Tips to Accelerate into 2024!
by Chad & Jeana Steiner
This year an angel of a friend gave us the gift of 2 nights with the boys for us to go away and plan. This gave us a full day discussing 2023 in review & 2024. Sun Mountain Lodge – thank you for a great stay!
Our overall approach:
- Review – there’s quite a bit that can go into this. A lot of financials. But we find its also important to look at the goals for the year (2023 accountability) and other things like events, the team and are we attracting and keeping customers.
- Celebrate – we could do better at this. Its so easy to get caught up in jumping from thing to thing or always looking at how it could be better. Hosting TopHouse was our gift to the Valley – it was such a fun way to celebrate the launch of two of our most exciting wines with you all! This also creates an amazing anchor. Example: when we think of how much time went into launching our 2022 Estate Pinot Noir (9 years) we have a super fun memory of having a great evening with all of you as TopHouse played the night away and Nomad served up amazing food.
- Plan –
- The What, The Why, The How.
- What is it we want to accomplish. What is it we really really want to accomplish. This is the target. What are you aiming for. Make it as specific as possible. And consider using the SMART criteria (specific, measurable, action oriented, realistic, time trackable). Wording here can also be important – it should motivate you and excite you. For us this is dreaming about our customers a lot. It also involves a clear financial target.
- The why is what pulls us through when things are tough. During long days or weeks. “If your why don’t make you cry, it ain’t no why”. Which for us is associated to our mission – “Our passion is connecting families to farming!”. But for specific goals it helps us to get more granular on the why. For example: we are able to spread joy to others with all the flowers we grow. Or, it can be a result of something being taken away – if I don’t keep up with my health it’ll keep me from being able to help at harvest.
- The how. This can be revised and revisited. This is the tactics. Make a big list, then prioritize it. Literally we don’t restrict ourself here. We call it a brain dump. What are all the possible tactics that can help us achieve the What of our goal. Make a big list. Hang on to it. If the tactics you choose to focus on don’t work, you can go back to the list of ideas.
- Calendarize it to make it actionable. If its in the calendar its closer to being real. Get it into the calendar. We jointly filled out Jesse Itzlers Big A## Calendar this year. It was great. We DID NOT put any business stuff on there. This took our excitement about 2024 up a notch. In other words – we planned what we wanted to do personally, as a couple and as a family 1st!!! Then we used a simple 18×36 calendar from Amazon for our business. We’re now working on getting this all into the electronic calendar.
Wrap up. We make our goals SMART (specific, measurable, action oriented, realistic, time trackable) format. But we’re also giving ourself some grace this year. Running a small business means we’re building a new base… which means we have to use our “crystal ball” to predict what the year will look like. We’re probably most excited about planning our personal goals out for the year and committing to meeting and talking about the business more. We’re also committing to not let “fear” be as dominant or in control as it often times can be. Running a small business is a spiritual game. Its tested us. It pushes us to grow. We’re grateful for these opportunities.
Caption: We had such a great time hosting TopHouse!!
Good luck with your 2024 plans! We hope you find a way to accelerate into the year! We can’t wait to host you in 2024.
Cheers,
