Are you doing an end-of-year business review and planning session for your solopreneur business? You will want to do it as a solo business retreat! Business retreats are perfect for ensuring nothing slips through the cracks during your annual business review and planning. Here are some business retreat tips for solopreneurs — so you can fully prepare for your experience…
Watch all the videos in the Your Best Ever Solo Entrepreneur Business Retreat series:
- How To Do an End-of-Year Business Review
- How To Have Your Best Year Ever in Business
- Business Retreat Tips for Solopreneurs (that's this one!)
Top 5 business retreat tips for solopreneurs
Business retreat tip #1
Set intentions for your retreat. Know in advance exactly what you want to get from this so you can plan accordingly. (This also helps you determine what questions you want to ask yourself when you’re doing reflection, review, and planning)
Business retreat tip #2
Create your schedule in advance so you know exactly what parts of your business review and planning you’ll do when. (e.g. Performance reviews, goal setting)
Business retreat tip #3
Collect all data etc in advance. (AND your business plan!)
Business retreat tip #4
Use methods that work for you and your personality and learning style. (mind mapping, index cards, colour-coded sticky notes, spreadsheets, etc)
Business retreat tip #5
Get your mindset in the right place (judgement-free zone!)
Step-by-step guide to your business retreat…
What should you do during your business retreat? Here are the key components to include during your business retreat...
Step 0 (optional — for existing business owners only): Review of current business plan
NOTE: This is something you can do before your retreat begins. The idea here is to skim over things so you can have an idea of it in the back of your mind when you begin your business retreat. It isn’t a necessary step to take, but you may find that it helps you to already have a direction to move in when your retreat begins.
- Review entire business plan, without judgment
- Review previous business retreat (if you’ve done one before), without judgment
- Make notes of what you do—and don’t—like about your past business plan and/or business retreat, including any changes to your business (see full list of questions)
Step 1: Personal & professional reflection
- Grounding practice
- Intentions with this business retreat
- Free-writing process
Step 2: Comprehensive review
- Review of data
- Performance review
- Review of business plan & goals
Step 3: Goal-setting
- SMART goals
- Timeline for action steps leading toward accomplishing your goals
Step 4: Action-oriented planning
- Creation of revised business plan
- Identify (ideal) target audiences
Step 5: Wrap-up
- Review of business retreat
- Free-writing process
There you go!
Now, at this stage, you’re probably wondering, “What exactly do I need to do to prepare for my business retreat? What are some different formats I can use to host my retreat? What should my schedule look like, and how can I make the MOST of my business retreat?”
Those questions are on your mind, aren’t they? I’ve got you covered! Grab my free Business Planning Retreat workshop: