Recently my partner and I took a mini-retreat to spend time thinking strategically about our businesses. We had both been feeling like we were down in the weeds of our day to day work and needed to get our eyes up to the horizon to look around and do some strategic planning.
While a more formal annual strategic planning session is a valuable planning activity that I advocate for all businesses, sometimes it’s good to recognize when you just need to get out for a shorter, more informal time-out to re-focus on the big picture.
It doesn’t need to be complicated to take a mini-retreat. We took a half day on a weekend and went to a large local hotel that has a lot of meeting space. We found a quiet corner in a mezzanine with a table and a couple of chairs to have our meeting. For me, it makes a world of difference to get away from my usual surroundings, and this proved ideal. We weren’t in anyone’s way, and we paid the hotel for parking and enjoyed a meal in one of their restaurants afterward.
The result? I came up with several new ideas that were in line with my business plan, and that got me excited about my business again. I took the time at the mini-retreat – because I had the intention to do so – to write out a rough outline and action steps for what I needed to do to put my new plans into effect.