Four years ago, Kirsty Naish established her firm as an independent office within the Sidekick Group. As the sole director of Sidekick Ashburton, located on the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island, she oversees five employees and serves a diverse range of commercial and agriculture clients with about 90% of them being SMEs.

For the first 18 months of operation, Naish didn’t have a strategic plan. “We had big ideas but nothing was documented,” she says. However, after participating in Sidekick Group’s Strategic Planning Session with Mark Jenkins from The Gap, a key partner of CA ANZ, Naish was inspired to develop and document her own strategic plan with the support of her external mentor, whom, she credits as the key to her firm’s success.

Every January, Naish dedicates two days out of the office to review her five-year plan. In February she reviews the financials and finalises the plan for the coming year by March.

“I discuss all of this with my mentor who helps me with both my business and personal growth” she says. “It’s critical when you’re a sole director to have someone who isn’t in your business to challenge and hold you accountable.”

After reviewing her five-year plan and breaking it down into 12-month goals, Naish sets her three goals for her firm for the next 90-days. The Sidekick Group also sets three quarterly goals.

“At the end of the quarter you can look back and say together you’ve achieved six goals” she says. “Then, by the end of the year, my firm has accomplished 12 actions and the group 12 - that’s significant progress. I am very goal oriented, so it really works for me,” she says.

While Naish doesn’t always achieve all her goals — especially in the last quarter when she had her second child - strategic planning has allowed her to plan effectively. It enabled her time to hire a new team member, delegate tasks and outsource work to free herself up to do urgent work and achieve some work life balance.

“Sometimes, you have to take that leap of faith and know bringing someone into the team will pay off,” she says. “On a personal level, after four years I have some flexibility to take a half-day every two weeks, so I can be a mum and present at home instead of working overtime.”

Naish's big challenge is not just setting goals also taking action on them. “You finish the planning session with so much enthusiasm. You’re so geared up for this and print the goals off and put them in front of your computer, and then you get back to work and the routine sets in again,” she says. Staying accountable to her mentor every quarter has been the secret to her momentum.