5 things to do before the end of the year so January isn't starting from scratch

When my co-host R. & I recorded episode 19 of Should I Care?, there were just under 10 weeks left of the year, which sounds like a whole quarter... until I did the maths.

Surrey decided to give us a 2 week half term this year (just for fun), the girls break up for Christmas a good couple of weeks before the year actually ends, and I was in Australia for 2 of the weeks in between. So 10 weeks on paper turned into 6 working weeks in real life... and 2 of those were on the other side of the world.

And honestly, I see the end of the year go wrong in one of two ways...

The first is going a bit delulu, which is my personal favourite. I'll do the maths and still decide I could create, sell & start a brand new offer before Christmas, like I'm Mary Poppins' bag and can just expand to fit it all in 🙈

The second is writing the whole quarter off, just nurturing, running what you're already running & picking it all back up in January, and then nobody actually builds for January.

The thing that serves you whatever you do in January is new people coming into your world now.

In this post you'll learn

• how to work out how much time you've really got
• why I'm not making anything new this quarter
• the one thing that'll make January easier, whether you launch or not

Step 1: Do the real maths on your weeks

Count working weeks, not calendar weeks. Get the school dates out, take out half term, any trips and the point in December where you know you'll stop.

It matters because every plan you make sits on top of this number, and if it's wrong, the plan is wrong before you've even started. Mine went from 10 to 6 with 2 in Australia, which changes what's actually doable quite a LOT.

Step 2: Know your number before you pick your plan

I have money I have to bring in, so the plan isn't negotiable, I have to work out how I'm going to do it.

I have a spreadsheet and I know exactly how much I need to hit every single month. I don't always hit it, but when I don't, I know what my job is next month.

If there's a gap, the plan has to close it. If there isn't, you've got a lot more choice about how hard you push before Christmas.

On the episode, R. said she's really good at setting tasks & not so good at setting money goals, and that's probably why she wasn't taking decisive action. Once you've got the number, it tells you exactly what the plan needs to be.

Step 3: Sell what you've already got

What you won't hear me say this quarter is that I'm creating anything fundamentally new.

In the past I'd have filled a gap with something really shiny, a four week thing or a brand new offer, & made myself a huge amount of work with a sales page & messaging (it would have felt really fun though).

The SuperFans Sprint is established and it works, I've just never given myself the time to work out how to sell it consistently, so that's my quarter.

And if you do need a new offer fast, the easiest thing to do (and this is said by a groups expert!) is a 1:1 where you don't have to create a load of content.

Step 4: Don't write the quarter off, build for January

If January is when you're going for it, use these weeks for the scrappy back-end stuff you can do on the sofa in your PJs with a really nice drink, so you're not starting from scratch in January, because that is brutal.

Here's the plan I shared on the episode... October is building the Sprint's evergreen funnel (ads, a lead magnet & the emails), November is welcoming the new cohort in & carrying on selling without the big launch energy, and December is Scaling Unwrapped, selling into the Sprint.

Step 5: Bring new people in, don't just nurture the same ones

This is the big one.

Nurturing is a great use of your time & if you're going into a launch in January you absolutely need to do it. What so many people miss is that you need to grow your audience as well.

If you've been showing up for your audience all year, they're probably already really well looked after. R. realised hers know her inside leg measurement... and what she actually needed was new people.

I do it with ads because I find it really hard to be consistent. If I was relying on trial reels, it would be a never-ending job, whereas once ads are built, they're just there, bringing people in day in, day out (with a bit of tweaking).

It's why the SuperFans Sprint is one of my favourite offers to run. A client who did it with me, K., messaged to say: "I just (literally today) made a £1000 sale through my Instagram ads. All because of the sprint done with Sophie."

It was a lot of work for her to get it all done, but she did the work once, & that could happen again next week & the week after.

Recap: your before-Christmas checklist

• your real number of working weeks
• your money number
• what you've already got to sell
• the back-end work for January
• new people coming in every week

Over to you

It's not the sexiest thing to spend the end of the year on, but imagine going into January with new right-fit people already finding you, whatever you decide to do next.

That's exactly what we build in the SuperFans Sprint, 8 weeks where we create your lead magnet, your ads & your welcome emails so new people come into your world every day: SuperFans Sprint

If you're not quite ready for that yet, my private podcast In Demand walks you through how to build an audience of people who are excited & ready to buy from you: In Demand

And if you'd like the whole conversation, listen to episode 19 of Should I Care? here: Episode 19

And I'd genuinely love to know, how many working weeks have you actually got left? DM me on Instagram (@sophiegriffithsco) & tell me.

Sx