I’ve been a small business owner for almost 12 years, and 99% of my business comes from referrals (i.e., people I know recommended me to someone else, etc.), which meant that I never had to go out of my way to find clients.

How that happened was simply dumb luck, what with my being one of the first social media marketers in Sonoma County, practicing what I preach on social media by engaging, sharing contacts, and of course trying to do a good job with my clients so they would recommend me to others. 

This was, however, a double-edged sword. Not having to explicitly search for new clients meant that I never had to struggle with this particular area of my business. I’m thankful for that, but learning new skills, like building a client base, is also necessary—especially when you find yourself losing many of them to a pandemic. 

Taking a Step Back, and Losing Work Because of a Pandemic and Cancer

After experiencing a loss of work due to the pandemic and my cancer treatments, I had time to take a step back and really figure out what I want to do with my life. 

As much struggle as I’ve had in the past few months with cancer treatments, I’ve also been able to learn from it and reshape basically everything about my daily life. I have had to put an even bigger emphasis on getting my energy back after being bedridden, so my focus has been on moving and eating healthily (even more so than when I first started my health journey a few years ago).  

This is a good reminder that you don’t have to go through a pandemic or cancer treatments for you to take a step back from your business life and really look critically at what you want to do next. The idea of giving yourself permission to stop for a minute is such a hard one to internalize though.

When you’re trudging through day-to-day life, sometimes it’s hard to even realize that maybe you should take a step back, and even having someone give you that permission is what you need. So this blog post is me giving you permission to try to reset for 2021. 

Action Items for Taking a Step Back and Figuring Out Your Next Steps: 

1. Take a look at what you’re doing now, or at what you were doing before you had to take a step back. Ask yourself if you are/were excited to get up and work. Write down any thoughts that pop into your head. 

2. Pay attention to that energy. What made you excited? What drained your energy? Spend a minute every day writing down what the best part of your day was and what you can work on in the future (I am obsessed with my Panda Day Planner, and it actually asks you these questions in the daily review section). After doing it for a few weeks, you’ll notice some trends. 

3. Write those trends down, and start thinking of ways to incorporate what you love into your career (this may involve getting a new position, starting your own business, or pivoting your role at your company). Just as importantly, think of how you can outsource certain tasks to stop doing the things you hate (read my article for the North Bay Business Journal on social media outsourcing ideas and more).

4. From there, try to look at all of the ways you can get to your goal of doing what you love. Some ideas include: 

   1. Networking within that industry and talking to people who are in that position already.

   2. Getting a LinkedIn Premium account so you can see all of the job offers.

   3. Taking classes or studying relevant topics in that industry so you can be better prepared for a job.

5. Get some momentum and jump back into what you love. What I’ve found is that a lot of my inspiration comes when I am taking a walk or cycling on my indoor exercise bike. It doesn’t come from staring at a screen.

If you’re looking for any extra help coming up with goals for 2021, I have two video training sessions coming up in January that will provide some clarity and action items for the upcoming year. I’m keeping the classes small so we can learn from each other, so please sign up right away!

Social Media Goal Planning Video Training for Wine/Food Marketers on Tuesday, January 12th from 3 PM-4:30 PM PT. Sign up here!

Goal Planning Video Training for Tech Employees on Thursday, January 14th from 3 PM-4:30 PM PT. Sign up here! I am excited to host this training with my engineering management husband, Jeff Bull. :)