Why a personal offsite?

The danger is while you start off with lots of good intentions over time you get caught up in the day to day of running the business and that attention that’s paid to your original objectives gets less and less. You know fine well there are things you need to be doing to take the business forward, and you know you will get round to doing them eventually.

What happens? The business doesn’t grow the way it needs to, gradually you get stuck in a rut, the competition out guns you, and you get kicked into action when you realise cash is getting tight and you desperately need more sales.

Fact is, you need a framework to replace the corporate one that you were so glad to get rid of. A framework that allows you to set objectives, and that gives you a structure to achieve the things you need to in your business. A framework that enables you to move forward.

Instead of a 365 Day year, Try a much shorter period

The corporate framework you were used to was mainly annual. When you are running your own business that needs to be different. Your annual appraisal probably gave you six objectives for the year and you spent most of the year ignoring them followed by a sprint to get them achieved in the last 3 months.

Well, running your own business doesn’t work like that. In fact, even if you aren’t running your own business, and have some big personal goals, achieving results doesn’t work like that. Achieving results requires steady consistent effort, and it requires focus. Forget the six things you need to do in the next year. What about the one thing you need to do in the next 100 days, or less.

Working to a 100 day cycle makes lots of sense, identify the one thing you need to focus on, plan what you are going to do, give yourself milestones and targets that allow you to take consistent action alongside the day to day of business, and then after the 100 day period review what you have achieved and plan what’s next.

Taking time to review and plan is key to the 100 day cycle, and you need to give yourself permission to take the time out to do this. A personal offsite is the ideal way to do this.

What does the personal offsite look like?

There’s a basic structure to the offsite

Session 1 – Review where you have just been, and remember to celebrate your wins, don’t beat yourself up about the failures, just learn from them

Session 2 – Revisit where you are going, Is the way ahead still the same? did anything happen over the last 100 days to change things?

Session 3 – Identify The most important next steps? Remember success comes from focussing on the one or two things that are going to make a difference and taking consistent regular action over the next 100 days.

Session 4 – What’s the game plan? Chances are there are a lot of unknowns here, and part of the game plan is finding out. Ask yourself the Who? What? Where? and When questions.

Session 5 – Making it happen – Come out of the whole exercise with a plan on a page and some very clear next steps. You don’t need the whole period planned in detail, but you do need to know what you need to do in the next couple of weeks to kick things off and get momentum

How much time does a personal offsite take?

You can do a personal offsite in an extended day. Just pick a day, commit to the process and simply do it.

You can do a personal offsite over 2 days with some fun built in

• Gives time to reflect
• Makes it feel less like hard work
• Take advantage of getting out of the office
• Opportunity to celebrate success

Or, you can do a personal offsite as 5 separate sessions over a 2 week period. If you are hands on in your business and can’t take whole days out, this might be the approach for you. That’s why when we suggest 100 days its 10 days planning and review and 90 days action.

Its often a good idea to build some other things in

You can extend your offsite with some optional things. Remember that the process should be enjoyable, and a time of refreshing and renewal as much as anything else. So think what else you might want to build in:

Personal development – Use some of the time away from the desk to do some reading, take a short course, or research something. Open yourself up to new ideas. Often you just need a little space to get some clarity, and doing something not directly related to the day to day of the business or the plan for the next period gives you the space. Most times the subconscious mind is still engaged, and as if by magic the light bulb moments of inspiration come along.

Team building – The offsite might not be you alone, if you have a team around you then you should involve them in the reviewing and planning. If you have a business partner, then the offsite needs to involve both of you.Think about what culture you want in your business. The offsite is the ideal opportunity to throw in something to help embed the culture and build the team. You could even link this to celebrating the wins of the last few months.

The offsite is a great way to review the last 100 days and plan and kick off the next 100 days. If you want to learn more about growing your business through taking action in the next 100 days then tune into the podcast and come along and join us in the private Facebook group.