Most product-based business owners do their strategic planning late at night or in the car with ten spare minutes. Or they make a big list of everything that needs fixing and try to work on all of it at once.

Either way, a few months go by and it's hard to tell whether the business is headed where you want it to go.

In this episode, I walk you through a five-day exercise, about 30 minutes a day, that ends with one clear priority for your quarter and a plan to get there.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The two patterns that keep owners from planning — the Firefighter, who's too busy reacting to look up, and the Juggler, who makes a little progress in five directions instead of real progress in one
• Why looking back at the last 90 days, not the whole year, is the first step before you plan anything
• How to take your business temperature by rating your product line, your sales and marketing, and your systems and operations from one to five, and why your lowest score usually points to your biggest opportunity
• Why you pick one priority for the quarter, not three or five, and the question that helps you choose it
• How to break that priority into three monthly milestones and a first step small enough to take in the next 48 hours
• How LABS members are using the exercise to make real progress in their business

Today's episode is brought to you by Proof to Product LABS, our membership for product-based business owners who want to keep growing after the basics are in place.

Inside LABS, you get coaching, our full training library, and focused sprints throughout the year to help you make real progress on one thing at a time.

CEO Week, which is what I'm walking you through today, is one of those sprints.

We also have an upcoming Black Friday / Cyber Monday sprint so you go into the holidays with a plan.

We're opening enrollment to LABS this week, and our next CEO Week kicks off October 12th. Come do it with us!

JOIN US IN LABS NOW

You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/462

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