the first three six plus months until we get into a daycare and even then it’s going to be part time daycare.

I know I have a very limited of hours that I’m willing to give to my business in 2025 and I’m setting my financial goals accordingly. And more than one of my clients recently has thrown out, you know, like the six figure year mark, which I know is a very exciting milestone for business owners. And I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have big goals, but you should set them and Know, break them down month by month.

Know the offers that you’re going to have to sell. Know the prices you’re going to have to sell them at. Know how you’re going to pursue those goals and prioritize your projects throughout the year while also making time for your personal life first. And big jumps in business. usually only happen with luck or with hustle, [00:04:00] one or the other.

It’s very rare to like 10x your income without getting a little bit lucky or without having to hustle pretty hard to hit that, right? That’s just the reality. And if you’re not willing to hustle, like, I am not willing to hustle and you can’t plan to be lucky. Like hopefully you do get lucky and get like a great feature or get a dream client who refers you to everybody and it’s like free marketing for you.

I wish all of those things for you, but you can’t always plan for those things. Right. And so set financial goals that feel realistic and also break them down and know exactly what you’re going to have to do and make sure you have the time to do those things every month in order to hit your goals. And so, like I said, this year it’s going to hit a little bit.

differently because never have I ever had so little time or I won’t say had little time, never have I ever been willing to give so little time to my business. So I know things are going to have to look different and that is going to have to play into what my financial goals are for the year as [00:05:00] well.

The next thing that I’m doing this year that is definitely hitting different is really forcing myself to look internally rather than externally when I’m planning for 2025 and not compare myself or set my goals based on what I see other people doing, but getting really honest with myself and being really internally reflective, thinking about who What actually brought me joy this year?

What are actually the best things that I’m going to remember from this year? What wore me down and felt really exhausting this year? Um, looking internally for like, what do I actually want to do? Not just what’s going to make money or help me get to my goals, which if you are ambitious or an Enneagram three or a high achiever, That is often where our minds will immediately go like, how can I hit these really big, exciting goals?

And if you’re thinking about your business in a bubble, then it’s really easy to go there, which is why I reflect on my life and my business at the same time and definitely reflect on my life first and the goals that I have for my personal health, for my [00:06:00] relationships, for my home, for my overall wellbeing before I decide how does my business play a role in that?

Because if you go the opposite way, it’s very, very easy to suck yourself into gigantic business goals that won’t actually make you happy. and might actually leave you feeling really exhausted and unfulfilled at the end of the year, even if you hit them.

So instead of comparing myself to every other business coach out there who is in, you know, most of them a different season of life than I am and value different things than I do. I am trying to be really, really intentional about looking internally and being really honest with myself about what I actually want next year and what’s important to me.

And I know that This is a habit of mine when I dig into my numbers Whether it’s my financial numbers or my marketing numbers my mind goes immediately to the strategy And what’s possible what can be optimized and how we can make it as best as possible How we can make this as profitable as possible. I know that that’s where my mind goes And I have to remind myself what I want outside of business and [00:07:00] set limits for myself Before I decide what I want inside of my business and if you can relate to that You Let me know because it’s very hard for me to stick to and it’s something that I have to try really, really hard to do this year.

And this third one is actually a pretty big one. I think every year prior to this in my business, I have been able to set big goals and goals in general. Like I was all for them. And this year, I’m not sure that I’m going to set goals. I think that I’m going to focus more on systems than on goals. And I might dive deeper into this into a future episode, depending on how my retreat goes as I get into things and what that looks like.

But there’s a few reasons why I’m considering focusing more on my systems than on setting big goals this year.

So, first of all, I know this, you know, is general wisdom, but also I’ve learned this by experience that if you enjoy the process or the system, if it is [00:08:00] sustainable, then the goals naturally follow, right? If you can stay in the game long enough and really enjoy what you’re doing and the things that you’re doing.

Mm hmm. lead to results, then if you stay in it and you have good systems in place that allow you to stay in it, then the goals are going to be inevitable if you can be patient.

And I know that if I’m able to perfect my processes and iterate my processes so that they can fit into the two day work week that I want, that it’s going to help me build a sustainable business over time. Even if I’m not going to hit a big, exciting revenue goal next year, I know that it’s going to set my business up for success and to be.

long term, a sustainable business that I’m not going to have to quit because I burn myself out or because I stop enjoying what I’m doing and begin to resent any time or energy that I’m putting into my business. Right. And so I’m definitely revamping my systems and getting even more, um, optimized automating as much as possible, simplifying as much as [00:09:00] possible and really eliminating the things that are not driving results in my business.

Even if they’re good use my time and deliver some results. I’m gonna take a really hard look at that and have to be as streamlined as possible next year, which is honestly something that I’m really excited to dig into to shift my energy and towards the things that are working the best instead of being able to spend my time on things that drive like good results, but not the best results, right?

Which is something that I’ve been able to get away with up until this point, but not something that I’m going to be able to do next year since I have these hard and fast deadlines. hard and fast boundaries on my time.

And let me just say that there are definitely seasons of life. And like I said, up until this point, that was the season that I was in when big goals are incredibly powerful, incredibly motivating, and can be really, really helpful to set. And there are also seasons of life when they are not. 100 percent necessary and may even be unhelpful.

So don’t make up goals just to have them. If you aren’t wildly excited about them and in a place where you can realistically put the [00:10:00] time and effort into accomplishing them, then you’re really just setting yourself up for failure. So be realistic about the season of your life and the season of your business that you’re in and make sure that you’re defining what success looks like for yourself.

And that That might not mean big goals, but that also might not mean setting goals at all.

And then the last thing I’ll say about setting systems and not goals, I’m not saying that I don’t have an idea of what I want to make financially next year. I’m just not really thinking about it as a goal, because like I said, I’m really iterating on what’s already working in my business. Every business owner needs to project their finances, so that is not like an optional thing.

Don’t hear me say that you don’t need to think about your finances when you’re thinking about next year, but I would see projecting my finances and planning out when I’m going to launch certain offers and knowing what my capacity is for those offers, having a marketing plan that leads to those offers.

I’m still going to do all of those things, but I’m already to the point of in my business where I am. paying myself consistently [00:11:00] and finances are a little bit more predictable. So other than changing things in my systems and, you know, my marketing processes and stuff like that, how I’m getting people into those offers, those are more projects than goals.

And I think that’s something that a lot of business owners get hung up on and they think that they have 20 different goals, but then you go through the list And I would bet that a lot of them are just projects. So a project is like a start and finish thing. You know that if you have X amount of hours, you can sit down and crank it out.

So changing anything to my marketing strategy or what I’m doing in terms of podcasting or, you know, planning out my content, um, sending emails to my list, planning a launch. Those are all projects, even though they help me get to a goal. If my goal is a financial goal or, um, the number of people that I want to work with this year, whatever that might be.

I definitely have my capacity in mind and how many people I want in my offers, but I’m more so focused on the processes and the systems and kind of perfecting and getting better at those things rather than putting too much pressure on hitting the overall goal, if that makes sense.

[00:12:00] And then there’s probably a lot of other things that you might be considering a goal that could actually be a project or even a task. So one big thing, like I said, next year I want to work two days a week and a lot of business owners might. think that that is a goal. Like if you’re not able to work two days a week yet, that could potentially be a goal because they might take a lot of work to get to that and you’re not sure how to do that.

But for me, I already have a really good idea of what it takes. And honestly, right now I’m pretty much working two days a week. I’m just letting more fall through the cracks than I would like to. So I’d like act like to actually eliminate those things from my business and tweak my strategy instead of just like letting the unimportant things drop.

So for me, working two days a week next year is literally just blocking off two days. Of my week to work and figuring out how to get regular childcare. And that is definitely not even really a project. I would say that’s kind of like a few tasks that I can do in a day.

And I think overall in my life and this year and something that I’m learning and reflecting on just as a person. As a human, as a mom, as a business owner, is that I really do [00:13:00] want to just focus on enjoying the journey and not get so caught up on, you know, striving to reach a certain destination. Whether that’s like with our house, we moved and I have so many like huge things that I want to do here.

I want to paint everything. I want to do all the projects. I love interior design, but also I want to enjoy my life and not spend every free minute Free Saturday we have working on our house. I want to make time to do things that are actually fun. And that’s something that we fell into with our old house because we were renovating it.

And then we got into a trap of like, we’re literally living in like destroyed drywall and we have to spend all of our free time fixing these things to make our situation livable. And that’s not something that I want to recreate at our new house. And I think the same can be said for business. You can look at it with the perspective of like you’re striving to hit a certain.

goal and you’re not going to be happy until you get there. But you know, spoiler alert, you’ll probably get there and realize it’s not as great as you thought it might be. Or you can focus on enjoying the process of [00:14:00] building your business, really loving what you do, being excellent at what you do. And ultimately you might hit the same results anyway.

So again, like I said, I’m not against big goals or setting goals in general. It’s definitely something I recommend for a lot of business owners. Especially if you’re not to the point where you can pay yourself consistently. There’s probably some, some goals in there and some planning that needs to happen, but that’s just not the season that I think I’m going to be in for 2025.

And I will leave it at that. Like I said, I might dive deeper into that in a future episode. So if you did listen to this one before part one, make sure you go back and listen to a part one of the series of how I’m planning for 2025. And if you already did, I hope that you took something away from this episode and, um, Are able to implement this in your own business as you’re thinking about what the next year has for you.

So until next time, business minimalists, take what you learned today and get 1 percent better this week.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the business edit podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, I’d be so grateful if you take a [00:15:00] screenshot and share it on Instagram, tagging me at jadeboyd. co. I’m on a mission to empower a new generation of women to become the type of Of wives, moms, and business owners that they’ve always wanted to be because empowered women change their families and communities for the better, and this is how we’ll change the world.

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