CEO Days - How to Make the Most of your Planning Days
CEO Days are specific days set aside to get a bird’s eye view of your business. They are regularly scheduled days dedicated to helping move the needle in your business without any interruptions - no email, phone calls, meetings, no staff.
The problem is, if you don’t have a plan for how to spend your time on those days, you may end up with a missed opportunity because you feel overwhelmed and unclear on where to start.
This is a post dedicated to helping you prepare for and make the most of your CEO days.
WHEN ARE CEO DAYS?
You’ll need to decide what works best for you, but here is an example schedule to consider:
End of year planning meeting - 2 Days of reviewing your business and planning for the year to come. Little to no implementation. Just Planning
Quarterly - 1 Day, end of each quarter. Review business and implementation
Monthly - 1 Day, Final Friday - Implementation days
You’ll notice that planning and implementation are delineated. If you spend all your time implementing, you’ll never make time to do the research needed to make clear decisions. The opposite is true. Planning without implementation will get you nowhere.
Finally, you may decide that you need more time than this, such as weekly implementation days. Just put it on your calendar and decide what works for you.
CEO DAYS - 3 AREAS OF FOCUS
There are 3 primary areas of focus for CEO Days. I’ll expand on each in the sections below.
How are you feeling?
What are your numbers?
What is your #1 Goal?
1. HOW ARE YOU FEELING ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS?
It’s important to take time to reflect on how things are going. For most of us, starting (and running) our business takes a huge leap of courage. There are seasons where you will feel empowered and ambitious and other times your motivation will wane. Take some time to reflect on how the overall “tone” of your business feels for you.
Here are some examples. Remember you can have equal and opposite things that feel true for you and that’s okay! It’s important not to judge how you are feeling about your business, but just to acknowledge it.
In Control / Overwhelmed
Encouraged / Discouraged
Excited / Nervous
Motivated / Unenthusiastic
Supported / Unsupported
Ambitious / Apathetic
Clear-headed / Confused
Write down how you are feeling. Next, once you have taken a moment to reflect, start to explore WHY. What’s causing the feelings, even the good ones? Sometimes this will be immediately clear, and other times you may have to sit with it for a while.
Here are some examples:
Motivated - Because I finally hired an assistant and she’s helping my free time to do the things I love.
Confused - I don’t have a pipeline of projects and I’m not sure where to focus my energy...website, social media, networking events, etc.
Unsupported - I feel like I’m doing everything on my own and don’t have the help I need to take on larger projects.
Excited & Overwhelmed - Excited because I have a few great new projects, but they are big and I feel like I need help executing.
Uncovering your feelings and the causes of them are going to help you define your focus and your goals for the year/quarter/month. SO, if you are feeling confused about business development, perhaps it would be helpful to work with a coach or take a course that can help you get clarity. If you are feeling unsupported, maybe it's time to focus on hiring a design assistant.
2. WHAT ARE THE NUMBERS?
Numbers tell a story. You need to know your numbers. But what numbers? And what do those mean? Numbers alone mean nothing without context.
A multi-million dollar design firm with hefty debt and high expenses isn’t winning.
A massive email list/social media following of people who are NOT your ideal clients isn’t going to help you.
Having 20 Discovery Calls a month that don’t turn into consultations or projects is a waste of your time.
So let’s get clear on the numbers that matter and how they relate. You will want to look at these numbers regularly - monthly, quarterly, and annually.
Money Numbers:
Gross Revenue - How much has your business earned?
Expenses - What does it cost to run your business - including paying yourself.
Net Profit - What’s leftover after you’ve paid all the bills?
Debt - Do you have any debt that you owe?
Reach Numbers:
Website Visitors per month
Downloads (you may/may not have this in your business) - If you have a lead magnet or informational packet that potential clients can download, how many are downloaded each month?
Discovery Calls - How many people book a call with you to learn more about working together?
Consultations - How many Discovery Calls turn into Consultations?
Projects - How many Consultations turn into Projects?
Social Media Numbers - Is it growing? Having a social media presence is good for business, but having a massive social media following isn’t necessarily the goal unless you are trying to be an influencer.
Quality over Quantity is the Goal
VERY IMPORTANT to recognize with your “Reach” numbers that quantity is not the goal. Quality is the goal. For example:
Twenty Discovery Calls a month with clients that are not a good fit is a waste of your time. But having 3 calls from clients who are a great fit and if just 1 or 2 of them turn into projects, you're doing something right.
10k Instagram followers who are not your ideal audience aren’t nearly as successful as a following of 1k people who could be potential clients.
Once you have your numbers and can watch the trends over time, what story are they telling you? Are you having huge success with your website visitors, but lacking the ability to convert them to clients? It may be time to focus on your language and process during your Discovery Calls. Ask yourself what your numbers are telling you, so you can get clear on what to focus on.
3. WHAT IS YOUR #1 GOAL?
The biggest goal killer is having too many goals. Set ONE very specific goal for yourself at a time and fully commit to focusing on that one thing.
Once you have taken time to understand how your business is making you feel AND know your numbers you’ll have a better picture of what to focus on. Then it’s time to turn that insight into action steps.
Get very specific about how you will achieve it. Indicate what you are going to, who else might be involved, when you are going to, how often, and for how long. Also, how will you measure your success?
Here are some examples:
Networking: I’m going to focus on in-person networking by joining a professional group I enjoy and commit to attending monthly meet-ups and meeting at least one new person each time.
Hiring: I’m going to focus on hiring a design assistant, starting with researching salaries then creating and promoting the position to hire in the next 30 days.
Business Development - I’m going to work with a copywriter to help refine my website and branding copy to convert more website visitors into prospective clients who book a Discovery Call with me. The goal is to increase Discovery Calls by 5% within 6 months.
Finally, in your quarterly CEO days, you can review your progress on your goal and start to set a new one.
Hopefully, by now, you can see the benefit of having dedicated, built-in time to work on the things that help move the needle in your business. If you want to learn more about CEO Days and planning for your business, you can do so with the Masterclass: Annual Planning Workshop for Interior Designers.
