Good-bye 2020… Hello 2021

I’m fairly confident that I’m not alone when I say I’ll be glad to wave goodbye to 2020. But before we say good riddance to 2020, it’s a good opportunity to reflect on the year you’ve just been through and then make a plan to design a life and business you’ll love in the year to come.

Looking back on the challenges you’ve faced personally and professionally in this “unprecedented” year may not be easy. But one thing I’ve learnt in life, is through any challenge it is good to acknowledge the things that you did well, as well as the things you perhaps didn’t do so well, without being judgemental or harsh on yourself. Simply note those things down and make some intentional decisions around how you might improve, or tackle it differently as you move forward into 2021.

Having coached hundreds of women over the past 15 years, I’ve noticed common patterns that many struggle with when they feel stuck, or are not making progress in their business. You might identify with any number of these things, or all these things. And I’m gonna get real here, I have struggled with ALL of these things during different stages of my own business growth and depending also on what’s going in personally in my life – so you are not alone!

As women, we often have many roles to fulfil in our lives – from wife, to mother, daughter, sister and friend. These roles can stretch us personally and put extra pressure on our time, energy and mindset. Add into the mix, starting and growing a business and the pressure of wearing #allthehats. No wonder the challenges below are so common for many of us entrepreneurs.  What are your greatest challenges? Do you identify with any of these below? 

Top 12 Challenges

1. Lack of time
2. Lack of energy (feel exhausted)
3. Low or no motivation
4. No marketing plan or strategy
5. Lack clarity on what to do next
6. Feel overwhelmed (your ‘to do’ list is too long)
7. Suffering from ‘Perfectionitis’
8. Suffer from ‘tech headache’
9. Comparing yourself with other businesses
10. Get caught up in ‘shiny object’ syndrome and get lost down a rabbit hole for days on end
11. Too many choices and can’t make a decision
12. Imposter syndrome – don’t feel you are enough

When I find myself stuck in any of these challenges, I find it helpful to jot down the main tasks or projects that will actually generate income for my business and focus on doing those first.

I also find it super helpful to ‘time block’ my calendar (e.g. 1 to 3 hours at a time) to work on the main one to two tasks (at most).

When choosing what tasks to work on in the allocated time slot, I make sure I batch similar tasks together. This is called ‘task batching’. The easiest way to work this out is to group tasks as either Right brain or Left brain tasks.

This is called SINGLE TASK, SINGLE FOCUS

While we women are great at multi-tasking, it truly does not serve us very well in running our business. When you multi-task, your focus becomes divided and your brain gets fatigued quicker, especially if you are continually shifting from a left brain task (detail oriented), to a right brain task (big picture, creative tasks).  

Right brain tasks are big picture thinking or creative, such as long term goal setting, blog writing, preparing social media content, designing graphics, writing product descriptions. 

Left brain tasks are detail oriented or analytical, such as working on your income projections, doing the bookkeeping, analysis of your analytics stats, website maintenance and tech stuff.

I find ‘task batching’ and ‘time blocking’ really helps to minimise procrastination and overwhelm, as you’ll find it easier to focus on that single task with no other distractions you will power through it. There’s nothing better than the feeling of satisfaction of ticking a task off your list!  Then reward yourself, even if it’s just sitting down with a cuppa and watching a bit of Netflix 🙂

Strategically Plan for Growth in 2021

Use this quieter time of the commerce season to plan out your marketing goals, promotions and social content for 2021 will be of huge benefit and might keep you ahead of the competition.

While this year has been vastly unique and more challenging than any other in the past, even COVID couldn’t change certain consumer behaviours during the holidays. Trends show this year marked a sharp contrast from all others, as online shopping hit an all time high due to most of the world being locked down and in isolation. 

This global pandemic has forced a shift in consumer behaviour and how we do business. Even our content marketing focus changed from purely product promotions to more personalised connection with our audience and showing the person behind the business. Our e-commerce processes have also been impacted from order fulfilment issues, very slow shipping times, lots of suppliers out of stock of nearly everything, warehouse processing slower than ever due to social distancing requirements and reduced staff.

Taking these issues into consideration, planning your 2021 marketing and social content will be more critical to your business success than ever before. Trends showed this year shoppers started planning and buying Christmas gifts much earlier than past years to get ahead of shipping delays. This trend is likely to continue into 2021, so keep ahead of your competitors and plan your marketing, social content and promotions accordingly. 

If you need help with this, you might find our Content Calendar Planner with key shopping event dates handy.

And while this year has been vastly unique from any other in the past, even COVID can’t change certain consumer behaviours during the holidays. In April, we saw holiday-related searches increased by 77% as opposed to the previous year. The same survey suggested that by campaigning to your audience earlier, the chances of your success increase by upwards to 65%. Given the majority of all shopping for gift giving is now being done online and doesn’t require much physical effort, it makes sense that shopping trends started in September and seemed to peak mid to late October. 

If we use this information to plan our content and marketing goals for 2021, it would make sense to be prepare your holiday promotions (e.g. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Click Frenzy and Christmas) to begin in early September. 

Tell me, what’s your biggest concerns going into 2021?  What challenges have you been struggling with from the list above?  One, many or all? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

So farewell 2020, a year like no other. What a year that was!  Let’s hope 2021 is kinder. I send blessings to you for new opportunities for business growth and great success in 2021.