TABLE OF CONTENTS
Business Staycation: Your Biz Master Plan in 24 Hours
We’re halfway through the Courage & Clarity Summer Series – 12 must-listen episodes I’ve chosen to revisit and showcase!
Today we’re talking about how to run your own Business Staycation. A practice that some may see as frivolous, but I believe is necessary. You’ll take 24-48 hours check yourself into a local hotel (ideally) and plan out your next quarter or year.
It’s like a corporate retreat – that anyone can host for themselves.
This episode was an instant hit when it aired last year. Our community rallied around this idea and was eager to learn how to run their own.
This practice will help lift you out of worker bee mode and straight into strategic CEO mode – so you can stop spinning your tires and start making meaningful progress on your business.
Why Should You Run Your Own Business Staycation?
If you’ve ever found yourself in a rut or uninspired by showing up to the same work space day after day, a change of scenery will boost your creative and innovative energy. Switch up your environment, even for one night, and you’ll break repetitive patterns and gain new perspective on your business. Often, we work so intensely IN our businesses, we don’t work ON our businesses.
If you follow my framework below and include some “you time” in your Staycation – you’ll leave with a strategic yet flexible business plan and a refreshed sense of spirit.
This is important if you spend time and energy on your business but have trouble making time for yourself. You are the engine that keeps your business running, when you make yourself a priority, your business will improve as well.
Now that you understand why you should have a Biz Staycation, let’s get into the details of what will happen during it!
The Details Of Running A Business Staycation
To get the full benefits of this practice, I highly recommend taking a minimum of 24 hours away from everyday life. Clear your calendar, drop your kids off at a sitter and put your email on “out of office” mode.
The goal is to remove distractions so you can get intentional with your self-care and business planning.
You can make this idea work at any budget. It doesn’t have to be fancy, I book a hotel in the suburbs of the city I live in. When you do this your ability to innovate will sky rocket – there’s a reason successful corporations run retreats for their employees!
You can book Staycations quarterly or bi-annually. They’re also great to schedule when your creative energy is in a dip. If you listen closely and watch for ebbs and flows in your energy throughout the year, you’ll start to see patterns and seasons where you feel creative, excited and on top of everything or drained and needing space to plan the next big phase.
A Staycation scheduled when you know your energy is dipping is just the boost you may need.
You can book your Staycation by yourself, or if you have team members nearby, consider making it a retreat with them as well. You can also use messaging and walkie-talkie apps to keep your non-local accountability buddy or biz bestie near by to bounce ideas off of.
The 4 Step Planning Framework I Use During My Staycations
You can follow your intuition and plan however you choose. But if you’d like an easy to follow guide, I’ll show you mine below. Get yourself some poster board, tape, sharpies and set your room up so you’re ready to write when the brainstorm session begins. Then, set up four poster boards with the following titles:
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Dreams 2019 and beyond
Set a timer for 30 minutes and write everything you want to do if you know you couldn’t fail. Don’t hold back here – get all of your biggest dreams out around your work, finances, travel and personal life. No dream is too big to get a spot on this list, go for it!
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What’s working/ what’s not
Get honest with yourself and get it all out on paper. It’s normal for you to feel disappointment when you list what’s not working. It can be painful, but don’t beat yourself up. To grow, improve and succeed you must identify what needs to change. Then you can move forward and make progress.
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Revenue Goals
Get clear on your revenue goals, there’s no need to guess at how much you should make. Map out how you can make the money and tie it into your dreams. Take your yearly revenue goal and work backwards. What services and products are needed and how much of each do you need to sell? You’ll leave this exercise with clarity on what work you need to focus on.
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Content Plan
Turn your vision into a plan by looking ahead by quarter or 6 months and map out what content you’ll produce to support your products and grow your audience. You’ll feel confident and ready as you add these content buckets to your calendar. No more guessing each week on what you should be writing or podcasting about!
If you’d like even more detail and support for the four step framework, join my Year On The Wall Training! I’ll show you exactly how to plan the last half of 2019 to have your best six months yet. You can register at courageandclarity.com/wall
