If you feel like you’re floating aimlessly a bit during the summer months, today I’ll offer 3 ideas of tasks you might want to tackle before flipping a switching into Summer Mode.
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Read the transcript:
[00:00:00] Janice: Welcome back to Your Win-Win Teacher Business. In episode number 32, we’re talking about three teacher business tasks you’ll wanna make sure to tackle before stepping away from your desk for summer break.
[00:00:39] Once that teacher appreciation sale comes and goes, the TPT search bar likely gets pretty quiet. You might have some quick win resources that help teachers get to the finish line, but as a business owner, your brain is likely screaming that it’s transition time. You might feel it’s over and there’s no money to be made between now and back to school season, but I’m here to gently challenge that thought.
[00:01:06] I personally love the second half of May as a teacher business owner, but that’s because I found clarity on the rhythms and systems that lead me to successfully achieving my goals. Optimizing a resource might not feel exciting when the search bar is in a slow season, but you might be unsure what a better use of that time looks like. Creating a new resource might be a good idea, but only if the data and market research help you feel confident that this is what your audience needs right now.
[00:01:42] And I bet there were some opportunities that bubbled up during the year that you just didn’t have time to take action on within their timely hot season. Let’s not miss that wave two school years in a row. Let’s make the most of this summer lull. So if you feel like you’re floating aimlessly a bit during the summer month, today, I’ll offer three ideas of tasks you might wanna tackle before flipping a switch into summer mode.
[00:02:11] First, I think it’s time for a dashboard dive. If you don’t already have a clear picture of what your top 10 best sellers are for every month of the school year, it’s time to get that in place. When gathering this information, it’s important to look at earnings to truly understand which resources are paying the bills, but also to look at units to see which resources are being purchased in a high quantity and might represent the biggest opportunity for growth.
[00:02:42] When we reflect on the most recent school year, we can see trends about what problems teachers are going to the search bar for in the current school year. We can get curious about what teachers are buying, when they are buying it, and start to fill in the stories in our marketing minds about why teachers needed those solutions at that specific time of year.
[00:03:08] If your end of year solution is flying off the shelves during the holidays, let’s get curious about why. If your test prep solutions are flying off the shelves right after open house, let’s get curious about why. Your TPT dashboard is filled with breadcrumbs from real paying customers about what they need.
[00:03:30] If you know how to look at this data, you’ll find holes in your product lines that represent opportunities for new products. You’ll find ideas for new long form and short form content so that you can show teachers ways they can use the resources they’ve already invested in, in multiple ways that go beyond the promises you’ve delivered within the character limit of that title.
[00:03:54] Soon you’ll understand when the best time is to market your best sellers, and you can build out your content calendar for the next school year now, while that data is fresh and available. Emails can be batched, Asana calendars can be filled in today, and future you won’t be guessing what to share about when a new month starts because you’ll be walking into next school year with a data-driven plan that goes beyond just guessing what teachers might find helpful.
[00:04:26] If you need a fresh set of eyes on your data routine to uncover these types of opportunities, I’ll leave a link in the show notes to my TPT Data Mining Service. A fresh set of eyes on your data every month might help bring that long list of tasks you could do into focus to make sure you’re spending your time on the tasks teachers are asking you to take on Next, it’s time to revisit your goals, and please don’t roll your eyes and tell me you don’t have time for goal setting now. I know we’re in the throes of Maycember. But May is a really important checkpoint for a few reasons. First of all, I hope that the goals you set at the new year aren’t just monetary goals.
[00:05:09] We all want to make more in the generic sense, and we often assume that year over year growth is an expected goal to be measuring and chasing, and maybe it is, but I’m much more interested in actionable goals that you can control. You might not be able to force a certain dollar amount every month, but you can optimize a certain number of products, create a tangible number of long form content assets, show your face on stories on a certain schedule, or send two emails every single week.
[00:05:43] If you set goals back in January, do you even remember what they are now? Have you been referencing them, acting on those plans, and measuring what’s working? If the answer is no, you are not alone. May is a time to get curious about your progress towards those goals. Did you set a goal that was too easy?
[00:06:04] Is it time to adjust the goal? Did you set a goal that you’re no longer even excited about? It might be time to choose a new one that represents how you want to run your business and isn’t influenced by the goals you saw everyone else on the internet setting back during the noise of the new year. If your goal and action steps still feel like the right next move, but you haven’t been taking action as quickly as you’d like, May is a great time to recommit to the goal and schedule in some action steps between now and July 1st, the midyear checkpoint.
[00:06:42] After looking at the seven months of the year that remain, and the action steps you’ve chosen as your focus, you might wanna look at your expenses to make sure they align with those goals. If you don’t have any product creation or optimization plan for the next few months, do you really need to be paying for a mockup or movable pieces membership during this season?
[00:07:02] If you aren’t planning on running any paid ads this calendar year, do you need to dive into the bootcamp everyone else is joining when the cart opens? Are there any tech tools that you could turn off for a season and activate again once they actually align to the goal you’re currently working on and the tasks on your desk?
[00:07:22] What a gift it would be before you stepped away from your desk this summer to take a look at your finances and make sure you aren’t going to be automatically paying for things that you don’t actually need. If you need a thought partner as you tighten up your goals for this calendar year,
[00:07:39] i’ll leave a link in the show notes for my strategy call calendar. Finally, it’s visibility time. How can we get new eyeballs on your resources and your brand this summer? When is the last time you made a new lead magnet for your email list? When is the last time you shared about the lead magnets you already have?
[00:08:01] When’s the last time you evaluated if your current lead magnets are even bringing the right people into your brand? When a customer buys a resource, what are we doing to help them stick around in your community long term? If the TPT search bar is going to be quiet for a bit and the need for paid solutions is taking a natural dip at this time of year, I personally can’t think of a better time to double down on building your list and really looking at your free offerings with a fresh lens.
[00:08:33] When I write weekly emails for clients, we always naturally have to start a conversation about the current game plan for getting high quality customers on that list in the first place. If you’d like to look at your lead magnets from a fresh angle, this is a topic I’m diving into with clients at this time of year naturally, and I’d love to add you to my strategy call calendar.
[00:08:56] So you can choose to feel sad about the natural slow season of the TPT search bar, but I personally love this time of year. These three intentional planning steps set me up with a plan for the new school year that is intentional and data-driven. This season is an opportunity to question the status quo tools and tasks. Before stepping out of the office for summer break
[00:09:19] you’ll be so grateful to really look at what is moving the needle and what you can let go of. Your CEO time is of great value and we can’t risk spending it on tasks that aren’t moving us towards the big goals we have on our hearts. Personally, I’m excited about summer vacation and I know that I’ll need to balance time spent working on my business and time soaking up the summer sun with my kids.
[00:09:44] But you better believe if I’m putting a task on my calendar that it’s one that is 100% aligned to my goals and a proven needle mover. hope this episode energizes you for the final work days that remain this spring. Whether you’re data diving, goal setting, or evaluating visibility opportunities on your own or reaching out for a thought partner, know that I’m cheering for you.
[00:10:10] I see those foundational bricks that you’re laying to build a strong business that lasts for the long haul.
Here is a playlist of other episodes I think you will enjoy about goal setting and tracking.
