Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of Financial S Nickens. I'm your host, Elisa McCabe, and today we are going to talk about taking stock. We are starting summer. And it's a great time to start to think about the midway point of the year, and I have five pointers for you about what to do right now. So we are, um, you know, halfway through the year and there's some things that I just wanna, you know, have you think about, there's about five different things.
So what, what we like to do is go through these five things. In June, and if it's already July, go ahead and do it anyway. One, take stock of [00:01:00] your accomplishments, anything that you've accomplished in the first half of the year. Celebrate it. Find a way to praise yourself. We're very hard on ourselves and your team.
And anyone that you work with, even some vendors that you work with that have really pulled it out for you and done a great job and have come through in that clinch that you needed them and they did it, take a moment to recognize them and thank them for all the great work that they did. And if you have team members do the same.
And if it's just you, pat yourself on the back, take a moment to celebrate those and then next. I know this might sound counterintuitive, take a vacation. We have had some stress in our company and it seems maybe counterintuitive. We're so busy and we're all overwhelmed to take a break. When you take a break, you can come back with clarity and maybe even be able to see those situations from [00:02:00] a different point of view.
We actually took a break and went to scaling New Heights in St. Louis, and it was a break from the day-to-day work of the business. And so when we are, we went to the conference, it was an opportunity for us to actually talk to other business owners who own bookkeeping and accounting firms and ask them questions about, Hey, what are you doing about these issues?
And it was perfect. But if you're not gonna go to a conference, go on vacation. Do something you love to do so that it relaxes your mind and you can actually be a better business owner. Next three, schedule am Media review. Take a look at what your goals were for the year. See how many you've accomplished.
And then look forward to see what you still have to accomplish. Do you have to change those goals? Have you met all your goals? Have you met half? Is it completely different because of an economic change or because you've had a staff change or because you've decided that that's no longer the direction you wanna go in?
[00:03:00] So take stock of what you've done. You can make it formal or informal. Grab your reports, profit and loss, balance sheet, profit and loss by percent of income, and see where you are. See what matches up with your goals that you've selected at the beginning of the year and decide, am I gonna continue down the same path?
Am I gonna make some adjustments? Now's a great time to think about those things. Plus, in the summertime, a lot of businesses are slower because people are taking vacations. So it's an opportunity to really do an introspective look. So, Number four, be selective about projects. You start. As entrepreneurs, we love to say yes to everything.
So start to think about, I have six months to the end of the year. What do I wanna accomplish? And do those projects fit into the end of the year? Do they fit into my idea of what I want to happen by the end of the year? You have to decide that and really start to say no and no is a powerful answer.[00:04:00]
Number five, play big. I know that's scary, but sometimes we are afraid to do what is the best thing for us. It's typically the thing that we've been saying, no, we're not gonna do this because you're just afraid to do it. Um, think about something that seems outrageous and, and I'll give you an example for me.
Um, Somebody, you know, challenged me on. I said, oh well, you know, we can't be a 10 million company. And they said, why not? And I thought, I don't know why not? Cuz somebody told me that I, or I told myself that I can't. So why? And so think about those things when you are, are thinking about making those plans for the rest of the year and start to work on.
Why, find out why that big idea might scare you and [00:05:00] does it fit with your mission and your vision for your company? So I think that the summertime is a perfect time. Sometimes we're a little more relaxed and, um, It really is the time to take stock, look at, celebrate all those accomplishments, look forward to see what you're gonna do for the rest of the year.
Do you have to rework those goals? And are you working every day towards those goals? And if there's a big dream that you have, think about that a little bit more. If you wanna talk more about big dreams or get into those goals. Head over to my website, first steps financial.com, and click on the Let's Chat button or shoot me an email at alisa first steps financial.com.
Talk to you soon.
