If the "New Year, New Me" mantra feels overwhelming or unsustainable, this episode is your antidote. In this episode, CEO and founder of Kickstart Accounting, Inc., Danielle Hayden, dives into a fresh, intentional approach to the new year, replacing lofty resolutions with strategic, habit-based goal setting. Say goodbye to the all-or-nothing mindset and hello to a year grounded in clarity, purpose, and realistic growth.
Key Takeaways:
- Forget Resolutions – Choose Intention: Danielle encourages you to ditch the pressure of creating a "new you" and instead focus on setting an intention or theme for the year that aligns with the life and business you want to build.
- Build Sustainable Habits: Use strategic, habit-based planning inspired by books like Atomic Habits by James Clear. It’s about the small, consistent actions that build momentum.
- Use Data to Plan Realistically: Rely on your financials and historical data to map out goals. Dream big, but let your numbers guide the path.
- Create a Roadmap with a Budget: A budget isn’t about restriction; it’s your clarity and direction. Danielle explains how to make it measurable and actionable.
- Accountability is Key: Whether it’s a coach, peer group, or the Kickstart Accounting team, surround yourself with people who will hold you accountable to your goals.
- Embrace Flexibility: Life happens! Falling off track doesn’t mean failure. Check in quarterly, adjust your plans, and give yourself the grace to adapt.
Action Steps
- Set your intention or word of the year. Let it anchor your decisions and habits.
- Map out the daily habits, systems, and team support you’ll need to achieve your theme.
- Use your financial data to set realistic growth goals for the year.
- Build a budget as your roadmap to guide decision-making throughout the year.
- Find an accountability partner or coach to help you stay on track and adjust as needed.
- Schedule quarterly check-ins to review your financials, re-forecast your goals, and course correct.
Topics Discussed:
Why New Year's Resolutions Fail (00:00:24 - 00:02:21)
A Habit-Based Approach to Goal Setting (00:02:58 - 00:05:11)
Mapping Out Habits, Systems, and Support (00:05:11 - 00:06:30)
Using Financial Data to Set Realistic Goals (00:06:30 - 00:08:11)
Accountability and Adapting to Change (00:09:01 - 00:11:21)
Resources:
CFO Services | kickstartaccountinginc.com/cfo
Book Recommendation | James Clear’s Atomic Habits
Free Money Personality Quiz | kickstartaccountinginc.com/quiz
Book a Call with Kickstart Accounting, Inc.:
https://kickstartaccountinginc.com/book
Connect with Kickstart Accounting, Inc.:
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/Kickstartaccounting
YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@businessbythebooks
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/kickstartaccountinginc
Episode Transcript
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;24;21
Danielle Hayden
Welcome back to Business by the Books. I'm Danielle Hayden, your host and founder of Kickstart Accounting Inc. Today's episode is for anyone who's feeling the pressure of New Year, new me. The end of the year is so saturated with hype about goal setting resolutions and all the big promises of new habits and massive growth, and I'm always torn at this time of year.
00;00;24;21 - 00;00;50;09
Danielle Hayden
I love the idea of a fresh start, but I have major resistance to this all or nothing thinking. It really just doesn't lend itself to sustainable planning and a life that I want to live. I don't need a new me this year. Instead, we're going to dive into today how to approach the New Year with intentionality, being realistic, and in a way that's going to set you up for success as life changes.
00;00;50;10 - 00;01;10;28
Danielle Hayden
Now, the problem with New Year's resolutions, as we all know, is that they fail because they're big, they're vague, and they lack a clear plan. For example, we've heard some of our clients say things like, I want to hit $1 million in sales this year, and that sounds great. And I love putting that type of goal into the universe and manifesting.
00;01;10;29 - 00;01;32;14
Danielle Hayden
The big question for me as a realist is how? What habits will you create to build momentum? What systems and processes are even going to support that type of growth? And who do you need on your team to make it happen? Other clients will tell us, you know, this year I want to pay myself six figures, but they haven't yet mapped out their profit.
00;01;32;16 - 00;01;56;23
Danielle Hayden
They don't know and understand their expenses, and they haven't considered how other goals in their life, right? And because we're more than just our business, might compete for their time and their resources because of these reasons and so many more on why New Year's resolutions fail. I want to invite us all to ditch that all or nothing approach, and instead approach this new year with intention.
00;01;56;26 - 00;02;21;07
Danielle Hayden
Life isn't all about work or play, right? It's a blend. Some days I'm going to be a great mom, and other days I'm going to be a great CEO. I recently was joking with my son. He was asking me for several things that day and I said, look, I have a million meetings today and I am going to be a really amazing CEO today and I am just going to fall flat as a mom and I am so sorry.
00;02;21;07 - 00;02;38;27
Danielle Hayden
I promise I'll be back tomorrow, but I need you to give me some grace today and that is what I think we can do for New Year's resolutions as well, is to give us some grace. Just because we don't have day to day consistency doesn't mean we failed.
00;02;39;00 - 00;02;52;25
Aubrey Philipp
Quick question before we return! Have you ever wondered how your personality influences your financial decisions? Take our quiz to discover your money personality and learn how to leverage your strengths for financial success. Visit Kickstart Accounting Inc
00;02;52;28 - 00;02;54;18
Danielle Hayden
dot com slash quiz
00;02;54;23 - 00;02;58;03
Aubrey Philipp
or check the show notes. Now, back to the show.
00;02;58;05 - 00;03;30;17
Danielle Hayden
So in this new framework for goal setting, we're going to do things differently. You don't have to set those big arbitrary goals that you think you should do instead. I want us to create a strategic, habit based approach. And if you haven't read James Clear's Atomic Habits, I recently reread that book and it really inspired me to think about not just the goal, but what are all the systems and habits that I need to embrace day to day in order to hit that big goal?
00;03;30;18 - 00;03;50;03
Danielle Hayden
So, if I want to hit $1 million in sales, what are the habits and the systems that somebody uses day in and day out to hit $1 million? Because those are the things that I need to create in my life in order to hit that goal. If I want to be a business owner who pays themselves six figures a year,
00;03;50;04 - 00;04;13;29
Danielle Hayden
what are the systems and the tools and the habits that I need to do every single day in order for me to do that as a business owner? Now, those might not be your goals. It doesn't have to be. Those are big goals and that does not have to be your goal. So I want you to think about what is your intention or your word of the year, your theme that can anchor all of your decisions and all of your habits.
00;04;14;01 - 00;04;35;16
Danielle Hayden
So for me, minus growth, and I actually hesitate to even share that with you because growth can seem like I'm just growing my business, but for me, it's actually that I want to make small changes in my life. I want that 1% growth. Like I said, I don't need to redefine who I am or new characteristics. I don't need a new me.
00;04;35;17 - 00;05;11;12
Danielle Hayden
But what I do want is to have the small pieces of growth for me individually and as a CEO and for Kickstart, and we're not going to have anything that's crazy, earth shattering change for myself or for my team. But what we are going to do is have that theme of growth that's going to anchor all of our decisions and all of our habits as we go through this year, because we need growth and revenue in profit, in individual team members and their careers and their habits and their training and the things that they need.
00;05;11;12 - 00;05;31;27
Danielle Hayden
I personally am going to need to learn and grow, both in my habits and in my training and the things that I am implementing personally. You get the idea. We need to have an intention, theme, or word of the year that is going to anchor your decisions and your habits. Next, we need to actually map out those habits.
00;05;31;27 - 00;05;59;18
Danielle Hayden
What are the habits, systems, and team members that you'll need in order to achieve the theme for your year? What are the habits that will support that intention? What are the systems that will need to be improved or created? And who will you need to hire or delegate to hit your goals? So for me, I have this really amazing team and I need to continue to hire and delegate all of those tasks that I should no longer be doing.
00;05;59;18 - 00;06;30;09
Danielle Hayden
I need to allow them the space in order to be really amazing at what they do. So for me, I am personally creating the habits and systems that I need in order to get out of my team's way so that they can be really amazing to our clients and to our team members here at Kickstart. So, I want you to think about what are the daily habits and the system and the team members that you need to support yourself in order to have that theme come to fruition for you.
00;06;30;11 - 00;06;55;21
Danielle Hayden
Next, we're going to use math. Not magic, not gut, not intuition. We're going to use our data starting with our financials. I want you to look at your previous year, and you can even go back several years if you have access to that data, and use realistic percentages to predict your growth for the coming year. We need to set goals that are grounded in numbers and not in fantasy, right?
00;06;55;26 - 00;07;27;14
Danielle Hayden
We want to give ourself clarity and direction. Is it realistic for us to have 50% growth, 75% growth? I know it's not for me. You know, for us, we'll have another 20 to 30% growth. And I know that because we've looked at our numbers over the last nine years and we can project that type of growth. And I know that my team and I are creating the habits we've put into place, the systems and the team members that we need in order to be able to support that type of growth.
00;07;27;15 - 00;07;48;13
Danielle Hayden
Now, longtime listeners, you guys know how much I love a full budget. The budget is our roadmap. It is not about restriction. It is about clarity. So if you want to grow by 20%, what investments do you need to make in marketing, teams, and tools to get you there? We have a whole series on how to build a budget
00;07;48;14 - 00;08;11;13
Danielle Hayden
I'm going to leave all that information in the show notes, so that I don't go down a budget rabbit hole, but I want to encourage you in this process. Building a budget is the ultimate smart goal. It is measurable, and you can see throughout the year if you are moving towards your theme or if you are going in a direction that actually isn't serving you.
00;08;11;14 - 00;08;33;22
Danielle Hayden
So, create the budget so that you have a guiding roadmap for your theme. All right, so to recap, we've set an intention word of the year that's going to anchor all of our decisions and habits. We're mapping out the daily habits, the tools and systems, and the team that you'll need in order to support that theme for your year.
00;08;33;24 - 00;09;01;05
Danielle Hayden
And you're going to look at your financials to determine this year's growth based on your previous year's. Then we're going to build out our budget, mapping out our revenue and all of our expenses so that we have the tool to map us to the theme. Next, we need to get an accountability partner. We serve as our clients accountability partner because we show up in their email every single month with their snapshot.
00;09;01;07 - 00;09;22;02
Danielle Hayden
We send our clients their CEO dashboard, also known as a snapshot, which is a high level overview of their numbers so that they can check to see if they are on track. They can determine what's working, what's not working, what do I need to stop doing right away, and what do I need to do more of? What is working well in my business?
00;09;22;02 - 00;09;51;01
Danielle Hayden
And how are those habits serving the theme of my year? Now, every single one of us needs an accountability partner. I have coaches in my life and I can't get to my goals without my coaches. And so you might have several people who serve within your accountability partner. A lot of our clients have us in terms of their bookkeeping and taxes, and then they also have a business coach or mentor, a peer group that are industry specific, that can help them in other areas.
00;09;51;02 - 00;10;14;16
Danielle Hayden
So what areas do you know that you need accountability to help you stay on line to your theme and ensure that you have accountability in those areas? All right. This last step is the most important piece. Life happens. It happens. Your business changes. And I want you to give yourself permission to adapt. We have a theme for the year.
00;10;14;21 - 00;10;35;13
Danielle Hayden
Just because you fall off of your habit for one day, one week, two weeks, doesn't mean we ditch it completely. We have permission to get back on track throughout the year. That's why it's an annual theme, so we can give ourselves permission to get back on track to any time or adapt. It might change. How we get to that theme
00;10;35;13 - 00;11;00;20
Danielle Hayden
might change. So I want you to book a quarterly check in that lets you course correct and adjust your budget and your goals as needed. Now, we do this with our clients who are enrolled in our CFO program, so any clients who we serve as their CFO, we are regularly walking them through re-forecasting their budget and their financials so that they can see what just happened.
00;11;00;22 - 00;11;21;20
Danielle Hayden
How is that contributing to the business and where are we going in the future? Now, if you don't have a CFO in your business, you need to serve that role. That doesn't mean you don't need one. That just means that you need to serve that role. And so create that quarterly check in process with yourself so that you can review your financials, adjust your budget and your goals.
00;11;21;21 - 00;11;44;14
Danielle Hayden
If you need a CFO partner, you can go to Kickstart Accounting, Inc. dot com slash CFO to learn more about how our CFO services can help you with this theme and your annual budget. So as you head into the New Year, my friend, remember you don't have to subscribe, right? You don't need to put all of that pressure on yourself to have New Year's resolutions.
00;11;44;17 - 00;12;11;17
Danielle Hayden
Instead, I am inviting you with me to set an intention. Create a theme. Focus on the daily habits, build the systems and the team that are going to help you create the life that you want to live, to create the business that you want to build. We are ditching this all or nothing approach together. Here at Kickstart Accounting, Inc., we're happy to help you create financial clarity and accountability.
00;12;11;21 - 00;12;37;25
Danielle Hayden
If you need support mapping out your goals, setting a budget, understanding your numbers, or re-forecasting as life changes, I want you to go to Kickstart Accounting Inc.com and book a call. Our team is here and ready to support you. Cheers to another year of intentional yet sustainable growth! All right, I'll see you next week, my friends!
00;12;37;27 - 00;13;25;20
Danielle Hayden
I hope you enjoyed today's episode of Business by the Books. Don't forget to hit like and subscribe! This is the number one way we can help other entrepreneurs find this podcast, because here at Kickstart Accounting, Inc., it is our mission to help entrepreneurs understand their numbers, get access to this information, and grow and thrive in their business. So please help me help other entrepreneurs understand their numbers so they can finally grow and thrive.