173. A 9-Step Framework for Getting Focused and Intentional in our Coworking Businesses in 2021

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173. A 9-Step Framework for Getting Focused and Intentional in our Coworking Businesses in 2021

00:00:01 Welcome to the everything co-working podcast, where you learn what you need to know about how the world wants to work. And now your host coworking space owner and trend expert. Jamie Russo, Welcome to the everything coworking podcast. This is your host. Jamie Russo. Thank you for joining me today. We are going to talk about how to get focused and intentional heading into 2021.

00:00:43 If you follow me on the podcast or on Facebook or in my weekly newsletter, you know, that planning for 2021 has been a big theme of mine. This is partly because I am historically not a great planner. And I fall into the many traps that you fall into when you don't plan ahead. And 2020 is evidence that this is no time to not plan and get ready for the year ahead.

00:01:16 So this episode is for you. If you are ready to take control of your business in 2021, 2020 has had a lot of us feeling out of control and a little stuck in our business. The uncertainty of managing through a global pandemic will likely continue for some time. It's not over yet, right? But our businesses will not survive. If we don't get focused and intentional,

00:01:44 we cannot control everything, but we control our efforts, our plan, and our intentionality around what we want to accomplish. So let's get set up to survive and thrive in 2021. So on the podcast today, I'm going to walk you through the framework that we're going to use in our design to thrive in 2021 workshop. It is nine steps. We're just going to go high level today.

00:02:11 And before we dive in, I want to share two opportunities with you. If you're working on opening a coworking space, then this 2021 planning idea will apply to you. Although it'll be a little bit of a different approach. If you're not already running a co-working space, if you're, if you're ramping up, then you can go through the framework, but you'll be in a,

00:02:34 in a different place than someone that's already up and running. But if you're working on opening a coworking space, I want to invite you to join me for my free master class three, behind the scenes secrets to opening a coworking space. If you're working on starting a coworking space, I want to share three decisions that successful operators make when they're creating their coworking business.

00:02:55 This masterclass is free. It's about an hour, which includes Q and time. And if you'd like to join me, please register at everything. coworking.com forward slash masterclass. Now, if you're already running a coworking space and you're starting to look ahead to 2021, and the kind of process and accountability around planning is appealing to you, then join me for the workshop that I'm hosting.

00:03:24 It's a three series workshop. We're going to dive in, in all the detail. It's going to be super interactive and productive. So we're going to have time to workshop. You're going to have worksheets that we're going to send out in advance of the sessions. So you're going to get some work done. You're going to need to bring a couple of things with you.

00:03:44 There won't be too much pre homework because I don't want to do anything to get in the way of you getting in there and going to work with us. We're going to have a couple of guest speakers, not a lot, cause we're going to be really focused on getting some things done, but we're going to do some breakout so that you can get ideas and perspectives from other operators.

00:04:04 We're going to do some case studies around some creative revenue opportunities, and we're going to get our plans on paper. The first it's a three session workshop. The first session is free. So if you want to check it out and you want to do the free version, that's what's in the budget this year, join us. You can register at www dot everything,

00:04:26 coworking.com forward slash TRIBE sorry, thrive 2021. And if you want to go all in, there's an option to participate in all three sessions. So let's talk about the framework that we're going to use today. So the episode today is if you are participating in the workshop, then it's to get you kind of primed and thinking about the process and kind of opening your brain to getting ready for 2021.

00:04:57 And by the way, if you haven't heard me say this yet, we are now, you know, roughly a month of real serious work time left in 2021, sorry. In 2020 of jumping ahead here, because December is tricky to get a lot of stuff done. Even this year, without a lot of gatherings and holiday parties and external distractions, it's still a tough month to just maybe be totally in the game.

00:05:26 So ideally we get our planning done in November. The second session of this workshop is December 1st. So we're sneaking into December a little bit, and then we're doing our third session. It's kind of a follow-up accountability session at the end of January. So it is absolutely not too early to be thinking about planning for 2021. As a matter of fact, I think it's the perfect time.

00:05:52 So I'm going to kick off our discussion with a quote, perhaps what we are meant to get out of all of this is to trust in the unknown, find bliss in the little things and trade fear of what's uncertain for freedom to thrive within uncertainty. That is a quote from James Wedmore, whose kids kind of a mindset business guy that I follow a little bit.

00:06:19 So today we're going to cover planning. We're going to first talk about the good things that can happen when you plan. So if you're not a big planner, just because you're an entrepreneur does not mean that you like to sit down and plan those visionaries out there might get a little bit tripped up on, you know, a detailed planning processes, but it's super important.

00:06:41 You know, it's always important, but now more than ever, because we need to be in control of what we can control. And when we don't plan, we're not in control. Here are the good things that can happen. When you plan, you can keep yourself and your team focused on activities that drive results for your business. You can set goals for your team.

00:07:02 Your team can prioritize their activities based on documented business plans and goals. It's easy to evaluate the performance of yourself and your team members, because you're either doing work that advances those documented goals, or you're not, and you're the bad things that happen when you don't plan. You can say yes to too many things that may or may not drive results for the business.

00:07:26 You know how, when you're sitting in one of those team meetings and you're looking at revenue for the next month and you need to make that number bigger and you and your team start brainstorming all these things that you can do to solve that problem. Some of those ideas may be great ideas, but when you don't plan, you can get easily distracted by squirrels and spaghetti.

00:07:49 And without a plan, you don't know when you've said yes to too many things or whether or not they fit into your strategic goals of your business. And when I say squirrels and spaghetti, which might be my new favorite alliteration, squirrels are ideas that come to us that seem bright and shiny and super compelling, but may not be related to our business priorities or the core activities in our business that actually drive results,

00:08:16 right? They're distractions disguised just cute furry creatures that we should pay attention to. The spaghetti is probably what some of us have been doing this year, which is throwing ideas at the wall over and over again, to find something that works and bring in revenue brings in revenue. I am not going to judge this because sometimes that's what you need to do.

00:08:38 We want to be careful about doing it in an unintentional way, because if we start throwing too much spaghetti and chasing that spaghetti, we're going to get distracted from our core business processes that we know work, but for chasing new things or trying too many new things, we can get distracted from having the time to complete the things that we know we need to be consistent on.

00:09:05 So when we don't plan, you can't focus your team on the right activities. If you don't have a plan, you can't measure your efforts and know what works for your business. You can't motivate yourself and your team around a goal. If you don't have one and you and your team will probably end up feeling stuck and unfocused. So what if you make a plan and set goals and the unexpected happens,

00:09:27 like say a global pandemic, totally get it. But we need to regroup and recalibrate the plan. Things like global pandemics don't mean we should give up planning because something might throw a wrench in our plan, a big wrench. We still need to plan. If you don't know where you're going, you're never going to get there. I don't know whose quote that is,

00:09:52 but it's one of my favorites this morning, and this is not live yet. I interviewed Gina and Katina co-founders of last Supremo coworking and events. They shared that when they opened their 5,000 square foot flagship location in the middle of a pandemic, they needed a goal to rally around. So they decided to try to sell out their offices in 30 days, guess what didn't happen?

00:10:18 It took them 60 days. So it took them double the time that they thought it would. But what if they never set that goal? What if they didn't rally around that and get the team fired up and brainstorm ideas to hit that goal? Would it have taken 90 days, a hundred days, even if we're setting goals that are reached goals, we need to set them because without them,

00:10:44 it will take far longer than it would have if we have numbers. And if we have focus, so back to the workshop, we're going to go through this framework. And this is the framework we're going to cover in the workshop. If you're attending the workshop, you were a step way ahead on the planning process because you've blocked off your calendar and you've committed to doing the work.

00:11:07 And if you're like me, the simple act of committing to that slot on the calendar is most of the battle. It can be really, really hard depending on your personality to take time for getting stuff done, to actually planning ahead, because it feels there's this like pull inside of you that tells you it's not productive to sit and plan. It's so productive to sit and plan.

00:11:33 So part of the point of the workshop is simply to get that time on your calendar, because left to your own devices. You may not do it. If you're attending the workshop live. This episode is just meant to get your brain primed for planning and thinking ahead. So pay attention to the framework. You can take some notes or not take notes.

00:11:54 You're, we're going to send out worksheets and you'll get all the details that you need to go through that with us. If you are not attending the workshop, you can leverage this framework to do your own planning session. We're going to use this nine step framework for our process. Now this framework is it's like a level higher, I would say, then a detailed planning process such as EOS.

00:12:21 So if you're an EOS person, then you can insert that detailed level of planning into this process. We're going to kind of use elements of EOS within some of these steps. And if you don't know what EOS is, it is from the book traction. It's a business planning process that you can use throughout the year. I will link to it in the show notes.

00:12:43 So step one, look back to 2020. It was full of surprises, some bad, but maybe some good. What worked in your business in 2020 that you would take into 2021. Did you test a new product that worked? Did you discover a new member segment? Did you launch a digital offering that doesn't rely on your members being able to access your physical space?

00:13:09 That's monetizeable so in our workshop, again, we will have worksheets to help you do this debrief, and we will do it together. Brainstorm your opportunities. And big ideas is step number two. And again, in the live workshop, we're going to do some breakouts and brainstorm together so that you get the value of connecting with other operators and seeing what's going on in their brain.

00:13:34 What they've tested, what they're thinking about, and we'll do this, you know, individually as well. There are some pretty inspirational opportunity seekers in our community that have found creative ways to make lemonade during the pandemic. So there will be the traditional opportunities that you'll pursue more of in 2021, sell more offices, somewhere virtual office plans, but there will also be new opportunities that you'll test in your business in 2021.

00:14:07 And in our live workshop, we're going to do some case studies to help you think about what those are and see what's working for others. And these are ideas that you may not be thinking of on your own step. Number three. So step number two is about thinking big what's possible brainstorming post-it notes on the wall, kind of thing. Step number three is get specific and intentional about your 20,

00:14:34 21 opportunities. So here's where we're going to pick the three to five revenue drivers that we will offer to our leads and to our audience and closely tied to that. And this is a concept I'm going to start talking a lot more about determine how you will consistently grow your leads and your audience. So I'm going to distinguish the two by leads. I mean,

00:14:58 people who are coming into your pipeline, probably looking for physical space, maybe virtual office PR products, an audience is folks that are listening to you and your brand following you and your brand that may be open to other offers that you are testing such as a digital membership or something else that you're going to do with your space. So they're following you because you're a part of the local community,

00:15:29 or maybe you're doing something bigger that extends outside of your local community, and we're going to consider them an audience because they're following you over time. You've got their email. Hopefully we're gonna talk more about building your email list or they're following you on social media. So again, step three, we're going to identify to the three to five revenue drivers that we're going to sell to our leads slash audience.

00:15:56 And we're going to talk about how we're going to consistently grow our leads in our audience. Step number four, you're going to decide on your non-negotiables. So this is a little bit of a fuzzy one that we stick into this framework. What do you want to commit to you in your work and home life? No matter what in 2021, what are the things that you let go of in 2020 that you want to bring back that might be getting 10,000 steps a day that might be committing to the idea that you're not going to work on nights or weekends,

00:16:32 that you're going to commit to connecting with good friends once a month, or that you're going to commit to learning something new every quarter so they can be work-related. They can be outside of work-related, but 2020, I think kind of threw many people off of their game and they just let go of things that are critically important to them in their work or home life.

00:16:55 So we're going to take a minute to think about what those things are so that we can plan around them. Step number five, set your monthly profit goals. So here's where we're going to kind of get into the weeds. We're going to take our big picture opportunities, the three to five opportunities that we've identified that we're going to pursue. And again,

00:17:16 some of those may be traditional products that we offer. And some of those may be things that we're going to test this year. We are going to get really focused and really intentional. We're going to set a monthly profit goal and to get to that monthly profit goal, we're going to determine our monthly revenue goal and our monthly expense goal and hope is not a strategy.

00:17:37 And so we, this is not about throwing a big number into that cell on the Google spreadsheet, we want to be optimistic and open about what's possible and to identify revenue drivers for your business and do attach specific revenue, driving initiatives to those profit goals. So we're going to identify what are we going to sell and what are the numbers that we're going to attach to that if you get to this step and you simply can't come up with a plan that you think realistically gets you to cashflow profitability in 2010 21,

00:18:12 this might be an indicator to you that you need to take a serious look at the viability of your business. And if you find yourself in this situation, you unfortunately are not alone. So if you're running your numbers for 2021 one, and you can't find them realistic revenue generating opportunities to get you to that profitability, you should talk to a professional about your options.

00:18:38 Maybe the right decision is not to continue running the business. Don't go through that process yourself, find an accountant, a business mentor, somebody that can help you work through what your options might be in this situation. But at some point, everybody needs to know where their line is around writing checks to support a business that they can't see profitability on businesses around the world are struggling to stay afloat.

00:19:07 And there are many that won't make it be realistic about your situation earlier, rather than yeah. Later. So the revenue opportunities we're looking for are if you were in a relative position of making it, and you're looking to get yourself over that profitability line, probably many of you have been running it break even this year and are looking to get back to profitability.

00:19:32 And so this is what we're looking for. If you simply cannot see that light at the end of the tunnel, be realistic. Talk to somebody who can help you look objectively at your numbers and determine how to proceed. Stephanie, number six, determine the strategies and associated projects that will get you to your monthly profit goal. So take your revenue producing opportunities from step number three and assign monthly revenue targets to them.

00:20:02 If you're pursuing new revenue opportunities, make sure to create a budget for the project, right? Nothing is free. It requires time marketing, et cetera. If you're starting a digital membership, for example, what additional marketing fees might you have, if you need to update your website to include your new offerings budget for that, if you need to do construction to adjust your product,

00:20:25 offering budget for that, also be realistic about the ramp up time required to get a new product, to be revenue producing. If you okay, add a new office, you might be able to pre-sell it before you pay for it. And it might be revenue producing immediately, but be realistic about how long it's going to take you to get a contractor in,

00:20:46 to get the work, to get the furniture in and get it actually move in. Ready being realistic will help you feel like you win. If we're unrealistic, we're always going to feel like we're behind our plan. If you launch a digital bookkeeping coaching membership, for example, you might, that's kind of an odd one, but it was what I thought of was trying to think of examples.

00:21:11 You might get revenue quickly, but it might be a small amount of revenue out the door, right? When you first launch something that's new and not related to your physical space. So give yourself time to build that revenue over the months of 2021 and know that that will continue to build into 2022. If it's successful. Also as a part of this step,

00:21:36 we're going to identify the core business processes that will make the biggest contributions to our goals. So this is what tends to fall apart. When we're hit with the unexpected, we tend to panic and start throwing that spaghetti at the wall to find solutions and plug revenue gaps. Again, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, but this can distract us.

00:22:00 This throwing the spaghetti and panicking can distract us and our team members from being consistent on the core activities in our business that we know contribute to long-term success. And if you don't know what those things are, then you need to schedule some time to put some tracking mechanisms into place so that you do know what drives, you know, your best leads, what drives your member retention.

00:22:27 You need to know what those activities are so that you can keep your team focused on them no matter what, because when you let the pedal off of the gas on the things that really drive our core business, then your revenue gaps going to become even larger. And you might not notice it for a few months. So here are some activities that are core to our business that you must continue to do.

00:22:51 Even as you test new offerings, digital marketing, to stay in front of active searchers, preferably paid depends on what markets you're in SEO activities, such as writing blog posts. So that over time we can spend less on digital marketing. How many people gave up on writing blog posts over the last eight months, raise your hand. You're not alone. Keeping our Google my business listing up to date.

00:23:16 How many people didn't touch their Google, my business listing for eight months, local community engagement. So that you're consistently connecting with other businesses that will refer members to you tracking your sales funnel metrics so that you know where your best leads are coming from. Those are things that need to be done no matter what pandemic, no pandemic, flood, no flood,

00:23:40 whatever it is that's happening, you and your team need to continue to do these things and then look for opportunities to layer on other projects. So this is where step number seven becomes really critical. You're going to map out your calendar. So map out new projects into your 20 all projects into your 2021 calendar, not just the new one. Again, this will take discipline for some of you,

00:24:06 because if you're like me, you really love the like brainstorming what's possible step. And then when it gets into the, like, let's put it all on a calendar and commit to it. It's hard for some of us to actually do that detailed work. So if you know yourself and you simply won't do this step, find an accountability partner, get some help,

00:24:31 make somebody else sit through the workshop with you. You're welcome to bring a team member. You just need. If you're registered for the workshop, register your team member for the free version. If you want to bring a team member to the paid version, just email our team and we will take care of that. So if you were an EOS traction fan,

00:24:49 you know what an integrator is and the integrator profile is what you need to map out the timelines and budgets for your new projects. Don't skip this step because in step number eight, we're going to review our plan. So create your plan, map everything out on the calendar. Take a few days after you've completed your plan to come back to it and then ask yourself these questions.

00:25:14 Are you still excited about the projects on your plan? Did you give yourself the time you'll need to actually do the work to create the new offerings, design price market, et cetera. Is there some white space to account for projects that take longer than planned? You will have those or new opportunities that come up that really you shouldn't say no to. So we want to try to say no to most things.

00:25:41 Once we have our plan, but there may be new things that you don't want to not be able to do. So you need some white space for that. Yeah. Step number nine, who do you need to be to accomplish your 2021 goals, scaling your business or starting new projects can work require a mindset shift and a different way of showing up,

00:26:06 ask yourself, who do I need to be? And what do I need to do to reach the goals in my business? What mindset do I need to have this year to achieve my goals? How do I need to show up for my team? What source will I draw from when I need to be more brave and more courageous? Because I'm doing new things.

00:26:25 What will I do to recharge when I need it? And did I schedule time for that in my calendar? And if not go back to the calendaring section and put that in there in the second session of our three-part workshop, we're going to have a special guest, walk us through 2021 visioning exercise to help us connect with who we need to be and what we want out of 2021.

00:26:51 So I'm going to wrap it there. That's the nine step framework. If you want to DIY this, go for it. We will have the details in the show notes. If you want to join us, Mark down your calendar so that you have three dedicated time slots for working on 2021, then make sure you register for the workshop, which you can find@everythingcoworking.com

00:27:15 forward slash thrive. 2021.

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