Happy Holidays! I hope your holiday season is off to a great start with more celebrating to come.
Personally, I love this season but I also love this time of year in my business! I love to wind-down at the end of the year and wrapping up projects so that I can have a relaxing holiday season with my family. Nothing is on my calendar except for some podcast interviews and I couldn’t be happier!
This is also when I love to take time to get creative and brainstorm for the next year by thinking about new ideas. This is a time where I give myself permission to dream and think about what my community of dietitians need to see their own success and how I can help them achieve their goals! From there, I determine what’s realistic and then figure out a plan for my business to give my community what they need!
This process if fun, but real-life goal setting is HARD. Let’s face it– LIFE gets in the way a lot of the time. That’s why I always think about my upcoming year with my #1 tip in mind:
Create an annual planning calendar for work AND life.
I learned about this idea in a business group and have done annual calendar planning since 2017. I love the concept of looking at my “year” and writing down big goals for my practice, as well as new ideas for content creation for social media, blog posts, etc. One of the best tips is to plan and schedule networking events, conferences, and outreach projects well in advance. Making sure to add in financial goals for each month is crucial because being in private practice, the “time of year” can greatly impact how many clients you see and how much money you bring in.
All of these things were set with my “life” on that calendar too – I wanted to work around my kids’ school schedules, upcoming wedding weekends, traveling, and my new goal of picking up my kids promptly at 5pm most days. For those of you that don’t know, my husband changed careers in 2018 and is now a police officer! He doesn’t have flexibility in his job, so it’s up to ME to be flexible for our family. I’m lucky my private practice allows me to do this. I have control over my schedule and still get to make an impact with clients (and make money too!). Because of his new job, I no longer have the ability to work at night and it’s greatly impacted how I structure my day, I have to make work fit around my life.
It’s not always easy but it’s the only way I am going to be successful.
Once I started taking the time to create an annual plan and calendar, I found that my results changed. It helps me stay focused on the ideas and goals in the calendar and not stray from the plan too much. If you lose sight of your goals, you can find yourself spinning and not only wasting time, but working less efficiently and living with more stress.
That’s why I am hosting an online workshop for the Pursuing Private Practice for Intuitive Eating program! Students in the program will be getting together for a workshop all on Annual Calendar Planning! The workshop is on Wednesday December 11th at 12:00pm eastern time. I am so excited to show my students exactly how to create an annual calendar and plan and how to set your private practice up for major success in the new year.
This workshop will cover the following:
- What an annual calendar is, and why you need to create one.
- How to break up your year to set mini goals and projects to help your business move forward.
- How to plan for networking events, conferences, and how to put yourself out there (also how much you should do!)
- Ways to include newsletters, blog posts, and social media in a schedule that works for you.
- How you are going to accomplish your goals for your private practice and make sure you don’t miss out on your life.
Are you ready to make a change that will have an impact on your practice? A change that helps you improve your private practice results in 2020?
If you want to join the Pursuing Private Practice for Intuitive Eating program, now is the BEST time to get in the program so you can reach your goals next year, and join us on this call December 11! Kick off joining the program and take part in my Annual Planning workshop session. If you’re interested in joining, be sure to schedule a call with me and I’d be happy to talk to you about the program and how it can help you reach your goals.
Cheers to a wonderful 2020!
Are you ready to start a private practice or grow your business, but are feeling stuck? Download my FREE resource on the Top 10 Mistakes Professionals Make in Private Practice. Don’t let this be you!
Jennifer McGurk, RDN, CDN, CDE, CEDRD is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist whose mission is to help dietitians Be the Dietitian you were Meant to Be. She is an expert in the field of eating disorders and also supervises other Registered Dietitians as an iaedp approved supervisor. She is the owner of Eat With Knowledge in Nyack, NY and leads a team of dietitians who support the philosophy, “Feel fabulous about food!”
Download her FREE resource on the top 10 mistakes professionals make in private practice.
