Jean Hanson

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Why would you want to have an annual business retreat? Well my friend Donna Gunter wrote about this very topic. Donna is the founder of OnlineBizU.com so I am going to share some of the ideas that she shares with her readers. Think of your annual strategic business retreat as time for you; time away from your business so that you can focus on your business and become more successful in your business.

Here are some of the steps that you need to take when creating your business retreat.

1. First of all try to plan at least 3 days for your retreat. Now I know that sounds like a lot but you want to plan for a time in your business when you are not so much in demand. So if there is a slow time during your business or a time when you have a full staff so that you can get away for a little time. At the very minimum take at least 3 half days or a day and a half, but you need to spend some time away from the business in order to do this.

2. Secondly you want to isolate yourself from all of the distractions that life and business bring. If at all possible take your retreat away from home and away from the business. If you have a cabin escape to the cabin. You can even get a hotel room. But find a place that you can avoid those daily distractions.

3. Find a quiet place that you can work in. If you can't get away from home maybe you have a quiet deck in the back of your house you can work at. Something that is nice and quiet that gives you the space that you need.

4. Be willing and be prepared to go in a different direction than what you initially expected. You need to ask yourself the hard questions. What kind of business do you really want? And when you ask yourself this question think about it as "if money were no object." Don't worry that you may not have the skill or talent that you need to provide a new service like carpet cleaning. Just think about what you want for your business and don't forget to include what you want out of your personal life too.

5. Write your 3 year vision. Now keep in mind that this is not a vision of what you expect to get accomplished in the next 3 years. This is going to be an evolving plan that is going to change as most visions do. But at least you are going to have some idea of what direction you are headed in.

So for example if you are a residential house cleaner and you want to expand into commercial cleaning you may have a vision of what exactly that is going to look like. Now it may not end up exactly like what you had thought it would but at least it gives you the direction to shoot for.

6. Take a look at the past year and review everything that was good and bad about your business. Don't forget to look at the bad stuff. If you try and hide from the truth it is not going to do you or your business any good. So think about what worked well for you and think about what didn't work so well and then make adjustments for the future.

7. Create a goals list and do this for the next 90 days. Now that you have mapped out a 3 year vision you need to break it down into manageable chunks of time that you can plan for. You need to make measureable goals so divide your goals up into categories: business, financial, family, social, physical, intellectual and spiritual. Take each of those categories and create 3 goals for each category. And then plan on doing this every quarter. Put it on your calendar for January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1 so it becomes a habit.

8. Plan your finances for the upcoming year. If you go somewhere on your retreat make sure you take your financial documents with you so that you know where you stand financially right now. Think about your expected business expenditures for the next year, think about vacations you want to take, think about other items you would like to purchase, think about how much you would like to make, then plan your income. Think about how you are going to pay for all of those purchases.

9. Map out your entire year on your calendar. Yeah, I know that sounds like a lot but now that you have a vision and you have written out some goals you should be able to put these goals and plans on to your calendar.

10. Be patient. Your first day on your business retreat you may be a little frustrated and not sure what to do and not sure where you are going but put your notes in writing and give it some serious thought. Before you know it your thoughts will come together into a cohesive plan that you can use to build on for the upcoming year.

An annual business retreat can really be a powerful tool that you can use to plan for not only your business but for your personal life too. It helps you have a vision of where you are going and how you are going to get there.

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