This bonus episode is linked to Episode 28 with Bethany Meadows, and I just wanted to have some time to reflect and just go, Bethany had some great elements from her story, which we could really learn from. There's certainly a challenge that was presented through her life in terms of obviously, she adopted four foster children into her existing family of already one child.

So, she went from one to five overnight and actually within two years of that, that she then was a single mom because her husband left. And she was also homeschooling then when she did that and the adopted children at that time because of then, I suppose all their anxieties and everything that they had, they were behind and none of them could read and they just think,  

WOW!

Like what an incredible person to take on all of that challenge. And I don't think for any minute she's going to pretend that it was easy. I'm sure it was not, but what a challenge to take on. What a way to battle through, to make mistakes, to learn to, to make progress through that.

And actually, after we finished recording, I said to her like, do you think you would've still made the decision to adopt? Had you have known that you were then going to be a single mom within two years, and her answer was still yes.  

And she said not because it was easy, but because actually her life's now so rich and fulfilled and everything from the back of it.

And she learned so much through that time. And I think that's just amazing and shows her true character as a person. How great she is and how much she's prepared to give back.  

But I think in terms of main area that wanted to focus on was Bethany talked about having business plans in place and being able to have a clear pathway towards a goal that you're going to achieve and that not having something that maybe is built out for too far in the future.

We work on a similar process ourselves.  

I think having a, a rough idea and a plan of what you'd, the type of life you'd like to be living in three to five years' time, gives enough of a distance. But actually, in terms of any solid plan, I think only 12 months is probably prudent in these times. Life moves so quickly, 12 months seems far enough away that you can make some improvements, but also close enough that it feels achievable and that you don't have to get on pipe dreams or anything like that.

And I think by keeping it so relatively short term, you can keep it relatively simple and short. Cause you don't want a business plan that runs into 5, 6, 7 pages. You're just not gonna read it. And I think that what was also quite nice from that was that Bethany linked it back to personal life as well in terms of that actually she could make sure she kept herself on the straight pathway in terms of the right areas and where to focus and what to go to.  

She also said about when your setting goals about having them being SMART and for those of you that don't know, that's being  

SPECIFIC

MEASURABLE

ATTAINABLE

REALISTIC and

TIME-BOUND

So just to give you some. Examples relating to that, right?  

Be SPECIFIC

you must set real numbers with real deadlines. There's no use. You just going,

“oh, I would like some more visitors like that.”

That just isn't specific.  

And then to make it MEASURABLE, so do make sure your goal is completely trackable. You need to have like some kind of scorecard or dashboard that can help you track it. You can't hide behind buzzwords. You can't go,

"Oh, we're going to create social influence or brand engagement."  

IT'S NOT MEASURABLE.

How do you know if you've created brand engagement or one person engaged?  

YOU'VE GOT TO BE MUCH MORE SPECIFIC AND MAKE IT MEASURABLE.

To make it ATTAINABLE

you need to be able to work towards a goal that is challenging, but possible. If you set it out to 10 years, you can go,

‍Oh, I want to get myself a Ferrari, because it feels 10 years feels ages away" actually, if you went within a year, you'd go, "Yeah, I can't achieve that."

So, where's the challenge and where's the realistic, sort of attainable possibility within that? And

WHAT YOU SHOULDN'T DO CERTAINLY IS TRY AND TAKE OVER THE WORLD IN ONE NIGHT.

Then REALISTIC.

You have to be honest with yourself. You know what you and your team and those around you are capable of achieving.

And what you mustn't do though is forget any hurdles that you might have to overcome. This is not a quick-fire process and this is

‍

PROBABLY

WHY

A

BUSINESS

PLAN

THAT'S

IN

YOUR

HEAD

JUST

DOESN'T

WORK

THAT

EFFECTIVELY

‍

BECAUSE ACTUALLY WHAT YOU HAVEN'T DONE WITH ANY TYPE OF STRATEGY IS CONSIDER ALL OF THOSE HURDLES THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE.

Then it has to be TIME-BOUND.

You must give yourself a deadline, otherwise you can just lie and cheat. If you have that, it's like

“Oh, we'd like to achieve that tomorrow”

but TOMORROW NEVER ACTUALLY COMES, does it?  

‍

Because you know, we're sat here and it's a Wednesday today, so we haven't defined tomorrow. So currently tomorrow looks like Thursday, but when I wake up in a Thursday, tomorrow's Friday, like so someday type goal is just, it's not good.  

IT NEEDS TO BE A SPECIFIC TIMEBOUND RELATED DEADLINE.  

So, I think by having smart goals in place, having a clear plan that's written down, I think what we then highlighted and talked about was that actually  

YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE THINGS THAT TAKE YOU OFF TRACK.

IT'S JUST INEVITABLE.  

Certainly, in the early stages.

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Members of staff might leave or they might just get ill and they're not able to work or a problem might prop up with a customer or a client. A supplier might go bust. There are all sorts of stuff that can suddenly fire out of nowhere and become a fire that you need to put out.

The great thing is like you must sort of divert off. You have to go off and go,

"Oh yeah, okay. Maybe I do need to put that fire out. If it's major and it's going to disrupt my plan, then I need to address it, and I need to deal with it."

But in the moment, you've dealt with that fire and you come back, now you can come back and go,  

"Oh, where was I?  … I was going that way."

And that now you've got that clear sense of direction again. Now you can get going and go,

“What was the next step?”

“What was the next thing I needed to achieve?”

Whereas actually if you don't have that clear plan to bring yourself back in line, then I think it's all too easy to basically get knocked off course and then just STAY OFF COURSE.  

So having that clear business plan just enables you to just focus things back in, bring yourself back on track to where you're going to be going.

And Bethany is obviously very clear.  

She's got three sort of stages of plans. We very much keep a strategic plan and then into a budgeting and financial plan off the back of that.  Which sometimes can lead to a bit of a staffing plan because you might need the right team in order to lead you forward.

But ultimately having some degree of clear plan that that's based on smart goals that then can hold you accountable, keep you moving in the right direction to what you really want, I THINK IT'S KEY TO BUSINESS SUCCESS.  

I THINK A BUSINESS WITHOUT A PLAN IS A BUSINESS THAT'S JUST RIDING THE WAVES.

And they may well be going in your favor at this moment in time, but they can turn.  

Having a plan just keeps you just knowing where the next step is that you need to take, moving in the right direction.  

So, I think key learning from today is make sure that you have a strategic plan, a business plan, a goal for where you are trying to get to, and there are plenty of guides and everything online that you can go and search up of how to create one.

You can always reach out to us and discuss with us opportunities and options for creating strategic plans. You've always got option to reach out and speak with Bethany as well.  

So, get planning.

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