What Goal Do I Focus On In Doula Business?
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Welcome to Doula Tips and Tips. This podcast is a place where we answer one question about Doula work, both to support you and to help you support your clients. I'm Kaylee Harrod. I've been supporting families in this perinatal space since my oldest was born, 12, nearly 13 years ago.
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I am a birth and postpartum Doula childbirth educator, La Leche League leader and a Doula coach. I love guiding and supporting Doulas as they work out their Doula business. It is a tremendous joy to be trusted in this way.
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Thank you for joining us on this journey. Welcome back to Doula Tips and Tips. As we are thinking through year -end planning, getting ready for 2024, I had a lovely session with some Doulas that I have been working with that are on my email list.
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One of the things that came up is what goal do we start with? If we're thinking about business planning for the new year and you're thinking about setting goals and what goals you should set and how to reach those goals, you most likely have more than one thing.
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As a business owner, realistically, you're not going to just have one overarching goal for the entire year that everything neatly fits under. That's not how that functions. What I want to talk through today is how to decide what goal to begin with.
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Because I think it is feasible, of course, to work out a few goals side by side. That's how business works oftentimes. But at the same time, there is some priority given to a goal that has more urgency, for instance.
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That's an important thing to work through, to not overwhelm yourself and also not to start the year with 17 items that you're working towards that then you essentially fail at all of them. So I want to give you four different things to consider in terms of choosing the first goal to begin with.
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So the first one I want you to think about is urgency. Are any of these things urgent either to you, to your business, to your clients? And this can mean different things for different people, right?
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Maybe there's urgency in the sense that like your certification has to be finished by the middle of February. That's a different kind of urgency than like I really need to be able to do postpartum do look care.
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And so I want to finish that certification so that I can start bringing in revenue in the business for that. Because if there's no exact timeline in terms of how the goal needs to play out, there is still some more wiggle room, right?
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But that doesn't make that goal less urgent. So I want you to consider that like let's say you're taking a training and you have This is a real life example, but I won't name names. You have signed up for three trainings since Black Friday.
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And if that's the case, one of the things you wanna look at is do any of these trainings expire? Are any of them time sensitive in that they require that you finish them by a certain date? If that's the case, that's what you wanna start with, right?
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If there's something in your business that is going to be impacted in a really dramatic way by one of your goals, either negatively or positively, like you need to have your CPR certification or you're gonna lose your doula certification.
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Okay, well then, getting your CPR certification should be an urgent goal, right? If you are thinking in order for sustainability to happen, it's urgent that I get trained in something or that I make connections in something, then that's a different kind of urgency, but still urgent for you in your business, okay?
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The second thing I want you to consider is necessity. What I mean by this is, is it something that your business absolutely needs? And is there something that needs to happen first? So some of the doulas that I'm working with at the moment have, are kind of at the earliest moments of having a doula business and are still working out the logistics of owning an actual business.
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So things like the name of the business, the registration in their state, the insurance for the business and all of those kinds of details. So let's say a doula is working on those logistics and says, okay, my goal is to start my business, like officially, legally start my business, okay, great.
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And then they say, you know, I have a second goal of having a logo and I'm gonna work on the logo before I start my business. before I work on starting the business. That is where I would reverse those goals because the necessity of a logo is far lower than the necessity of having a legal business entity.
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And so I want that business entity to be the goal that goes in front of the goal of a logo or colors or branding or any of that stuff because that stuff is not as necessary as having the actual business laid out legally and well.
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The third thing I want you to think about is how much momentum this goal gives your business. Is it something that other goals for the year ride on or is it something that is kind of like peripheral, right?
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Or like one of the things that seems like it would be lovely to do, but also is not making a lot of change for your business right away. So I want to give you an example from my own life. So one of my goals for 2024 is to have more individual doula coaching with one -on -one doulas.
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And this is intended for doulas that are kind of like medium in terms of experience levels. Maybe they've been working for a year or two or three years. And they're like working on expansion or they're working on raising their prices or changing their packages.
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And so that goal is kind of a long goal for 2024. When I break that goal down, then one of the first things I need to do is have some more conversations with doulas that are the target market of that goal.
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And I have relationships with loads of doulas that are the target market for that goal. And I've talked to many of them about having conversations. If I have the goal of having the one -on -one coaching by the end of the year of 2024, then I need to have those calls with those doulas early so that the momentum can continue for that goal.
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Because I can't meet the larger goal without going back to having kind of a micro goal associated with it that is have conversations with these mid -level doulas in January. OK? So when you think about momentum, again, this can mean different things for different people.
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Lots of people talk about client numbers. Lots of people think about revenue. Lots of people think about expansion, sustainability. I really love adding services to your business. So if you're someone that says, I love going to births, I go to lots of births, but my body is feeling the work of that and feeling the burden of that, then I want you to think about prioritizing things that allow you to go to fewer births.
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Because that should be something that in terms of momentum, keeps your business sustainable and therefore should be prioritized, okay? The fourth thing I want you to consider is your desire. So sometimes our business is in a beautiful place where yes, we maybe want some growth, yes, we want some momentum, yes, we want more clients or new services, but there's not an urgency to any of those things.
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So if you're right now listening to this and you're like, you know what, Kaylee, I actually really love where my business is and I'm starting off 2024 really well, like I feel really good about the year that I had in 2023, then I wanna challenge you to think about what would bring you joy in these goals that you have and start there because why not?
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If none of your goals are overly urgent, they're not necessary, they're not building significant momentum for your business, then choose something that you love because business should be joyful and...
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I know you've heard me say, bunches of times, that you should be your own best boss. And I think the awesome thing about that is you also get to pick the projects that you do, right? So if you say, you know, I've always wanted to train as a childbirth educator, and I've never done that, and gosh, this year I could do that.
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And that's something I've been like dreaming about doing. Then do that, and have that be the first goal for 2024 because you want to, because it's something that you desire, and that's a legitimate way to make a business decision as well.
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So I hope that helps in terms of getting you started thinking through where to start with your goals. If you're ready for a more deeper conversation around goal setting and 2024 strategy, I am offering a few strategy calls to Doolas this week and next week in preparation for 2024.
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You're welcome to grab that link in the show notes, and I would love to talk to you about your own business and the strategy that you're looking at for the new year. In the meantime, I will see you in the next episode.
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Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Doula Tips and Tits podcast. If you learned something today or had an aha moment, we'd love for you to share that on Instagram and tag us @harroddoula so we can celebrate alongside you.
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If you found this podcast helpful, we would so appreciate you taking a second to leave a rating and a review on your favorite podcast app. That helps other Doulas find us as we do this work together.
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This podcast is intended as educational and entertainment. It is not medical advice or business advice. Please consult your own medical or legal team for your own needs around your health and your business.
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We'll see you again soon.
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We have been talking about making goals, but how do you know where to start? We are talking about four helpful things to consider when picking what goal to start with. All the goals we want can happen in 2024, but let’s figure out a plan to make it less overwhelming.
Quote from the show:
“So sometimes our business is in a beautiful place where yes, we maybe want some growth, yes, we want some momentum, yes, we want more clients or new services, but there's not an urgency to any of those things. So if you're right now listening to this and you're like, you know what, Kaylee, I actually really love where my business is and I'm starting off 2024 really well, like I feel really good about the year that I had in 2023, then I wanna challenge you to think about what would bring you joy in these goals that you have and start there because why not? If none of your goals are overly urgent, they're not necessary, they're not building significant momentum for your business, then choose something that you love because business should be joyful and...”
CONNECT with Kaely on TikTok or Instagram
https://www.tiktok.com/@doulacoach
https://www.instagram.com/Harroddoula/
I would love to talk to you about your own business and the strategy that you're looking at for the new year.
https://www.harroddoulaservices.com/doula-strategy-call
If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @harroddoula
Kaely Daily is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services
It is sponsored by The Birth Prep Blueprint Childbirth Class
Music by Madirfan: Hidden Place on Pixabay
