January Members Club report and top planning tips from our members

Have you kicked off 2017 in style for your business? Or are you still feeling a bit unclear and overwhelmed about the year to come? If that sounds like you, don't worry! We are here to help and in this post 3 of our members are sharing their top  tips to help you start coming to grips with your planning right now.

This month in The WE Members Club women in business from all over New Zealand came together and discussed their struggles when it came to coming up with goals and actionable steps for the year ahead. We had some amazing live workshops including:

• Plan your 2017 Online Live Planning Workshop
• Online Courses and Memberships Live Discussion
• Planning Q&A with Expert Fiona Clark from Breakthrough Business Solutions​​

The great news is that all of the focus on planning is WORKING! Here is what our members have been saying:

"Planning makes a difference! In Dec 2016, I decided to plan ( I listened to the podcasts on WE network & Get It Done Mum...Thank you). End Result- a 20% increase in sales ( not proven if it is directly related to the changes I made- but I am guessing so). Thanks Rachel Lewis for bringing awesome women together to share thoughts, and encourage one another."

Jumi Odumosu
Founder, Hairz N Things

"I have made so many contacts that have helped me in my business and things are going so well for me. Some of these contacts have become friends and the training in the Members Club has proved incredibly valuable - I have had a total brain shift about my business since starting the training and am forging ahead faster than I ever thought possible. Thanks for all the support Rachel Lewis and for bringing us all together, you are amazing!"
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Monique Doy
Founder, Dressing Up

Member Planning Tips

We had so much fun working through our plans together- the best thing is we have a whole team of amazing women in business to draw knowledge from. We asked members to share their top tips for successful planning with you and here's our pic of the bunch!:

Natalie Tolhopf
From Catapult Your Business

'My top tip for planning is to not underestimate the power of planning your week either on a Friday afternoon or a Sunday evening. The aligned focus of working off your monthly goals, that have come from your quarterly projects and your yearly objectives; well they will come alive when you look at your actual yearly plan every single week and execute from this space."

Paula Meville
From Integral Massage Therapy
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"Look at what your top three core values are, and use these to formulate the ‘walk your talk’ aspect of planning.  For instance, integrity is one of my top values. In order to recommend to my clients to have a massage every fortnight for their health, I plan a massage into my own schedule every fortnight. This way when a client asks me how often I have a massage, I clearly stand by my integrity truth; hence Integral Massage Therapy.

Using values as one of the levers in business planning means evaluating the way, what, how, why, where, and when based on your values, and this aligns your intentions with your actions."

Tara Jackson
From Tara Jackson Life Coach

​Allocate some time at the start of your day (or week, if you prefer) to jot down all your tasks. Then use 'Eisenhower's Urgent/Important Principle' to identify your priorities. He suggested that there were two types of tasks: important and urgent. 

Important tasks have an outcome that leads us to achieving our goals.

Urgent tasks require immediate attention and are usually associated with achieving someone else’s goals. Often, these are the ones we choose to spend our time on, which leads us to constant “fire-fighting” rather than progress.

Assign each of your tasks to one of the following four categories:
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1. Important and urgent - do these first. If you have a lot of these consider how you could schedule similar tasks ahead of time in the future. 
2. Important but not urgent - do these second. Ensure sufficient time so they do not become urgent. 
3. Not important but urgent - these are often tasks that will prevent you from achieving your goal. Consider rescheduling or delegating them. 
4. Not important and not urgent - these tasks should be avoided where possible. They may be activities that other people want you to do, even though they don't contribute to your own desired outcomes. Say "no" politely if you can, and explain why you cannot do it. If people see that you are clear about your objectives and boundaries, they will often avoid asking you to do "not important" activities in the future. 

Don't forget to share in the comments and let us know how your 2017 planning is coming along!