The Role Seasonal Changes Play In Your Business

The first day of fall brings external and internal change.

But are you aware of the impact that seasonal changes bring to your business and success? We are connected to nature whether we are aware of that connection or not. In this episode, I talk about the way each season impacts us and our business.

If you are making decisions in your business without seasonal alignment and are struggling, this episode may shine some light on why.

The 22nd (when the episode was recorded) was the Fall Equinox. With that comes shifts from outward work to inward connection and reflection. As we move toward winter, our goals and focus should shift as well.

In Episode 105, I discuss the different phases of planning and aligning your business with each season.

Because we are entering in fall, I began with the fall season.

FALL:

During the fall, our businesses and our lives should focus on the harvest.  This will make more sense as we move through the other seasons. But this, as in nature, is the time we gather our rewards for the hard work we produced. Whether that is financial or in recognition. If you notice, many of the awards shows are held in the fall season. In fact, just this past week was the Emmy Awards. I bet you didn't even realize that the alignment of rewards and recognition of the year's worth of work, happened during the fall season. If we focus our business on gratitude, resources, our wealth, and what we need to let go of - we will align with the fall season. Just as nature lets go, leaves falling from trees, gardens dying back to rejuvenate the soil for spring, we also must let go. Make space for creativity and planning and what is to come. Learn more by listening to the entire episode.

WINTER:

During the winter our focus should be toward hibernation, rest, recuperation, and inward reflection. This is the time when we set our goals for the coming year. Allow new ideas to percolate and come to us. Dive into our purpose and the alignment we have with what we want to accomplish on a bigger scale, the scale of who we are as humans.  As the years pass, are we in tune with what we want to leave as a legacy for future generations? Are we moving toward that legacy and the reasons we started our business in the first place? Winter gives us the space (and the darkness with shorter days) to go within, rest and reflect.

SPRING:

If fall is the season of harvest, then spring is when we plant the seeds so that we will have something to harvest. This is the time of putting new ideas into action. Renewing our zest for what we do, what we want to accomplish, and the impact we want to make. It's time to begin plans to launch new products or services. To bring the ideas we have been creating focused on during the winter to the light of spring so that they can bloom forth.

SUMMER:

As we come to the end of this summer we can reflect back on the power of the sun. The warmth it shines, even in offering relief (although temporary) from the Coronavirus. The sun is powerful - and with longer days and shorter nights, we are filled with power.  Power to put the energy into ensuring our well-laid summer plans come to fruition.  It's when we put the action fully into achieving our goals. We are fueled by connection, growth, and accomplishment.  This is when the "big" growth happens for us and our business.  It is the accumulation of what we planned for during the winter and spring. For the low-down on all of the seasons, be sure to tune into this week's episode.

What does this alignment truly mean for your business?

When you are aligned with the seasons, you:

1. Become more aware of what you are doing, why you are doing it, and what you truly want out of life and your business.
2. You eliminate outside distractions, activities, and focus stealers so that you can truly align with what brings you joy and success. (However you choose to define it.)
3. You free up your time to focus on your true purpose, and the legacy you are meant to leave.

In the episode, I challenge you to look at the season your business is in and evaluate, just like nature, what you need to let go of so that you can make space for what is to come.

I encourage you to pull out a piece of paper, draw two columns, and label them simple keep and stop. Identify the pieces of your business that it is time to let go of.  This could be relationships, clients, products, services, ways you are spending time, etc. Letting go of them may not mean eliminating them altogether.  It could simply mean outsourcing them or setting them aside to reevaluate in the spring.  The idea is, where will you make space for the new? Because without space, there is no room for the "new" to settle in and find it's way to you.

I would love for you to share what you are letting go of over in the Facebook group so that we can support one another.

What did you learn from this episode? 

Come and tell me in the Facebook Group. Not in the group yet? Consider this your official invitation to join the Small Business Builders Community in the Facebook Group. Small Business owners unite to feed each other with inspiration, information, experiences, and knowledge.