Why Monthly Reviews Are Important For Your Business
For me, a monthly review is super important to do every month, for personal health and for business health. So that I can make sure that I'm on track, to make sure that I can pivot if I need to. And to remind me of the things that are important.
TRANSCRIPT:
And now, why monthly reviews are important to your business.
So I thought I would just go through my process of a monthly review or, monthly reflection. Sometimes that's a better word for the process I go through anyway. And I got this idea from the Passion Planner, which is a planner that I used for over five years and really loved ,and still tout its greatness. But, as from last week, I think it was last week, I said that I was shifting back to a bullet journal for now to see how that goes. So far, I'm enjoying that too. I just took the monthly reflection from the passion planner and inserted it into my bullet journal experience.
The first thing I think about when I sit down to do a monthly reflection is first of all, I've got my business hat on and I also have my personal hat on. These kind of bleed together for me. And if you're an entrepreneur, that happens anyway. Like, we can't segregate out our home business from how we live our lives. So, the first thing I check in with myself is, what was most memorable in this last past month?
Now this is for me, was, July and I've got three or four different things listed down as most memorable. And one of those was, personally, I got stung by a bee in my foot and I couldn't walk on it for a week. I walked on it, but it was really swollen and I had to take Benadryl for a week and it was really bad. So that was really memorable and it was the first thing I wrote down. So obviously that has nothing to do with my business, but it was the most memorable thing.
Other things I wrote down, pertaining to business in particular, was meeting up with Anthony via zoom. That was really a great visit for us personally. Cause we're friends too, but also, as a stated in the personal segment of this podcast, it really helps solidify a mindset shift that was happening. It was there just on the cusp and talking with Anthony really solidified it and made it real. So that was really important for my mental health, really, surrounding the business and the stress of trying to work a full time job and also have the side hustle, which has never been a side hustle.
That's part of the mindset shift for me. I've always been an author first and then had some other thing I was doing, and now the roles are reversed and that took some getting used to. The next thing I think about when I'm doing this monthly reflection is those lessons learned.
One of the biggest ones for me this month was that I can dream really big and the people around me will applaud me .Because, to be honest, sometimes-- I call it self regulating, but it's more like self sabotaging. So I'll have some great grandiose awesome, rad idea, and then I'll talk myself out of it. And list all the reasons, in my head, why it won't be a good idea right now, or why I don't have the energy for it right now, or why it's not a high priority for me right now, or how it will hurt someone else. I tell myself these stories that my family will be disappointed if I put all my energy into this area, because then I won't be spending time with them as much. And those are just stories that I'm telling myself.
And really the truth is if I have a dream and it's really important to me, that people around me are going to applaud me. They're gonna support me, and that was really evident when I decided to run my own workshop and retreat next summer. I've gotten a lot of positive response from that. So that's, that was a really big lesson for me.
Other things came up too, but this isn't all about me. I want you to know why monthly reviews and reflections are important to your business. So think about those memorable parts of the month, because this is also a celebration, too. This isn't just like business hat on, bottom line, did I make money this month? It's all encompassing. It's holistic. So what what was memorable? What was great about this month?
And then those lessons learned too, because believe me, you're going to forget what those are, especially at the end of the year, when you do a whole yearly review, looking back on your whole year. You'll forget those little monthly lessons learned and it's fun to look back on those. So the three biggest lessons that you learned, and sometimes you won't have three, but that's just what I aim for.
I only had two this month. A
nd then you go through a planner review, and this might look different based on what planner system you use. Maybe you'll be looking at your Google calendar. Maybe you'll just have, like a. 90 day planner where you shift into a really project based goal setting and you make plans for a whole quarter and so maybe this is better to do like a quarterly review for you, but I really find that monthly reviews are most helpful, especially if you have a smaller-- I guess it doesn't matter what size your business is, but I think monthly reviews are important. You can have quarterly reviews, too. But monthly reviews are important.
So looking back over the past month and in whatever format you have and you use and just really assess your priorities for that month, maybe your plan was to work on your email funnel, your emails that you use to funnel people into, have you tried the AB testing on the subject lines and is everybody opening them? Are you cleaning out your list regularly? Do you want to clean out your list regularly? Have you done the research on what's good or bad about doing that? And so if that was your priority for the whole month, how did you do with that?
Assess those priorities. Was that actually something that was helpful to your business? Did you not do it at all? Because something else came up that was more important? And you just shifted and pivoted, which is totally great too.
Review your month and assess how you spent your time and if you feel like it was worth it. For my planner review, my priority assessment, one thing that I really didn't Have a handle on one thing I really wanted to do was these sample edits. I work for a company called Book Butcher. And the way it works is a potential client will submit a sample chapter and then a bunch of editors will edit it, and then the author will connect with those editors that he or she felt like he had a connection with or liked the job that was done in the sample edit. And then will hire whichever editor works best for that person.
And I haven't done any. I didn't do any sample edits in July. I have to do them or I won't get the jobs.
You know the plan of when I was going to do them didn't work out so well. So I came up with, I did a little brainstorming session during this monthly reflections and came up with a new plan. So I really think that's gonna work. I also wanted to get a couple of podcast episodes out and I did, and that was really important to me. And I felt really good about that.
Now I'm going to have to be planning more topics. So if you have, dear listener, some topics, business related, business advice or questions that you have about strategizing for your business, whether you're an entrepreneur, An author, or a doctor or a coach or anybody that is running their own business and really wants to get a handle on projects that are just being dropped. Then, let me know how I can help. I'll adress some of those topics in future podcast episodes.
The next thing I think about when I'm doing my review is actually the accomplishments, and this is somewhat similar to the planner review and assessing your priorities. But I also like to write down all of the things I actually accomplished because, as a creative person who has really high expectations of oneself, I fall short quite frequently. And so it's easy for me to spiral into that negative: I didn't get that done. I'm a bad business owner, I'm not being successful. And I just go into this negative spiral. It's really helpful to me to write down the things that I do get done. And even if they're smaller things, I still write them down because, as a whole, all together, seeing all of those little things, they add up to a big amount of work that has been done.
Like, I filed my taxes. That took a lot. I decided on having the retreat. I decided on going to Nashville for the conference. I bought a new mattress which is going to help sleep and that's going to help me be productive and efficient with my business. So that was a good business goal met.
Yeah, there were a lot of things I'm not going to go through again, everything that I accomplished this month, because this podcast episode is about you. So list down your accomplishments, big and small business wise, and also personal wise. And then step into a little bit of forward thinking and look at the steps for next month.
If you did your planner review and you assessed your priorities and you realized you didn't quite get a handle on something that you wanted to get done. What could you do next month instead? How could you take steps next month for ensuring that project would be worked on more.
For instance, I talked about earlier, I'm going to be focusing on just podcast work for the month of August. And then keeping up with those receipt tallies and saving money. Those are some tasks that I was really successful with last month. And I appreciated that about myself and I want to continue doing well in that area. So those were my two steps for next month.
And then it's also fun to think about how I'm different. From month to month, what has changed in me personally or as a business owner. For one, I was different in July than I was in June because I feel more committed to having a sustainable, healthy routine and schedule of work/sleep/life balance. And I've decided to focus on that one thing at a time for my Friday project for the month.
So that's how I'm different in July than I was in June .
And then I write down in my journal, in my plan, the things or the people that I'm grateful for. And this is a really healthy way to keep your mindset up. We want to have positive thoughts while we're navigating weird Coronavirus-y days. And if our businesses are lagging because of the restrictions on people coming into businesses-- if you own a restaurant, you might be having a hard time.
I have a friend that has, I have several acquaintances actually, that have yoga studios or teach yoga. So they've gotten really creative about how to make money while all of the gyms and yoga studios are closed down. Time to be creative and time to be grateful. And maybe you can be grateful about your creativity and that you can come up with ways to pivot and get your business moving in a way that maybe it wasn't before. So that you can be more efficient. Or make more money. And everybody likes that.
And then I think about improvements. What can I do differently? And what are those action steps that will get me started on that?
And of course, those are going to be different for you every month. And that's the point of doing a monthly reflection, just to stay in contact with that part of you that has goals and has drive and wants to accomplish things and wants to be successful. And if you are an entrepreneur, then that's just in your blood. That's who you are and that's how you live. And breathe. You want to be successful and you want to accomplish things. Otherwise you wouldn't be entrepreneurial.
What are those things that you can, do to improve your situation or get you closer to reaching a goal for your business? And for your personal life, as well?
Once again, I have assumed that my dogs would be quiet in the office while I'm recording. And of course they're not. And there's been this monster fly flying around the microphone for the last 25 minutes. So, if you can hear that, I really apologize. I hope it doesn't come up on the audio feed.
For me, a monthly review is super important for my personal health and for my business health to do this every month. So that I can make sure that I'm on track, to make sure that I can pivot, if I need to. And to remind myself of the things that are important and to make sure that I'm on track for those important things for myself, physically, mentally, emotionally-- for myself, personally, for myself as a business owner.
And I will leave you with one example of a fun way to do a monthly review. I like to have quiet time in the morning. Sometimes I do this on the weekend when I've got extra time. And I will just sit with a beverage of choice in the morning, whether it's tea or a mimosa. And sometimes I even do this in the hot tub, though that can be a little messy. So, I will sit and do my monthly review in a couple of hours, because I liked to take that extra time. It becomes a journaling exercise for me. But I keep it. And I look back at them every month when I do my, when I did my July monthly reflections, I went back to June's and read that again, just to see where I had come from. And how I had grown, or did I stay stagnant in certain areas?
And then again, like I said, at the end of the year in December, I go through all of them and read them all and see how much I've accomplished over the whole year, because it really is true that we overestimate what we can get done in a shorter amount of time. And we underestimate what we can do in a longer amount of time. So maybe I think I can get all this stuff accomplished in August and I don't and I get all bummed about it. But if I look back in December and see all the things I did in the whole year, I'm usually overwhelmed with gratitude, and just astonishment.
Wow. It was a crazy year. And look what I got done.
So it's a really great process and, practice that I appreciate. And I've been doing it for years and I think it will be really important in your business going forward.
Because for all those reasons, I like doing it alone. But I have a writer friend of mine-- he's very prolific and he makes his living as a writer and he makes, I think, a seven figure, eight figure income as an author and a teacher, and in his author business. So he is the CEO of his company and he and his wife, who also helps him in the business, they go out to a really fancy dinner once a month; take themselves out on a date.
And while they're eating, for part of that dinner, they go through this out loud together, and they have a different checklist. And they look at the things that they wanted to do for the month for their business. Did they get it done? Why not? Do they want to try something new? Did they think it's going to work? They'll brainstorm together and they'll have this business meeting, but it's at a really fancy restaurant and the business then pays for this really expensive, fancy dinner. And that works for them.
So find something that's fun for you so that you can incorporate this as a monthly practice in your business world. And I think that you will be, I'm pretty happy with the results. So if you have a different way that you check in with yourself on a monthly basis, I would love to hear your ideas. Please leave your comments on the website. And I will chat back with you.
Thanks so much. See you next time.
