Big week coming up for us, as we onboard our first b2b users to our new platform on Visto this week. The goal is to finish all of our beta testing this month, and a big public launch in February.
To say I’m excited would be putting it lightly, because it’s been a long time coming.
Excited, and feeling pretty confident.
In the meantime, also took some time over the holidays to think about my big goals for 2023.
I know it can be cliche to do it around the new year, and we all know the stories about how packed the gym gets in January, only to be empty again by March…
But I do think spending a week or so away from your solopreneur business, taking a break, and thinking about/planning goals for the next year is important.
The reality is that if you don’t know where you’re going or how to get there, you may just wander…
I don’t usually come up with in-depth goals or plans, because 99% of the time they change and evolve over time, but I do like to set primary goals and use them to guide me in what to do day-in, day-out, month-in, month-out, etc.
For example, the main goal for this Solopreneur Grind brand is to grow my email list to 1,000 subscribers. With that goal in mind, I can then start to plan around how to do it.
This means continuing to drive traffic to the sign up page on my website, by doing things like:
- continuing to post on my solopreneur blog
- pocasting and repurposing content to post on social media
- run more in-person networking events in Toronto
If you’re stuck on a business (even just an idea), or side project, or hustle, try doing this:
First: what is the main goal that you want to accomplish in 2023 – make it reasonable, but also challenging, and give it a number (ie. generate $X in revenue, sign up Y clients, get Z followers)
Second: pick the top 3 activities you think will help you achieve it
Third: schedule those activities in weekly – and go do em!
Every 2-3 months, evaluate and revise if needed.
Especially for a new solopreneur business or side project, don’t get bogged down in crazy plans, pitch decks or crazy projections. Set a goal, figure out how to do it – and go friggin’ do it! You’ll either succeed, or find one way that doesn’t work, cross it off your list and try something else with the takeaways you now have.
One great goal can be to improve your networking as a solopreneur.
Are you ever going to need a/another job?
Find customers for your business?
Grow a team within another company?
Find like-minded people to hang out with? Run ideas by? Start a new project with?
If any or all apply, then as they say, “your network is your networth”.
And as someone who has spent the last 6 years running multiple kinds of businesses, selling, fundraising, partnering, introducing, etc. etc.
I can’t tell you how valuable it’s been to have a quality network.
Of course, most of you already know this because many of you are seasoned solopreneurs, and/or may read this blog because you attended one of my previous networking events.
Oh the irony!
Anyway, have you ever thought about running your own networking event?
The reason I ask is because I eventually started running my own after spending years attending networking events, and constantly thinking “actually, I think I could do this better by doing A/B/C differently”.
And after months of thinking that, and realizing that organizing an event isn’t THAT difficult, I said “yolo” in 2019 and started running my own events too.
So if you love networking, and maybe aren’t getting the quality of networking you’d like, don’t sleep on the idea of running something on your own. It can be a great way to meet awesome people, and also position yourself as a really cool dude/dudette (since you’re the person running the whole thing and bringing everyone together!).
I’m running my first networking event of 2023 on Feb. 2 here in Toronto – stay tuned to find out how it goes!
Have a great day, don’t miss my daily updates right to your inbox here, and keep grinding.
