Navigating Growth: Lessons Learned From a Year of Building a Successful Business
Reflection is the key to building a sustainable freelance CME writing business. Like many folks, I have a process that I use to reflect on my life and work at the end of the year, including evaluating my business plan and marketing plan for the upcoming year. It’s the same 3-step process I use for 90-day planning—reflect, review, redirect.
In CME/CPD, reflection and reflective practice are regarded as essential characteristics of professional competence. As early as 1933, John Dewey defined reflection in How We Think as ‘‘active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusion to which it tends’’ (p. 9).
In the 1980s, Donald Schön wrote a book called The Reflective Practitioner that underpinned formal requirements for health professional practitioners to provide evidence of reflective practice as part of licensing and revalidation processes in the UK, Canada, and the USA.
A 2007 systematic review of reflection and reflective practice in health profession education concluded that reflection is a valuable learning strategy to help learners connect and integrate new learning to existing knowledge and skills as well as to help learners explicitly integrate the affective aspects of their learning.
At the end of 2023, I joined Dr. Alaina Szlatchka for a conversation about what business owners in learning and professional development should focus on to improve our work in 2024, including emphasizing the importance of refining our product or service.
As you’ll know if you read this blog or listen to the Write Medicine podcast, Continuing Medical Education/Continuing Professional Development (CME/CPD) is my specialty medical writing field. So here are some of the most valuable experiences for me of 2023 and lessons learned as a business owner.
The importance of reflection and reflective practice are frequently noted in the literature; indeed, reflective capacity is regarded by many as an essential characteristic for professional competence. - Mann K et al. Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract.
#1: Embracing Quality over Quantity When You Start a Business
Initial Efforts: In 2023, I expanded my learning and professional development business and set a goal of growing my podcast, Write Medicine. My endeavors included courses, a membership site, coaching programs, blogs, weekly podcast episodes, and establishing a YouTube channel.
Data Insights: The advantage of doing all the things and creating such a range and volume of diverse content was that I was able to generate and collect valuable engagement and interaction data from listeners, readers, and viewers.
Realization: The main thing I learned was that I tried to do too much too quickly. It was extremely challenging to maintain content volume and frequency. Many times I dropped the content ball and felt overwhelmed - which isn't what any business owner wants to experience.
2024 Strategy: So in 2024, I’ll be emphasizing quality over quantity and using the Pareto Principle to focus on the 20% of content that truly resonates and provides value to listeners and readers. I’ll be taking a deeper dive into my LinkedIn, podcast, blog, and YouTube stats and using that data to develop a focused content plan and calendar based on the top 20% highest quality, impactful content that speaks to my ideal customer journey
#2: The Power of Learning by Doing to Help Your Business Grow
Initial Hiring Challenge: Business gurus tell you that the single biggest thing you can do to accelerate your growth as a small business or as a solopreneur is to hire outside help for tasks you can outsource. So I jumped right into hiring virtual assistants in October 2023 to help me build out my email engine (I use Convertkit) and connect the tech dots between the various software platforms that I use to support my business, like Circle, Thinkific, Megaphone, and more. We struggled, to be honest. I imagined that the people I hired (I worked with 3 VAs in 6 months) would know what they were doing and how to help me. They didn’t.
Reevaluation and Adjustment: After several months of miscommunication and missteps, I stepped back from outsourcing to get some clarity on my business structure and needs. I realized that I had started outsourcing before fully understanding my ideal systems and processes, and I’d spent money without needing to by hiring too early.
Key takeaway: My key takeaway here is that learning by doing is really important when you are trying to run a successful business and just starting out. I needed to figure out systems and processes myself before delegating to someone else.
Current Success: After gaining that insight, I was able to hire a VA in the early summer, who has been just fantastic in helping me manage my small business administration tasks.
2024 Strategy: In 2024, I’ll continue to apply a 'learning by doing' approach for new business components – by essentially piloting on and with myself before delegating, documenting those experiments, and hiring help to execute processes I've already tested and clarified.
#3: The Importance of Small Steps to Help You Reach Business Goals
Initial Overreach: I took some very large steps in 2023 (e.g., redirecting my revenue stream and launching multiple large initiatives simultaneously). This created overwhelm and made it difficult for me to focus. I was going in too many directions.
Lessons in Focus: In the last quarter of 2023, I drew inspiration from Gary Keller and Jay Papasan’s book The One Thing, and scaled back to one or two main points of focus.
2024 Strategy: In 2024, I’m planning to take smaller, more focused steps. I’m right in the middle now of reflecting, reviewing, and redirecting my business so that it is supported by a roadmap with 90-day plans for 1-2 key focus areas.
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My 2024 Key Takeaways & Business Strategy
My key takeaways for 2024 were focusing on quality over quantity, learning before doing, and taking small steps in my business to grow.
First, I’ll be embracing quality over quantity in 2024, particularly in content creation. In 2023 I produced a vast array of content - courses, blogs, podcasts, and more - to establish my presence as a learning and professional development provider for medical writers in CME/CPD.
The key takeaway for me was that I did too much, too quickly. Going forward, my focus will shift to enhancing the quality of my content, adhering to the Pareto principle, and focusing on the top 20% of content that resonates most with my audience.
The second lesson for me is the importance of hands-on experience and the Power of Learning by Doing. My experiences underscore the necessity of understanding one's business needs thoroughly before outsourcing tasks. This approach not only minimizes miscommunication and missteps but also ensures a clearer direction for business growth.
Third, I’ll be taking small, focused steps to pilot new business components and testing them out personally before delegating them to my team, ensuring a thorough understanding and efficient execution of tasks.
Measuring Success in 2024
With these lessons in hand, I’m setting my sights on my 2024 business ideas with a clear strategy and solid business plan to test whether focusing on the top 20% of my content will significantly impact client attraction and podcast growth.
To evaluate success, I’ll will use various tools to track the journey of content consumers and measure engagement through clear calls to action and tracking links. This approach, combined with qualitative feedback, will help refine my strategies further.
Join Write Medicine's Journey This Year
My journey in the niche world of CME/CPD offers valuable lessons for medical writers, content creators, and entrepreneurs. My experiences highlight the importance of quality over quantity, the power of experiential learning, and the need for focused strategies. As we lean into 2024, we're reminded of the importance of continuous learning and adaptability in the ever-evolving landscape of medical education and professional development.
If you're ready to open your own business in 2024, join us at Write Medicine as we take our clinical and academic experience and use it to enhance CME materials. Your journey to becoming a successful CME writer starts here. Join WriteCME Pro today to take your CME writing skills to the next level.
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