I was talking with my personal trainer the other day on Instagram about an IG story I shared that was documenting my CEO day. We got talking about the details around what a CEO Day is, what I do that day, and when they happen.

I don’t remember exactly where I originally heard about CEO Day, but over the last 6 months I’ve been working on setting aside one day a week for CEO Day. As an OBM, I’ve been encouraging my clients to build a CEO Day into their routine so that they can begin to focus on their business as a whole and not just the day-to-day tasks.

What is CEO Day

To get straight to the point, CEO Day is one day where you focus solely on tasks that move the needle in your business. It’s a time for putting your boss hat on and working on the internal projects that will grow your business and help you hit those big goals you’ve set.

The best thing about CEO Day is that you can use it as you need to. It’s a day you’ve blocked off on your calendar where you do what you need to do.

How this looks for you personally may vary, but the concept of a CEO Day is that it is there to let you work on the internal business projects, track analytics and financials of your business and not client work. Because time is a precious commodity, you can also use this day for personal appointments.

Since I have a weekly CEO Day, I’ve been able to use this day for both personal and business. As long as I make sure I’ve tracked everything I need to and completed the internal tasks I’ve set for myself, the rest of the day can be used for meeting up with friends, taking the dog out for a long walk, naps, appointments, etc.

The frequency of a CEO Day is up to you. If you’ve never had one, start out with a monthly CEO Day. Over time you can begin to increase the frequency to once per week.

There are 2 things to help you prepare for a weekly CEO Day.

1. Clear one day each week off of your calendar. No one should be able to book calls that day.
2. Let current and future clients know your business hours. For example, I work Monday, Wednesday-Friday 10am-4pm CST. Notice how Tuesday is not on my business hours? That ensures that clients understand that day is not a “work” day.

Why you need a CEO Day

There are a lot of reasons why you need a CEO Day, but the biggest one is so that you can grow your business.

In order to know if your business is growing (or not) you need to be keeping an eye on your metrics. What metrics you track is up to you. However, you do want to make sure you’re tracking financials, leads, marketing efforts, and client retention. Each time you have a CEO Day, pull up your spreadsheets and start tracking!

Over time these analytics will help you see where you need to make changes or increase your efforts. It will help you keep a strong pulse on your business so that as you make goals and plans for your business you’ll know exactly where to make the next move.

On a more personal note, CEO Day is great for self-care. If you work 5-days a week (or more during busy seasons), you need to have a day that you can devote to your mental and emotional health. This is key because you can’t pour into your business or clients if you have nothing to give.

Since I personally have a weekly CEO Day, I’ve been able to mix work and personal on this day. There are some days where I’m focusing the majority of my day on internal work and others on personal errands and appointments. If you only have CEO Day once per month, you’ll want to focus that day fully on your business.

There are many reasons why you should pivot your business, and Elle Druin shares 5 really great questions you should ask before you pivot. Personally, my top 2 reasons for why you should pivot your business are:

1. You’re no longer loving exactly what you’re offering or you’re offering too many things
2. You’re not being hired for everything you offer

If you’re considering making a pivot in your business, take some time to ask yourself “why” you want to and how you’ll be able to better serve your clients if you pivot.

What to do during your CEO Day

There are 4 things you should do during your CEO Day to make sure it’s as effective as possible.

01. Review your finances

Bookkeeping – Whether you use a bookkeeper or not, you’ll want to make sure that your books are up-to-date and that any receipts you need to save have been saved. If you don’t have a bookkeeper yet I highly recommend checking out Bench, they’ll take care of your books so that you don’t have to (it’s a fantastic first hire!).

Budgeting – I use the Profit First method in my business, but instead of having multiple bank accounts I use Everydollar to track everything. During CEO Day I will update a spreadsheet I have which tracks my income, expenses and helps me calculate my various percentages and estimated revenue for the year. I then go into Everydollar and update/track anything that needs to be done and make any transfers based on the Profit First percentages I’ve setup for my business.

02. Update your analytics

There are several metrics that you’ll want to track for your business, I follow a small number of metrics on a recurring basis. Besides the financial aspect, I track the numbers for email marketing, social media, and website traffic. During CEO Day I go through my spreadsheet and update all of the current numbers and review what’s happened that past week that may have caused the up or down tick in numbers. This blog post from More With Money has a really great breakdown on what analytics you could track.

03. Work on internal projects

As a business owner, you’ve got so much on your plate. Putting aside client work, think about all of the internal projects you’re working on or looking to do this quarter. Whether it’s updating your website, writing a couple blog posts or emails to your list, moving your courses to a new platform, giving Dubsado a refresh, or putting together an outline for that presentation you’ve got next month. CEO Day is the perfect day to head out to a coffee shop and have serious head-down work time to knock those projects out.

04. Do a digital clean up

Whether it’s physically or digitally, I like keeping a clean workspace. Each week part of my CEO Day routine includes cleaning up my desktop, downloads and any other place on my computer that got a little cluttered over the past week. This helps me keep everything organized and clutter-free so that I am free to focus on clients work and not the disaster-zone that is my downloads folder. If you haven’t recently cleaned up your desktop or downloads folder, check out this post. And if you’re looking for a system for organizing all of your digital files, head over to this post.

Wrapping it up

CEO Day is a critical piece that you can’t not have in your business. In order to grow your business you need to actually work ON your business. If you’re still struggling with figuring out how to find the time to work ON your business, check out this post. Start small and before long you’ll have a weekly CEO Day where you’re knocking out internal projects left and right, crushing your goals and watching your business grow!