2020: Our Recommendations for Success

2019 was a whirlwind of travel, work and adventure.  The year went way too fast.  This New Year has already started off in a good way.  Rest, family, travel, and work.  We were literally on the plane from Iowa to Cleveland on Day 2 of the New Year.

So what helped us keep our sanity and stay focused with everything that was going on?  A few things that made 2019 successful and we are recommending for 2020.  Why? Because 2020 is going to be a roller coaster ride no matter how you slice it.  Our goal: Finish the ride stronger and better than we started.

1. Flexible & Consistent Planning. Annual goals, 90-Day goals and action plans that make your success inevitable. 90 day action plans allow you and your team to keep scanning and make strategic changes as the environment changes.  We are always aligning our business strategy with our life map so that our lives are in sync with our business and with each other.  Get the free download.
2. Priority Setting: We created a practice of using our personal online calendars and physical organizational calendar to map out our organizational and personal priorities .  Plus, we are mapping out time for self-care for ourselves and all of our team members so we avoid burnout.  Each member sets detailed weekly and daily priorities so that even with all the moving around, we were all able to keep focused.
3. Go Digital: The other thing was to continue to reduce the use of paper. We stopped taking notes on paper.  Our younger clients are likely saying “it’s about time”.  The ability to use the cloud to share documents among our various teams and keep everyone in the loop and with access as things moved and changes.  With all the travel it lightened our file load and meant that everything was accessible no matter where we or our team members were located around the world.  We will continue with this strategy and recommend it for our clients.
4. Profit First: Last year, we began implementing a process called profit first in our business.  This is the business version of your grandmother’s envelope budgeting system.  Based on the book, Profit First by Mike Michalowicz, you to commit to set aside a percentage of revenue as profit each month in advance of spending on your operations i.e. paying bills.  This practice took something and it has transformed the way we look at our business’ financials and cash flow.  For our nonprofit clients, we have translated a version of this practice that supports our nonprofit clients to create multiple revenue streams for programs and set aside reserves.

In 2020, we are refining our systems and using these strategies in a “rinse and repeat” formula to insure that we keep up with the pace of change and flourish.  Our 2020 goals are bigger and bolder yet they are building on our 2019 track record of success.  This is the year to set up strong foundations for your work and go boldly towards your vision while you can.  And at the same time, We suggest you continuously scan for what is needed to make a difference in accomplishing your overall vision and your goals for 2020.

These four strategic practices represent our business practices and how we support our clients.  If you like this, give us a call, let’s discuss what kind of support you need to make changes in your organization  facilitating the manifestation of your vision in 2020. Use this link to schedule a time for us to talk.