Your Best Year 2017 by Lisa Jacobs, book review

This is a productivity workbook and online business planner and I first discovered last year’s version in March. I’m very excited to actually be starting this where I should be – from the beginning! I had a quick flick-through when I bought 2017’s planner in December. Take a look at this You Tube video for my first thoughts and comparisons. I’ve now spent the last three days properly reading the book and filling everything in ready to start the year; so I’m now ready to write the review….

First of all, this is not just a planner for you to fill in the blanks each week. The book starts with sixty-nine A4 pages of business advice, tips and inspirational stories from the author before we even get to January. There are also a few pages with blank spaces to review last year in detail; working out your time management and making plans for the year ahead. There are worksheets for setting goals; desired income and making a growth and profit strategy for the year. So you really do need to buy this book sharpish if you want to read all these pages before filling in the actual monthly planner.

I know the fun bit is filling out all the blank boxes, but don’t skip on the reading of those first pages because they really get you thinking about your business and identifying what works well and what you need to improve on or forget about. It’s worth taking the time to stop and think because you get so caught up in the daily running of your business, it’s rare to actually pause and look at the bigger picture.

So once you’ve really analysed your business and made clear goals and worked out how you’re going to achieve them, you get onto the monthly bits. I like the way Lisa Jacobs doesn’t just focus on business though; she recognises how important it is work around your life and gives you chance to plan around family holidays or personal time. There are spaces to make spiritual, mental, physical and relational goals, as well as financial ones. There’s a space to list your tasks for each week and then a page to write down how much you’re making each day of the month.

Then at the end of the month you review it with spaces to fill in your social media statistics; how you’re doing on your goals; profit made and projects completed and still in the works. You also question what worked well; how to overcome any obstacles and whether you got closer to your annual objectives.

This is such a useful book for anyone running a small business. The best thing I’ve learned from using it is working out where I want Oshun to be in the future and how I need to focus my efforts in order to get there. You have probably gathered this by now, but I do recommend Your Best Year by Lisa Jacobs.