Proactive Planning: Mapping Out Your Small Business Success for the Year Ahead
I’m a planner (what would you expect from me as a time management coach!!)… I just can’t help myself… I love dreaming big about what’s possible, and then creating the plan to help me get there. Whether that’s for work, or for play.
It’s that time of year where I take stock, both personally and professionally, and plan strategically for the next 12 months. I also do a quarterly check-in (more on this in an earlier blog post here), but it all starts with the annual plan.
Reflecting on the year passed
Before jumping into planning, it’s always beneficial to start with reflection. Have a think about the successes, unpick the challenges and really think about what your insights and lessons learned were. Here are a few questions to help you:
What went well this year?
What has felt uncomfortable this year?
What have you discovered about yourself this year?
What are you most grateful for this year?
What was your best day, and why?
What was your most difficult day, and why?
How have you been feeling; calm + intentional, or overwhelmed + busy?
And I’ll also check-in with my metrics that I track. For my business, revenue generated, newsletter subscribers, website traffic and Instagram followers are the main ones. I’ll be looking out for trends, and also seeking to understand what have been the activities that have really ‘moved the needle’ this year (more on my 2023 insights here).
Check-in with my future vision and goal setting
The next exercise that I do is to check-in with my future vision. This is my big dream, the loooooong term goal so to speak. Because I want to ensure that any goals I set for this year are in alignment with this. I’ve a variety of different visualisation meditations that I do within my membership programme for this, we’re a lovely bunch if you want to join in (more here).
I’ve updated my Vision Board (which is in my Asana project management tool), and I’m excited about achieving it all!
With my future vision laid out, I turn to goal setting for the year. I’ve set a revenue target for instance, as well as decided what my focus is going to be for my services, events and so on. My main ‘thing’ is my membership programme, Project Manage Your Life + Biz, which has a VIP option with 1-to-1 coaching. I also still offer standalone 1-to-1 coaching, and I have a 1-to-1 time audit too. New for this year is my corporate offering, which I dipped my toe into at the end of last year; it was great to be able to share my tips & tricks on effective time management for home workers at a bespoke workshop for a corporate away day in Glasgow. I’m aiming for more of this in 2024. Another goal for the year ahead is more semi-passive income streams.
Create the monthly plan
Next, with my future vision and goals set… I turn to the monthly planning. I have broken down my annual goals into manageable chunks, and mapped these out across the 12 months. Knowing what my focus is going to be each month then helps me create a marketing and social media content plan for the year (although as I write this I’ve only mapped out my social media for Q1… keeping it real!!). It’s such a time saver when I do sit at my desk to create content, when I can check-in with the plan and go from there… rather than having to wait for inspiration about what to share/write.
And with everything I’m planning in my business, I make sure it fits in with what I have planned in my personal life. For instance, I’ve already got the school holidays mapped out and I’m making sure the workshops, membership calls and so on are not taking place when the kids are off.
Using a project management tool to keep you on track
As an ex-project manager, I absolutely love Asana which is a free digital project management tool. I use this to host my master to-do list, as well as a multitude of other things for work and home-life (Vision Board, Content Marketing Plan, 2024 Goals and lots more). I’ve created an on demand workshop if you’d like to learn more:
Here’s to a successful 2024… with your strategic plan in place, you’re well on your way!