Working tirelessly in your business to make it a great success isn't necessarily the best recipe for growth.
My guess is; you're overworked, tired, and so stuck in your business that you don't have time to plan ahead and work proactively ON your business instead of IN your business.
To really grow and build the business of your dreams, you need to carve out time for brainstorming and making the decisions that will ultimately accelerate your success.
The best way to do that is by planning a workation or an organization retreat. Otherwise, you'll remain stuck being busy instead of proactively working on your business.
To help you prepare for your first business retreat, I have gathered my best tips on what type of retreat you should pick, how to format your goals, and what you should pack in your bag.
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A business retreat isn't a nice-to-have; it's a must-have
When you remain busy working in your business, you don't have time to work on your business. And because you don't have the time to work on your business, you're also not creating the time it requires to work proactively on your business.
Do you see how it's easy to get stuck like that?
The solution I have found to fix being stuck IN your business is to plan workations or organization retreats with my teams. In fact, it's something that we do quarterly, and while it previously was a nice-to-have, it has become an absolute must-have now.
You need to prioritize and make time for you and your team to get in the zone and go deep on specific topics to make progress in your business.
Changing the scenery is sometimes the only thing that needs to be done for you to be productive and get shit done.
Go somewhere that's different from your ordinary setting. Opt for a beach location or even find an Airbnb in your nearby city.
What's important is that you feel the physical distance from your home or office. It will help you think about things from a different perspective and allow yourself to go deeper without the usual distractions surrounding you.
The only thing left for you to do is to PLAN it because when you do that, you will work towards the retreat and make it happen. If you don't plan it, you will end up with no time left to work ON your business.
Workation or organization retreat: which one is best for you?
Work retreat, work vacation, workation, business retreat, and organization retreat. There are so many terms out there to cover something that's more or less the same.
Still, I like to make the distinction between two types: workation and organization retreat.
A workation is something you can do by yourself or with other people. You work on things individually but like to brainstorm together on specific topics or challenges you each encounter.
For instance, let's say you want to make time for thinking about the future of your business, get down to writing the book you've wanted to, or come up with new ideas for products or services. These are things I consider you can do when you're on a workation.
An organization retreat is focused more on getting things done from the organization's point of view.
I have been doing several organization retreats with my teams lately. During these moments, we talk about vision and mission and get a clear view of processes, roles and responsibilities, systems, and so on.
These are all big topics that we can't fit into a 1-2 hour meeting, but that require dedicated time away from the daily operations.
Pick whichever one you think is best for your situation. Be it a workation or organization retreat; the essence is that you dedicate time solely for proactive thinking work.
Essentials for your workation or organization retreat
When you have decided to finally schedule in your workation or organization retreat, it's time you look at what you need to make it a success.
What's the desired outcome of the retreat?
For instance, last time we hosted a retreat, we had set 3 goals:
- Get a clear view of our vision and mission
- Define role and responsibilities within the team
- Create clear KPIs for our team members
These were 3 things we wanted to have accomplished at the end of our 2-day retreat.
You should make a similar list for yourself and your business. List 1 to 3 desired outcomes of your retreat so you can redirect your energy to completing those goals.
Apart from setting very clear goals for your retreat, you need a few practical items, too.
- Whiteboard or flipchart
- Post-its (opt for the super sticky ones)
- Big notebook without lines to draw mind maps
You might want to bring your computer as well, but I strongly recommend that you spend as little time as possible on your screen.
Maybe you're also interested in this: How I Became a Self-Made Female Millionaire at 27
Of course, you need food and drink to survive (including wine, if you're anything like me, lol), and think about having them accessible to you at all times. When you're in a flow, you don't want to lose thinking time because you're busy looking for foo.
At the end of your retreat, make sure you bundle all above your genius ideas, take pictures of post-it walls you and your team made before you tear them off the wall, and make a recap of your ideas, so you can actually do something with them when you get home.
TIP! If you want to write off your retreat on your business, make sure you have clear video-proof of what you have been doing – document everything with photos and videos.
Remember, this is for your business, and you need this kind of retreat to grow and bring out those big ideas. Consider taking your followers with you behind the scenes, too. People tend to find it very intriguing to see how you're working and growing your business.
Just do it. Leave a Thursday night and return on Saturday morning. It doesn't have to be long, and you'll only miss one working day. In exchange, you will get one full day to really dive deep and work on your vision and future without any distractions.
You know this is what you need, so plan your next workation or organization retreat now!
Watch this episode on YouTube or listen via iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and search for episode 83 of The FastForwardAmy Show.
P.S. Make sure to grab the Workation Workbook to prep for your next retreat. You'll get tips on
- What you need to take with you
- Determining your priorities
- Scheduling your day
- Creating the perfect recap of your workation to work on those big ideas aftwerward
Get your copy of the Workation Workbook right here.
We do not take any responsibility for the financial decisions or any other business-related decisions made by listeners/businesses based on our podcast content. Every business has its own specifics, which we cannot take into account in this podcast.
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