30 Day Small Business Cleanse: Day 21

A snapshot of a corner of the studio this morning.

Yesterday: Make a list of the business goals you would like to accomplish by this time next year. For each goal, list 3 concrete steps you can take. One in the next few days, one in the next few weeks and one in the next few months.

For this assignment, we tried to keep the scope narrow. It's so easy to come up with a gargantuan list of goals that exist somewhere in the future. But, since we're trying to keep this project firmly rooted in the possible rather than the fantastical, we thought it best to start small.

Over the course of the day, we came up with a list of goals that we would like to accomplish by this time next year. We started off by each thinking independently about what we would like our goals to be and then we started discussing our ideas together. As our discussions progressed, it became clear that we had five objectives that we could agree should be our priority for the coming year.

Our next task was to decide on three concrete steps to take for each goal. It was really helpful to break down the exercise into three temporal levels. By creating a plan for the next few days, the next few weeks and the next few months we were able to each take on specific responsibilities as well as make a more detailed plan for overseeing the project over the next year. We both feel very confident that we will at least make great progress in these areas over the next year if not reach our goals entirely.

Today: Review your business plan. Does it need some polishing? I bet it does! If you don’t have a business plan, now is the time to write one down!