Megan Martin 0:00
This is talking small business with Kat Schmoyer and Meghan Martin, a podcast for creatives who like to keep it real about what it actually takes to grow an online business.

Kat Schmoyer 0:09
We’re competitors turned to biz besties, who chat daily, and now we’re bringing you into the conversation.

Megan Martin 0:20
Hey, welcome back to talking small business, Meghan here. And today we are going to talk about creating time and space and you’re scheduled to do a mid year review. I know we’ve done an episode on a year end review. We’ve talked about quarterly planning, but you guys know that cat is the like, goal setting plan schedule. Like,

Kat Schmoyer 0:44
I have to throw in these episodes whenever I can. Like, no, no,

Megan Martin 0:48
I don’t do it. To do it, so I need cat to tell me. No, but for real, like creating the space often regularly. We’ve talked about it. But we’re going to hear today from Kat about her mid year review process and how it is actually beneficial for you in your small business. So Kat tell us about what is the difference between mid year and annual review.

Kat Schmoyer 1:13
Yeah, so Okay, most obvious mid year happens middle of the year, whereas an annual would happen like end or beginning. I love doing a mid year review, because I feel like it can do a couple of things. First of all, it can help you stop doing something that maybe you shouldn’t be doing in your business and like kind of make that pivot versus waiting until the end of the year and seeing like, oh, maybe I shouldn’t have done that all year long. Like you have that middle ground to be able to press pause or hit the brakes. I also think that it can help on just like a mental and like heart side of your business. If you’re feeling burnout, if you’re not feeling as passionate about things to have that time and space to assess, like what’s working, what’s not working? And how can you again redirect or keep moving forward if the same path for the final six months of the year. So it’s really important on both sides, I like to say it’s important for the facts and the feelings, you know, the facts of what’s the business saying? Like, what is your revenue saying? How are we looking six months into the year? And are you feeling good about those final six months, but then the feeling side of your heart and burnout and wanting to continue to be passionate about what we’re doing as small business owners. So I’m a huge fan and carving out some time to do a mid year review. It can be that you know, like June July timeframe when we are again middle of the year so that you know you have some time to autocorrect or keep charging forward.

Megan Martin 2:43
What what is your process when you are doing a mid year review.

Kat Schmoyer 2:47
So the mid year review process is similar to an end of year review and that I have questions that I work through which I actually have as a worksheet. So we’ll link it for you guys. It’s around 30 questions that I work through, again, assessing facts and assessing feeling. So you’re gonna straight up pull up QuickBooks, like if you guys are like, like not into the numbers, and you have no idea what’s going on. This will hopefully force you to be like, No, let’s actually see like, are we profitable right now? Like, what did the numbers look like? So I want you to be assessing things like revenue. I also want you to be thinking about like, who of your ideal clients been this year? Where did that person come from? How can we find more of them? So again, we’re looking at a lot of different things in the business in that review, but I answer those questions. So I want to look at those questions first and foremost, and then I’m going to make a plan based on what I’ve uncovered, because of those questions. Typically, I typically carve out to different times to do the mid year review, because you’re likely going to find that while you’re working through questions, you might need to do some homework, like for example, in the customer section of the worksheet. If you do a mid year review to your customer, like you send out a survey to your customers, I think that’s something great to do to get feedback on what content they’re enjoying from you. What do they want more from you things like that. So it might be that you need to start working on the review. And then oh, I need to go create the survey and send this out to my email list or do some polls on Instagram to get some feedback before you can finish completing the rest of the worksheet. So that’s why I typically carve out like two afternoon so that I have some time to do that little bit of homework in the interim. But it’s a fairly short process. I know 30 questions might sound like a lot, but really once you get into it, like hopefully it flows for you and knowing that okay, maybe that’s four hours total two hours, one day, two hours another day, and now you’ve got some actual data, some hard feedback on what’s working and what’s not working.

Megan Martin 4:52
Okay, so let’s talk about the feelings part where there’s not next necessarily hard data like how are you? How do you make decisions based have feelings in the mid year review?

Kat Schmoyer 5:02
Yeah, that’s such a hard one. I feel like so we we all have a lot of feelings, let’s be real. I think first of all, it would be assessing. If, if you feel like there’s a route to the feelings, like is it? Like, it just so happens that you’re feeling that way today or this week? You know, because of a specific situation in the business, then maybe we don’t want to give that feeling a lot of credit, because it could be it’s just literally this particular week of the business? Or is this something that you can now look back over the last six months from January to June and see where maybe it’s been building a little bit, and maybe there needs to be some more credit given to that feeling some more weight given to that feeling? When thinking about a change in the business. I also think that it can be really helpful to verbalize that feeling and talk it out with someone. So whether that’s the accountability bestie, or just a close business friend that you can jump on box with and be able to kind of share what’s going on. Sometimes Megan and I are boxes, I’ll be like, I’m just talking this out loud. You don’t even have to respond. I just need to, like, verbalize this, you know, like, I just need to say it into the world. And maybe even as I’m saying it, I’ll realize like, Oh, no What, like, what’s happening here? So I think in doing that, when it comes to your feelings, you could potentially get a lot of clarity to

Megan Martin 6:29
do you. Is there ever like a time where, okay, say maybe you’re getting a feeling or a hunch. But you still make the decision that you’re gonna move forward and do the same thing that you’re doing after a mid year review? Like, like you said, like, how do you determine is it this week? Or is it the past six months? But even if it was the past six months? How do I know that the variable is not external forces versus an internal force?

Kat Schmoyer 6:56
I think that such a bad question is so specific to like, what the feeling is in the business, you know, like, if it’s, maybe because I’m thinking, for example, I work with a lot of creatives that are pivoting in their business. And when we’re thinking about a pivot revenue has to be a huge factor in the pivot conversation. Because again, the the goal is that your business is profitable, especially for those of you where your business is like providing substantial income, if not the full income for your family, you can’t just go off of a feeling that you’re ready to do something new, and change it up. Like that’s not the most helpful thing. And your business would likely not survive that pivot. So it could be that you’re starting to feel like, okay, I need to take less weddings, I need to take less, because I want to start doing more of this. But it’s a slower transition. However, that could provide insight on Okay, then, let’s focus on the last six months of the year on really building your email list. If you know, like, I want to pivot out of this, like, I can’t do this anymore. I’m exhausted. Okay, then what’s a small step you could start making right now, that could help that change long term, even if you can’t have a hard break right now?

Megan Martin 8:13
Right, which is, you know, smart, you know, like, just because you have a feeling right now, like you said, doesn’t mean you should act on it. But you can create a new goal that you might not have had a the beginning of the year, to give yourself a path to a different option later. It’s hard, I’m such an all or nothing person. And it’s like, everything is black and white. And if I’m not happy, I’m stopping you. And I’m like, That’s my reality of running a business especially or like caring for other people in the world, you know, which is what Right? Right?

Kat Schmoyer 8:46
Right.

Megan Martin 8:47
So what So what happens next after the mid year review,

Kat Schmoyer 8:53
your favorite thing, goal setting Mega. And that really is the next step you guys like I want you to again, you’re you’re getting information in the mid year review that can help you know, okay, what are the next best steps for you and for the business for the final six months of the year. So I’m not saying that I want you to break down every single month like July through December and have all the you know, checklists for everything that you’re going to do. No, we can still keep it small. Start with a quarter or just start with a month, but it gives you insight on Okay, what’s next? So now hopefully, based on those facts and feelings, you can see like, oh, wow, revenue is better than I thought it was like, that’s great. Like, here’s, here’s what we have some flexibility for in the next quarter or Oh, okay, we’re not quite where I want it to be revenue wise in order to hit our end of year goal. What do we need to do right now? So that it’s not November and you’re stressing about hitting that revenue goal? It’s July and you have a lot more time to get there.

Megan Martin 9:58
What is the difference between The mid year review and a quarterly review.

Kat Schmoyer 10:03
Not a ton, except I, it’s more quiet for me, I do more questions and a mid year review because you have more that you’re looking at. Whereas at the end of the quarter, I’m typically really laser focused on Okay, these last 90 days, and these were my goals for the 90 days and what happened and what didn’t. Where is the mid year review is almost like 1000 foot view, like you’re doing the whole business, really assessing like ideal client alongside the revenue alongside the feelings that you have about the business to just get that grander scope of all the moving pieces.

Megan Martin 10:39
So would you say like the quarterly process, and the quarterly review is more about like, you know, if I didn’t hit a certain deadline, it shifts to the next quarter, if I still accomplish that goal, mid year review, like you said, is more like, high high level. It’s not so much shifting tasks from quarter to quarter three, it’s do I want to continue on this path? Correct?

Kat Schmoyer 11:03
Correct? Absolutely. It’s not necessarily as specific as a quarterly plan is. But we need to have that overarching vision to be able to know what the specific tasks are.

Megan Martin 11:16
Yeah. So what would you say to somebody right now, who is feeling a little bit lost? What do they need to do? Give them their plan of action?

Kat Schmoyer 11:25
First of all, I would complete a video review worksheet like I would, I would get that worksheet printed out, do it in Google Doc, whatever works for you and get some introspective time. I think a lot of the times, at least for me, when I’m starting to feel lost in the business, I feel lost in the business because of external things that are speaking in to me whether I’m, you know, too focused on Instagram or too focused on what somebody else is doing. And I’m, I’m not actually taking the time to step back and say, Wait, am I lost? Like, what’s actually happening, like in my heart right now. And my hope is that doing a mid year review will help you decide how, if you’re lost, Where are you lost? Does that make sense? Versus just feeling those external pressures? And in reality, you’re not actually lost? You’re doing a darn good job. You’re just sucked into comparison, or impostor syndrome or something like that?

Megan Martin 12:19
Yeah. So I would just love to hear from you like with your mid year review, how was it going for you this year?

Kat Schmoyer 12:26
Well, baby is, you know, huge, like, Oh, baby. What does that mean for our media review? Um, but overall, I feel good. I think that it’s, again, one of those things where there are I’m feeling external pressures, because of just changes in our family, and what that looks like for overall family dynamic and wanting to make some tweaks to the business that allow for some more flexibility with three kids. So we’ll see what happens.

Megan Martin 12:57
Yeah, just to wrap this up to I think, you know, I know I joke, we joke that I’m like, not a goal setting, planning deadline person, it’s the reality. But for me, like this concept of review is not only just about, like, what do I do to take the next step, it’s also a great opportunity to like, stop for a second and pause and like, celebrate whatever you have accomplished, whether that’s the big huge plan that you imagined at the end of the year or not, but I feel like we don’t take enough opportunities to like, stop, pause and see what we’ve accomplished. Like, you know, even thinking back to yourself six months ago, like what what have you seen that you’ve accomplished what’s on your plate now? And would have would the person six months ago have dreamed that they were in your shoes? And I feel like it’s such a good exercise to do to like continue to remind yourself that you’re not behind? You’re not failing, even though sometimes we feel that way. It’s very easy to feel that way as business owners but like, again, like is the person last year the person that you wish like do you would you have wish that you were in the shoes now or the person that you were six months ago? Would you would you have dreamed that you’re in your shoes now and like giving yourself that grace period of like, celebrating that?

Kat Schmoyer 14:18
I love that Spoken like a true seven, right? Like, let’s celebrate let’s have a party, but it’s so true. It is and I hope that that’s where again, it’s different from I’m I’m so task oriented. And so I think that’s why I love it because it helps me get out of like the to dues and just think about, like, what has happened like what what’s going well, like, what am I excited about? What am I like, Oh, that was that was not the best, like let’s redirect this a little bit. But either way, it allows you to get out of the day to day, take off those blinders and really look at how the business is doing.

Megan Martin 14:54
Alright friends, well, this is your call to action to take some time put it on your calendar. Download Kats resource for doing your own mid year review and reach out to us tell us how it went and if you have any questions that you’d love for us to answer on the podcast based on what you see in your mid review, please reach out to us we’d love to share episodes that are from you guys. So until then we cannot wait to catch you in the next conversation.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai