Business Planning Toolkit Intro

Transcript: Welcome to Goals to Outcomes, part of the foundations the growth module and the first course in SEI Growth Lab. In our experience, advisors, teams and businesses that see the most growth are the ones that have clarity and commitment around their growth strategy and goals. I know growth means different things to different people. No matter what your goals are, you can use these tools to help you gain clarity and commitment to drive to the right outcomes. In this course, I will teach you the approach that I use with our consulting and coaching clients. Our goal is to help you and your team think and act like consultants in your own business to gain confidence and impact in your ability to grow. We're not going to tell you what to do. Rather, guide you to develop a strategy tactics and the goals that make the most sense for where you are today to help you get to where you want to be in the future.

There are four main lessons and three tools in the Goals to Outcomes course. Here is an overview of the lessons and tools. The first lesson is an intro to the drivers of growth and how to develop your strategy like a consultant. Specifically, I'll teach you the three things that should inform how you approach achieving your goals. In the second lesson, we'll focus on how to gain clarity of goals that are most impactful to your business growth. It's easy to look around to other firms and service providers and get overwhelmed or lose focus. This lesson will help you stay focused and prioritize your growth efforts. The third lesson will help you effectively define your goals, to increase your and your team's commitment and ultimately progress. There are three tools which are incorporated into the lessons, and you can download from the Goals to outcomes course page.

There's a business audit to help you understand where you are, in what areas you want to improve, a one page business plan, which is your firm's strategic overview, and a goals to outcome worksheet to help you define the tactics and actions needed daily, weekly, and monthly. To support your quarterly and annual goals, I will share a few recommendations to help you make the most of your time in the Growth Lab. Now is a good time to grab a pen and paper to outline your next steps based on the course overview I just provided and the recommendations I'll share in a moment. The first recommendation to prioritize growth is to schedule time in your calendar to work on your business, not just in your business. It may be 30 minutes on a Friday, a couple hours a month, or a half day strategy session. Once a quarter, you'll likely always be busy.

Time blocking and protecting that time is a great way to spend time on those important but not urgent things like business planning and tracking. The second recommendation is to be ready to do the work during each Growth Lab lesson to make the most of your time. You can do this by downloading or printing the tools before you start, so you have what you need to take action in each lesson. Finally, include your team. Gain their insights by having them take the business audit and compare results. Incorporate them in the process and celebrate together as you make progress towards your outcomes. Where should you start? There are a few ways to navigate through the goals to outcomes course. You can start at the beginning with lesson one. You can use the Growth Lab assessment to guide you to where to start or just start exploring on your own. Ready. Let's Grow.