Ep. 366 Why your business needs a reset before the New Year (even if it’s working)

Ready to finish the year with clarity and set the stage for a smoother, more sustainable business in 2026? In this episode, Anna Lundberg guides you through the crucial process of reflecting on your work, recalibrating your offers, and designing a focused plan for next year – all without burning everything down. Tune in for practical advice and hear about a powerful new resource to help solopreneurs break free from overwhelm and move forward with confidence.

Key moments:

[00:00] Introduction: Why reflection matters for next year

[00:56] Anna’s corporate journey & lessons in leadership

[03:01] Challenges of sustaining a business as a solopreneur

[05:35] Recognising when your business model needs to shift

[07:43] Market changes & the opportunity for deeper clarity

[08:39] The strategic benefit of pausing and recalibrating

[09:40] Groundwork Programme overview: What’s involved

[11:41] Options for support: WhatsApp and Group Coaching

[13:17] Final invitation: Join the Groundwork Reset

Resources mentioned:

• Ready to reset before the year ends? Join Groundwork – a 10-day guided sprint to step back, get clear on what’s working, and make intentional decisions for 2026.
  Short daily videos, focused prompts, and the option to join a WhatsApp group and live coaching call. Sign up at onestepoutside.com/groundwork.
  We start Monday 17th November.

Business reset for the new year

This one is for you if you are making time to reflect before the year wraps up and you want next year to feel more focused and more sustainable, you’re proud of what you’ve built. You’re ready for it to run more smoothly with clearer decisions, cleaner offers and a bit more breathing room. And if you’ve been saying, I just need a proper plan for next year, this one’s for you. Welcome to Reimagining Success, the podcast that helps you build a profitable business as an independent expert, one that works for you and your lifestyle. I’m your host, Anna Lundberg, former corporate insider turned business mentor, executive coach and mum of two. Whether you’re a solopreneur, a coach, speaker, consultant, I’m here to guide you in creating a business that gives you freedom, flexibility and the fulfilment you’re looking for, ready to redefine success and build a business that you love. Let’s get started.

When I first started in my first corporate job, so it was a marketing job, a brand management job, I was associate, no, it was called assistant brand manager at the time, assistant brand manager. And I executed like a mad person. I think we were supposed to do like two launches a year and I did six and I did brand strategy and I, you know, I did team celebrations and I did all projects, as we called them, and I, and I just executed, I delivered, I, I did all the things and I was rewarded for it. So I, I was given the top rating in my year. I got an award actually in the second year and then ultimately I got promoted. However, when I got promoted, I realised, even though I didn’t even have a huge team, even at that next level, the brand manager level, and in particular in my role, because I was in a, in a sort of very senior and independent digital, almost internal consultant role in digital was still quite new then. So, yes, I’m very old.

So at that time I had the opportunity to have a really big impact. But I, at the beginning, at least, I was hanging on to this kind of delivering, executing. And, you know, if you’ve been in a senior corporate role, far more senior than I was at that time. I’m sure you’ll know that you can’t just continue to be an individual contributor. When you’re a senior leader, suddenly, then your value comes from how you coach and motivate your team, how you guide them, how, you know, you solve problems and that kind of thing. And I think the same shift is very apt in our own business when we’re starting out. And again, I’ll anchor this in my own experience. When I started out, apart from the fact that my personal life, I was single, I had no sort of obligations, literally, I had no home or family in terms of children and partner and that kind of thing.

And so I could work all the time. And I obviously had no business income. So even though I had savings and so on, right at the beginning, I had more time than money in a pure business sense. And so I got super busy. I watched all the training sessions at the time, it was, you know, Facebook lives and podcasts started coming, and I read all the books and I did all the email courses and videos and I learned about all the tools and. And all sorts, right. And I was in that kind of executing, doing all the things. And I do think there’s the sort of some necessity, some truth to having to do those things when you’re first starting out, in a sense, in that you kind of don’t know what’s working.

And so you do all the stuff. You talk to everybody, say yes to the free coffees. You know, you’re putting yourself forward for things, and you say yes even when perhaps it’s not quite the price you want. You do things for free and you’re posting all over the place on different platforms, you’re trying lots of things, you’re watching lots of training. I get exhausted just saying all these things. So there is value in that when we’re first starting out, but I’m sure you will have experienced this. There is a point when you kind of need to stop consuming as we stay and start creating, first of all. And secondly, what happens is, and I’ve talked about this before, we create a kind of a Frankenstein where we’ve got all sorts of hodgepodged offers and different pricing structures and social platforms and whatever else on the back end too.

So it’s not that, you know, you haven’t had like a big crisis moment of burning out perhaps yet. It’s not that the business is failing, but there’s something at this pivotal moment when actually the way you’ve been working up until now, the way you are working still doesn’t quite feel right anymore. So that might be that. You know, I’ve had this hold my hand up here, open my computer, and I stare at Asana, which is my project management software, and I go, oh, my gosh, I don’t even know where to begin. The whole point of that kind of to do list digitally is to help you and it’s just, oh, my gosh, everything feels really urgent and important or, you know, you kind of theoretically block a day to do kind of CEO stuff and strategy and especially this time of year, look to next year. But then you end up just kind of replying to emails, catching up on admin and just, you know, faffing about a bit, as we say in the uk, you know, you. You maybe are so busy with delivery that you don’t have the time to take a step back and revisit your offers. It kind of feels overwhelming too, right? I this a few years ago when I’d been in business, sort of at a very arbitrary milestone of 10 years because the business had evolved over Those years, but 10 years, then I suddenly thought, oh my gosh, is this what I want to keep doing? And it’s already established.

It’s almost easier to get things off the ground at the beginning when you have a blank slate, a blank sheet of paper, when you’ve got stuff, it’s a much more difficult and courageous decision to close down an offer that’s working or to shift how you’re doing things because of worry that, oh my gosh, if I kind of burn the bridges, if I let go of this stuff, you know, it’s not working perfectly and it’s not exactly what I wanted, but it is kind of working. So if I let go of that, ah, maybe I’ll completely fail and have to start all over again. So that can feel pretty overwhelming, obviously. And I’ve been writing about this on LinkedIn and it’s definitely been resonating. And when you’re sort of rewriting your bio for the umpteenth time, you know, you’re spending hours tweaking LinkedIn posts and so on. And even worse, if you’re kind of doing that on Instagram with reels and trying to do the perfect carousel and so on and maybe another one. And again, I’ve definitely been. When you’re pushing through a proposal where you sort of have underpriced it again just because you don’t want to lose out and you, you’re sort of in that people pleasing, oh, but you know, I, yeah, I really want this.

And so being very amenable and perhaps not setting the boundaries that you need. So again, it kind of looks like it’s working, but it feels like there’s something off. You’re making money, you’re helping people, you’re doing the thing, but something’s a little out of sync. And so if you’re asking Yourself, you know, is this really what I want to scale? Can I even scale this? You know, I want to earn more money, but right now that looks like doing more stuff and I just don’t have capacity for more stuff. And if I keep going like this, what is the default future? Is this even still going to work a year from now? Because the truth is that, you know, the market is changing, there’s a lot of noise and clutter and of course AI is coming to it and more and more people are putting stuff out there. So even. And as I found as things have evolved over the last decade as well, things that were working before might not work anymore. In fact, it’s an opportunity, of course, to get even more clear on our positioning, to really get a proper sales process in place and to be much more choiceful, as we used to say in corporate, at least in our company, about where we put our time and energy.

So it might be that, you know, maybe you’ve hit a revenue milestone, but it just feels like, oh, I’ve got there, but it feels pretty messy and too heavy to keep going. Or, you know, maybe you have tried raising your prices, but overall the model is still very, very dependent on you. Or you’re trying to simplify, but then you kind of make it more complex again, you develop more offers and you try different things and you’re increasing frequency of posting, whatever it is. So the good news is, you know, when we get to these kind of recalibration moments, as I call them, you don’t need to start from scratch, but you also can’t keep kind of tweaking just on the surface because all you’re doing is it making it more complicated and not actually addressing the root cause. So this is a season that needs that deeper recalibration and it is okay to pause to do that. And I know it feels really scary to slow things down. It feels like we have to be in that kind of always moving forwards, especially when it’s not working so much. I need to lean in even more and, and oh gosh, it’s almost the end of the year.

I need to push, push, push, and then I need to set up for next year. But again, coming back to those sort of, is it going to be working next year? Can you keep going like this? Is this actually sustainable? If the answer is no, then it is very strategic to take a bit of a pause to create that space and to reflect on what’s working, what’s not. So I’ve had a few tools that I’ve shared in the past, I’ve had my Solopreneur scorecard, which maybe you’ve done and I’ve also been sharing a little bit a custom GPT that I developed this kind of a diagnostic with some of my clients to test that out. And I have a new, new programme for you that I think will be really useful, I know will be really useful if it’s for you at the right moment. So it’s actually sort of a 10 day business reset. In the past I’ve done kind of annual reviews and we do that with my business accelerator members. But this is a lighter touch, kind of really intensive programme priced very reasonably, if I do say myself, say so myself, to really lay the foundations. I’m calling it Groundwork.

It’s a two week, ten day programme. In week one we’ll look at where things stand now. So kind of looking back and looking at things like of course, revenue, but that might not be your blocker, but that is an important one time freedom. The clients you’re working with, the programme, the offer, how you’re delivering it and of course how much you’re enjoying it and, and, and if it’s fulfilling. So week one and it’ll be Monday to Friday we’ll be looking at, okay, let’s review but not just in there like, oh, let’s see how this year has gone, but really looking at what’s working, what’s not. And then week two again, we’ll have a weekend break and we’ll look Monday to Friday at starting to rebuild. So looking at, okay, what is my integrity rate and resentment rate, how can I align my pricing, looking at those offers, the rhythm, the messaging for next year and beyond. So yes, it’s a little intensive, I don’t want to say intense, it’s going to be quite fast paced.

But the benefit is that in a very short space of time, just a couple of weeks, with a little video every day, a little prompt, little workbook optional of course, and where you can really reflect on these things and, and I’m sure you found this being a business for, for a number of years and you know, it’s not so easy to do this by yourself and even if you’ve done this before, you know, there are so many kind of, I don’t know, annual planner templates and again, I’ve run lots of sessions in this as well. It’s so useful. I’m constantly evolving how I do it with my thinking and with my clients and it’s just absolutely invaluable in My experience to have a sounding board, to have a structure to work through. And again, it’s sort of going in line with, I guess alongside is what I’m trying to say, you’re delivery and the work that you’re doing. So it shouldn’t feel like a sort of big burden on top. It’s kind of micro strategy, micro tweaks that you can do and it’s not going to require you to burn everything down. It’s not going to mean you have to rip everything up and start again. And so if you go to onestepoutside.com groundwork that’s onestepoutside.com groundwork and we start on Monday the 17th of November.

So again it’ll run for those two weeks there is an option. So this is the 10 day reset and I, and I believe that will give you what you need and you know, if you want to work just sort of in your own pace and you’ll have access to that for a month afterwards. So don’t worry if you do miss a session, it’s, you know, it’s your timeline and we’ve got time until next year. And anyway, these are decisions we’re making for the future, not just for an arbitrary date for January 2026. But there is an option to upgrade as well, to do kind of a groundwork plus, if you will, and where we’ll also be able to join the WhatsApp community and a group coaching call at the end. So that’s again very reasonable I would say for that additional support if you do want to get on a call and review things with me. And of course there’s such a benefit to sharing and hearing from other people what they’re thinking about as well. And so those two options, you can get the 10 day sprint, just the videos and prompts and work on your own time or you can also join the WhatsApp community and the call.

So look, I’m not giving you as ever a big master plan, but, but I am giving you this space and clarity to design your own blueprint that’s going to work for you. So if you’ve outgrown, grown the way your business is running, but you don’t want to burn it all down, I think groundwork is a really great option for you. 10 days, short videos, clear prompts, workbook. I know some of you love workbooks, some of you don’t. So completely optional, you can do whatever you want to do. And as I said, that optional Upgrade to get WhatsApp support and live group coaching call. So again, one step outside.com forward/groundwork and that’s running for a couple of weeks. I’ll talk a bit more about it next week and there’s some other things coming up as well.

But I hope you will find this really useful and I look forward to seeing you as you lay the groundwork for 2026. Bye for now.

Groundwork, your 10-day business recalibration starts on Monday 17th November and you can still join us. It is a two-week business reset designed to help you step back, get clear on what’s working, and make intentional decisions about what’s next. You’ll get short daily videos, simple prompts, and a guided workbook with the option to upgrade for a WhatsApp group and a live coaching call the following week. Head to onestepoutside.com/groundwork to join and I would love to have you in there. That’s onestepoutside.com/groundwork.

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