The age-old question, ‘How do you know if you’ve arrived if you don’t know where you’re going?’ is fundamental for driving business results. Our monthly Black Dress Circle roundtable discussions and related business tools help keep members focused and achieving their goals…when the outcomes of efforts are tracked and successes are celebrated, it has a way of compounding, like interest! 

As business owners, we’re rarely in short supply of ideas for expanding our business. Rather the challenge most often comes from figuring out which road is going to offer the greatest ROI. While scenic routes can be enjoyable, they rarely enhance a business’ bottom line — and can often destroy a business owner’s quality of life. When we have a well-lit, current roadmap, we’re more likely to arrive securely and on-time at our destination.

My 1-3-5 goal planning method and goal tracker worksheets are super-effective tools for helping you keep your eyes on the road. Year-end planning is the perfect time to put them to use, too…feel free to download them to help map out your 2019 plans.

In our November roundtables, I encouraged each BDC member to identify one primary objective, their top three business strategies for meeting that objective, and then their top five action items for moving things forward under those strategies.  

Below is a real-life example of how my team and I are putting the 1-3-5 planning method into action in our own business:  

Our primary objective for 2019 is preparing Black Dress Circle for licensing to other women in other markets in 2020.   

My team and I identified three key strategies for achieving this objective:

  1. Building to eight full roundtables (we have five now)
  2. Packaging everything into sharable and duplicatable formats
  3. Developing the licensing packages and their legal components

Bonus strategy: Planting seeds in second tier cities

Then, under each of these strategies, there are 5 action items to make the strategies come into reality. For example, to increase the number of roundtables I currently facilitate, I’ll be asking current members for referrals twice per year. Another action item is to leverage live events and social media groups for greater exposure.  

Note that it’s totally acceptable to have multiple 1-3-5 plans for your business. For example, I have a 1-3-5 plan for doubling my Facebook group members, and another for launching a podcast. It’s also important to note that all these initiatives could contribute to increased revenue as well, even though that’s not their main focus.  

I always aim to challenge clients and readers in growth-inspiring ways, so I’ll exit here with one simple closing question:

What’s your primary objective in 2019?

Remember that small and consistent changes over time add up to big change and steady growth.

Onward,

Erin Joy