One of the hardest things about owning a small business is the weight of responsibility. There’s just so much stuff to do (I know, I know: hello, Captain Obvious). If your business provides a service, you’re probably making or servicing clients yourself. Then, there’s the actual business: marketing, finances, hiring, etc. And then there’s the responsibility of being a leader, both internally and externally. Whether it’s explicit or implicit, people are watching your lead. How you show up. How you do things.

And the irony in our business is: we’re telling others how to run their small businesses. Therefore, the example we set is important. I mean, I think it is. But I also realize: we’re all the stars of our own movies, haha.

But in seriousness, I do take this responsibility to heart. For me, it’s acting in our value of integrity: practicing what we preach. It’s also about honesty. Being transparent about what we’re doing and how we’re doing things, for better and worse. And since we’re all now halfway through the year, I thought I’d share a peek behind the curtain, into the Ellevated Outcomes mid-year review…

Our 2022 theme is:

Structure Creates Freedom

Within this, we have 3 priorities for the year, each with their own sets of goals, if you’d like to see.

1. Advisory Practice: Strengthen & Maintain the Quality of our Practice & Client Roster

1. Hire a Strategist by March 31st
2. Deepen our client ecosystem connections, via additional education / connection + Client Appreciation Event
3. Grow 35-40%, between our 2 core services: new clients in Achieving New Outcomes and existing clients in Strategy Manager

2. Small Business MBA: Launch an Approachable & Sophisticated Online Product mid-year review

1. Onboard our Creative Executive Assistant
2. Implement email marketing plan & PLF framework for How to Price Your Products & Services
3. Develop 3 joint venture partnerships

3. Operations: Improve Support Systems & Protect Intellectual Property

1. Research & identify new technology, needed to scale
2. Plan rollout
3. Identify IP actions needed

So, how are we actually doing at this mid-year review?

Executive summary: we’re about 80% of where we want to be mid-year, and 30-40% our way through the work for the year. This is not exactly where I want to be (have we met? ha!)… but pretty good. The Great Game of Business says that to be truly successful, you need to achieve 80% of your goals. But as with anything, how we finish the year will be just as – if not more – important than how we started. To ensure that we can complete our most important work for the year, we have two mega-important actions:

Hire another strategist + Launch round 2 of How to Price Your Products & Services.

You know me: I am not shy to ask for help 😉 so there will be more coming about this soon. But in the meantime, if you have any questions about anything in our strategy, I’d be delighted to answer them in a comment below! Otherwise, I hope that this serves as a little inspiration to take a pause and do a mid-year review of your own.