Episode 408: 4th Quarter Planning for Pet Business Owners

  Does it feel like 4th quarter planning always sneaks up on you, leaving you scrambling to hit those end-of-year goals? Or perhaps you’re wondering how to balance business growth while still finding time to rest and recharge before the holidays? The last few months of the year can be overwhelming, but with the right strategy, you can turn this season into your most productive one yet. In this week's episode, I’m diving headfirst into how to finish the year strong—without losing your sanity. We’re talking about 4th-quarter planning, the importance of understanding the seasons of hustle versus rest, and how to create a roadmap for success that works for YOU and your business. In this episode, you’ll discover: Why breaking the last quarter into manageable chunks is the key to hitting your goals. The power of recognizing the season you’re in—whether it’s time to sprint or slow down. The importance of delegation and automation to keep your business running smoothly, even when you’re resting. Imagine wrapping up 2024 not in a state of burnout, but feeling balanced and ready for what’s next. Whether you’re looking to onboard new clients, boost revenue, or reclaim your personal time, this episode is here to help you navigate the final stretch of the year with clarity and intention. So, grab a coffee, sit back, and let’s map out a game plan for your best 4th quarter yet! Timestamps: [01:30] Discussing different seasons in life [03:30] Importance of not comparing yourself to others [05:00] Practical tips for planning the fourth quarter [07:00] Importance of delegation and automation [10:00] Work-life balance [14:00] Importance of energy management Notable Quotes: "Not every business will look the same, and that's okay, because everyone's journey and experiences are unique, and relating yours to someone else's is always a bad idea, always the only person, and you've heard me say this before, you should ever be comparing yourself to is yourself of yesterday, last week, last month, last year." "Rest does not mean failure. It's about understanding that there's times to sprint and times to slow down, and both are very necessary for growth." "Dream. I want to give you that power to dream, and I can't stress this enough, but a big portion of this is going to be delegation." "Balance is possible, but it looks different for everyone. And so I think a lot of people actually fail or feel like they're failing this, because they don't actually sit and stop and think about, what does that look like for me?" Resources: Better Marketing With Bella Jump Mastermind Did you love this episode? Make sure you never miss an episode! Head over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify to subscribe to Bella In Your Business. Transcript: Welcome everybody to another episode of Bella in your business. I am excited for today's episode because I I feel like, okay, we are on the verge of the end of third quarter, right? And some of you may or may not talk or think about your business or your life in quarters, but I'm telling you, once you start doing that while things change. The reason why we do 90 day goals in the mastermind is because our brains can actually understand or think about what we're going to be doing in 90 days in three months, approximately. Think about it. You probably know where you're going to be during Christmas this year. You know where you're going to be living, what you're going to be driving, approximately how your business is going to be doing. But if I were to ask you what it would be doing in five years from now, you're like, I have no idea. I would have no idea that I would be in the living, the life I'm living. If you asked me this in 2019, okay, it is. It is just uncanny to me how things change and how, hopefully we change and grow all of the time. So today, I want to kind of dive into that, and I want to make you finish strong, rest easy, a balanced fourth quarter for all of you. Because right now, at the time of this this airing, it is Thursday, September 26 Okay, which means in four days, five days, third quarter is gonna be coming to an end, and fourth quarter is gonna be starting October 1. October 1 to December 31 this is your sprint. This is where we can do anything we want. Now that could be a sprint for clients and revenue. That could be a sprint for rest and to just kick it down into a gear. As a business owner, you all get to decide that, and so I really want this whole entire episode is going to be dedicated to empowering you to thinking about, how do you want to do your planning of the fourth quarter while still carving out time for family and personal life. Okay, so I want you to really think about there's different seasons in life. There's a season for hustle, there's a season for rest, and there's a season for growing. There's so many different seasons that we can kind of go through and until you started going through them or actually acknowledging and realizing, you don't really, actually give it any gratitude. Sometimes you're just your body is tired and you just all you can do is is manage to work on your phone from laying on the couch, right? You can't even, like, be up and out and creative and all this stuff. And maybe the tapes in your head are, like, so lazy, and it's like, no, your body really just wants you to just chill out, right? And so knowing what season you're in is key to avoiding burnout. Not every business will look the same, and that's okay, because everyone's journey and experiences are unique, and relating yours to someone else's is always a bad idea, always the only person, and you've heard me say this before, you should ever be comparing yourself to is yourself of yesterday, last week, last month, last year. Okay. Now growth feelings could also feel very exciting, but they can also demand a lot from you. And so how to recognize when it's time to push and when it's time to step back is going to be really, really interesting. So I just want to stress here that like every season serves a purpose, and just because you're not in go mode 24/7, it doesn't mean that your business is failing. Maybe it's like the rest season, and it's exactly where you need to be. So let me give you example. I worked with a business owner for her to for two years, she was in complete hustle mode. She was onboarding clients, hiring staff, running the show, and she was doing it well. But eventually, the weight of trying to do everything herself to DIY, it caught up to her, and she entered what I call the rest season. Instead of pushing harder, she made a decision to scale back and focus only on the essentials and recharge. Now, did her business fall apart? Absolutely not. Because in that hustle mode, she did all of the important things with SOPs and getting a really good foundation, okay, and in that fact, the rest period gave her the clarity that she needed to reorganize her team, and then she came back even stronger. So remember, rest does not mean failure. It's about understanding that there's times to sprint and times to slow down, and both are very necessary for growth. I know comparison, like I was saying, is a big issue for people and and again, you might think that people have it all figured out. I see it online all the time. I see it in these Facebook groups. I see some people, you know, really looking up to, some people that I've actually had conversations with, and I know that they're running around with the chicken with their head cut off, or their profit margin is terrible. In fact, it makes me cringe seeing some people give advice where they have no no place to. It. So I really want to encourage you do not compare yourself to other people because you have no idea what their bank account, their relationships, their marriage, their stress levels, all of that is going on inside of them or in their own life. All right, be careful who you compare yourself to. Now, I definitely want you to also have a create, creating a fourth quarter without losing your sanity, guys, we I'm reminding you that you have this beautiful time. We have 25% of 2024, left. How do you want to spend it? I want you to think about that. Think about that. Really. Think about it. And we could. I want to switch gears and talk about something practical. How can you make sure that the fourth quarter is amazing without feeling like you're sacrificing your personal life, your personal relationships or your mental health? So I have a plan, and this isn't just like a vague to do list. I mean breaking fourth quarter into manageable chunks. Let's say your goal is to onboard five new clients before the end of the year. Instead of saying, I'll get it done by September 31 break it down into smaller steps. Maybe in October you'll only focus on marketing. Maybe November is about consultations and December is about finalizing agreements. It helps you avoid feeling overwhelmed by the bigger picture. Now, that might sound really slow to you, like, Bella, we do this in 24 hours. Yeah. So that is an extreme. And whenever I'm considering planning things, I always love to go to the extremes of extremely big or extremely slow, or extreme of like, what's the worst could happen and the best that could happen, right? So you also might want to change that around, too, and say, You know what I instead of, you know, and that would be a really small and slow kind of process. Another one could be, I want to increase by, I don't know, $30,000 by the end of the year, right? So that's an additional $10,000 a month. So what are we going to do for that? And we're going to break it down into each month. Or maybe it's just going to be a simple, I'm going to be I'm going to have more work life balance, and that means I'm not working weekends, or that means maybe you are working weekends, but you're not working Thursday Fridays, or you're shutting off by, I don't know, five o'clock,