It's a brand new year and time for new plans, so what does 2022 have in store for you?

After ANOTHER year of uncertainty, there have been many challenges for small businesses. With so many changes to rules, restrictions and the economy, plans needed to be re-worked and re-visited often on a monthly basis.

For business owners that are used to making 12 month plans this has not always been a comfortable place to be. However, it has kept us all on our toes and made our businesses more flexible and adaptable.

2022 looks set to hold it's own challenges, and whilst it might not be wise to look too far into the future it’s certainly good to have a plan for the first quarter.

What Did You Learn In 2021?

When making future plans it’s so important to look back at past successes - and things that didn’t go so well! They say that extraordinary circumstances bring about extraordinary events, both good and bad.

How did the challenging year affect your business? Perhaps you learnt some things about yourself, your customers and your business that you didn’t already know.

A good exercise is to write down your top significant events in 2021. This could be anything that impacted your business both positive and negative. Then take some time to think about how you reacted to each one and what you would do differently.

WIBN In 2021

2021 brought its challenges for WIBN HQ as we navigated the changes alongside the rest of the country. But, it also brought some real successes and lots of joy and laughter.

We implemented a brand new member portal on our website that allows our members to create profiles, build connections and share blogs. Community is really important to us and this new portal allows our members to connect and really make the most of their membership.

We also launched a number of online WIBN groups that connect businesswomen from all around the UK. Our groups originally went online in 2020 in response to the nationwide lockdown and we quickly found that many of our members loved meeting online.

That's why after many of our groups returned to face-to-face meetings we created a network of groups that meet exclusively online. These groups have members from up and down the UK and allow women to connect in a way that wouldn't be possible in person.

2022 Plans

So, what are your plans for 2022? Perhaps you want to expand and improve on your existing business and make the most of what you already have? Or maybe you're looking to diversify your offering or even launch something completely new?

Whichever it is it's a good idea to have a strategy of how you are going to achieve your ambitions. After all, “ideas are only dreams without a plan”.

A great way to do this is to write a SMART goal.

SMART Goals

SMART goals stand for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.

Defining these different elements will help you to achieve your goals. This approach eliminates generalities, sets a clear timeline, and makes allows you to identify missed milestones.

S: Specific

A specific goal includes:

• The action to be accomplished
• Who is responsible for it
• The steps need to achieve it

M: Measurable

To make a SMART goal impactful it should be measured preferably in trackable milestones. For example, I will reach out to 40 new businesses this year. I will have contacted 10 by the 30th of March

A: Achievable

It's important to make sure that your goals are realistic and achievable. So, when you are making them you need to think about whether it's something you can reasonably accomplish.

R: Relevant

Consider why you are setting this goal. Will it genuinely improve your business/life? Make sure that your goals are taking you in the direction you want to head.

T: Time-bound

What's your time frame? SMART goals have time-related parameters built-in, so you stay on track.

WIBN In 2022

As for us… Having spent 2021 building our member portal we’re now looking to expand. Our plan is to make WIBN an even bigger national network of professional, driven businesswomen so that all our members can network with even more like-minded women.

It's never been easier to join the WIBN community. You can visit both our online and in-person meetings to try them out with no obligation. We're also looking to expand our network so if you are interested in setting up a group in your local area then get in touch. We’d love to speak to you.