“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” — Yogi Berra

Planning is essential for all businesses, but many small businesses don’t have a clear process for planning their year, their goals, their action steps and their budget. When you are overwhelmed and working long hours, many decisions happen on the fly. But trust me, if you are looking to achieve your vision for your business (and your life), then your breakout year starts with a plan!

If you are anything like me, the idea of planning for the year ahead can feel daunting. This is why I like to have a process that leads me, step by step, through the creation of my plan. I am going to outline my process for you in this post. If it resonates with you, feel free to use it!

Start your look forward by looking back

I like to start my planning process with reflection. Goals and plans don’t come out of the blue. We build them based on past performance.

When I run planning sessions, I start with the following question:

Thinking about the past year, what went well?

This question can actually be difficult to answer, and might take a little thinking or time. It is human nature to focus on the problems and forget about the things that went well! At Pumpkin Plan Your Biz we advocate for keeping track of your Wins and Successes throughout the year. In our Pumpkin Plan Daily Action Planner we have a page at the end of each month to jot down those wins. This makes them easy to keep track of, and reviewing them can really shift your energy and create motivation.

When you focus on what went well, ask yourself WHY it went well, and how you can apply that success going forward. Very often, we focus our attention on fixing problems, and don’t pay enough attention to growing our successes. If something is working, do more of it!

The next question I like to ask is:

What did you accomplish this past year? Which goals did you achieve?

Again, focusing on accomplishments puts you into a positive mindset. It also gets you thinking about your goals and which ones you successfully achieved. How did you achieve them? What kept you on track? What will you keep doing because it worked?

Before you go ahead and set new goals for the coming year, let’s take a few minutes to focus on what did not work well in the past year. Ask yourself:

What, if anything, did not work out like you expected last year and as a result, what will change?

This is the part that might not feel so good, but it will provide you with insight if you take the time to think it through. Get curious. If you didn’t accomplish a goal, or something that you thought would be a success turned out to be a flop, try to identify what went wrong. Do you know why it didn’t work? Can you pinpoint the things that you are not going to do again, so that you don’t repeat the mistakes?

Or perhaps a particular goal has been on your list for a while, and it never seems to happen. What is preventing you from reaching that goal? Is there a roadblock that stopped you? Was it a lack of planning for how you were going to get there? Did you suffer from a lack of motivation? Did you lack accountability for getting it done?

One common obstacle for small business owners is that we get so busy running the day to day of the business, caught in the weeds, putting out the fires, and we don’t find time to focus on the less urgent, but not less important work that will move the business forward. We might even forget about our bigger goals altogether as we get caught up in what needs to get done today.

This challenge is exactly why we created the Pumpkin Plan Daily Action Planner.  Because we know that success starts with a plan, we created the planner to help you remember to focus on being the CEO, the visionary, the person who steers your business to achieve it’s goals. It incorporates the Pumpkin Plan methodology, reminding you each month to work ON the areas of your business that will help you grow your revenues and your profit, attract and keep your best clients, keep your employees engaged and productive, and gain control of your time.

Go here to see exactly what is inside the planner and to purchase it: Pumpkin Plan Daily Action Planner

As we start looking forward to our goals for the year to come, I find it helpful to start broad, with the big picture, before going narrow.

What does success look like for your business in the year to come?

It is so easy to get caught up in messages about what “success’ means, and forget to define success for ourselves. Your definition of success might look very different than mine. Go ahead and paint a picture for yourself. If the next year goes great for you and your business, what is happening in the business and your life?

One year from now, how will you answer the following questions: What did you accomplish this year? What impact did your business make on your market?

When you answer these questions, you want to feel inspired and motivated. If you don’t, you might want to dig a little deeper, and think about what DOES motivate you.

Set Specific and Achievable Goals

Let’s face it, we don’t want to sell ourselves short, but when we set goals that are clearly unrealistic we get frustrated, overwhelmed, and unmotivated. When we set goals that might be a slight stretch but clearly doable, we can make a plan to achieve them and get excited about taking action.

Next it’s time to take a look at your money goals.

What income do you need to make to meet your needs? What is your bottom line income?

Are you currently meeting your bottom line income? If not, that can be your goal.

If you are already making enough to meet your basic needs, ask yourself what income you want to make to live the lifestyle you envision. Name the stretch number.

Now let’s look at the revenue you would need to make in order to pay yourself the income you desire. Review your expenses and be realistic about how much you will be able to pay yourself. (If you are implementing the Profit First system in your business, this calculation will be easy).

Looking at last year’s revenue, how much would it need to increase to reach your personal income goal?

Once you have a revenue goal, you must make a plan to get there. I have found that crossing your fingers and relying on the law of attraction rarely works. An action plan is much more likely to produce results.

If you have multiple products and services, which is the most profitable? Which sells the best? Which offering, if you were to focus most of your efforts on it, will get you closest to your goal?

Remember that there are several ways to increase your revenues.

• You can get new customers and increase your sales.
• You can sell more products and services to existing clients.
• You can raise your prices.
• You can introduce new products and services.

Once you decide on your strategy, make a step by step plan to achieve it. What activities can you increase in order to increase your leads and conversions?

You can also focus on increasing your profitability. For example:

• Selling more products and services to existing clients is less expensive and more profitable than selling to new clients.
• Increasing your operational efficiency will also increase your profits.
• Maintaining great quality control and customer service will keep your clients happy and coming back for more.
• Getting rid of the clients and customers that are so difficult that they cost you time and money will also improve your profitability.

Make sure you document your goals, your strategy and your action plan. Tie each goal to one or more Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and track them so that you know how you are doing. Check each month to see if you are on track to meet your goals. If you are not on track, make adjustments to your plan.

Breaking your annual goals into quarterly or 90 day goals can also be very helpful for staying on track and making adjustments as you go through the year.

The Pumpkin Plan Daily Action Planner has pages to help you plan your 90 goals. If you could use a Daily Planner that will help you implement your plan, check out the Pumpkin Plan Daily Action Planner, and enjoy your breakout year!

Would you like someone to guide you to determine and implement your own winning strategy? Hire a Certified Pumpkin Plan Strategist

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