The end of one month and beginning of another is a great time to do a month end review and to set your goals and create your plans for the new month.
We've made this super easy to do by leveraging the month end review section of your Lean Out Planner, but if you don't have one yet, here are a few tips how.
Start by looking back and reflecting on your progress so far and ask yourself:
- Are you on track to reach your 90 Day Goals?
- Are you on track to reach your sales targets?
- Are you on track to reach your growth targets?
- What's working well so far?
- What's not going as well as expected?
Then take some time to reflect. Write down all of the things you are grateful for, all the wins you have to celebrate in the last 30 days - big and small, and all of the learnings, Then ask yourself:
- What's getting in the way of your success?
- What can you do about it?
Review your activities and determine which are working and which aren't leveraging the CHuCK technique - Cut, Hold, Change, Keep.
Then it's time to look forward and create your plan for the next 30 days.
Start by looking back at your 90-Day Goal(s). Is it still the right goal right now? If not, revisit your lean strategic plan and reset your 90 day goal. Then ask yourself:
- What is the most important goal for the next 30 days that supports you achieving your 90 day goal?
- What are the major initiatives that are needed this month to achieve your goal?
- What are the critical milestones this month? i.e. key events and commitments
- What will make this month feel like a success?
Then map out your monthly plan and content calendar, including holidays and days to celebrate.
LEAN TIP: As always, keep your monthly and quarterly plans high level and directional as opposed to prescriptive, so you leave room for flexibility and incorporating changes and learnings in your daily and weekly plans.

by Crista Grasso
Crista Grasso is the Founder of Lean Scaling Co and Strategic Ops Institute and the host of the Simplify to Scale Show.
She developed the Lean Scaling System™ to make scaling simple and sustainable for service-based businesses in the messy middle of $1M - $10M. She specializes in elevating the founder out of daily operations and into visionary leadership and in certifying fractionals and consultants to be able to effectively and strategically scale the businesses they partner with.


