2024 Starts in October of 2023

Hi! This is Bye, Social Media!, where you can learn everything you need to build a sustainable solo-business independent from socials and algorithms.

Every Friday, I share something I learnt this week. This edition is about planning for Q1 in 2024.

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This Edition at a Glance

I wanted to try something new and added a visual summary to the newsletter. Let me know what you think.

Have You Thought About 2024, Yet?

It’s mid-October, gingerbread is popping up at the grocery store, and you’re in denial about the year ahead.

2024 might still feel a long ways away. In business time it’s not.

Everything winds down in mid-December and, depending on who you work with, budgets may be starting to get locked until next year OR people need to solve a problem stat before the end of the year.

In the past, I never thought much about planning ahead at this point of the year. The year ahead started on 1/1. I regret that, because it made my life harder than it needed to be.

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Let’s look at things from a more pragmatic point of view:

1. You have eight more weeks until the holidaze sets in, then

2. nothing happens for two to three weeks, and then

3. boom!, everyone’s busy AF.

You can skip that entire scenario, when you take an hour this month to think about:

1. priorities for the rest of the year,

2. things you want to close out by the end of 2023,

3. your first six to eight weeks in 2024 and what you want to do then.

An Example: How I Do it With the Newsletter

I’ve planned this newsletter’s content throughout the end of March 2024 and am going to secure all contributions to it until mid-February by 10/31 (ideally).

That way, I get a head-start at the beginning of the year and can focus on other things in the business.

At the same time, everyone who’s invited to contribute also has an easier time, because they don’t have to scramble in those first weeks of the new year, when you’re waking up from the holidaze and need to rev up the engine again.

I’ve found that the first weeks of a new year set the tone for the year ahead. You can, of course, always revert and start fresh in May.

However, next year, I want things for me to run more smoothly. You and I can’t guarantee it. Yet, we can help ourselves by laying the foundation for it now.

Happy Friday and, as always,

Happy Marketing,

Johanna 📣

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