HOW AND WHEN TO BEGIN ANNUAL PLANNING FOR YOUR BUSINESS
No matter the size of your business, planning for the coming year should be an essential part of your operations. But this isn’t a once-and-done task.
Instead of making a set of business New Year’s resolutions that are forgotten by the end of January, goals should be continually evaluated to make sure you’re on track and that they still make sense for where you want your business to go.
If this is your first time working on annual planning, or you’ve lost your way in the past, we’re here to point you in the right direction.
WHY DOES ANNUAL PLANNING MATTER?
Think of your annual plan as your roadmap for the next 12 months. Even if you’re a team of one, a plan will keep you focused and give you a clear sense of what you want to achieve over the year.
Questioning whether or not to accept that new client? Consult the annual plan. Feel like you’re not making as much as you wanted to by the summer? Take a look at what your financial goals are in your annual plan.
If you already have a bigger strategic plan that looks at the next three to five years, your annual plan should essentially be a smaller version of this, with specific tasks outlined for you to hit those yearly goals. Where your strategic plan should be more big picture, your annual plan works hand-in-hand to actually get the necessary work done.
START WITH GOALS
Before you can start deciding what individual tasks you need to work on in the following year, take some time to determine your key performance indicators (KPIs) to accurately measure your progress. In most cases, these will likely be based around business development and retention:
New contracts signed
New revenue
Number of repeat clients or extended service
Total employee days off
New hires or contractors worked with and hours performed
If you’ve already done some annual planning in the past, take a look at your performance in previous years to see what is realistic or possible for your business. As you look through pitches that worked or failed, where leads came from, and what months you were particularly busy or quiet, you’ll soon start to see a picture emerging that will help you to decide what’s most important and when.
Ultimately, whatever KPIs you choose to use, check in with yourself on at least a quarterly basis to track tangible movement towards your most important goals and adjust your plans if needed. While it’s important to have goals in mind that you’re working towards, you also need to build in a level of flexibility if and when action is needed throughout the year.
HOLIDAY PLANNING
We’ve all been there. Q4 sneaks up on you, the holidays are right around the corner, and you realize you’ve done absolutely nothing to tell your clients or customers about your holiday offers. We hate to break it to you, but if summer is already behind you, you’re behind on your holiday planning for this year.
You should be thinking about your holiday marketing as early as February/March, with firm plans being put in place and confirmed by the end of July. Particularly if you plan to work with any influencers or external partners, you’ll find that you can often get better rates when locking in contracts over the summer months.
Most influencers will start booking up for the holidays very quickly and subsequently put their prices up to meet the increased demand on their time the closer you actually get to the holidays themselves. Planning ahead really does save you time and money in this case.
By working ahead, reflecting on the previous holiday season, and getting the ball rolling for the upcoming one as soon as possible, you have the time to plan more effectively and really think about what’s best for you and your business.
APPROACHING YEAR-END
Like the holidays, the end of the year tends to come up much quicker than any of us think. You should, ideally, be looking towards year-end planning in early October to give yourself a full quarter to review everything. Take a look at your financials from the past year, evaluate any key partners you’ve been working with, and review contracts without the dreaded December rush.
You won’t be the only person whose calendar is packed in the last few months of the year, particularly as so many businesses leave their year-end planning until the last minute and it’s a struggle to get everything done.
If you need to work out new agreements with clients, customers, or even vendors, take the initiative yourself and reach out early. Not only will you possibly get better deals, everyone will appreciate you being proactive and not adding to the ongoing list of tasks that need to be wrapped up during the holiday season.
DON’T FORGET YOUR OWN TIME OFF
Planning for the work that you need to get done next year is always important, but all work and no play makes for a very hectic lifestyle. Every December, you should look at your personal calendar for the upcoming 12 months and decide when you want to take some time off.
Work around whatever is most important to you, whether that’s school vacations, birthdays and anniversaries, religious holidays, or simply your favorite time of the year. Block time early in your calendar so you’re not tempted to take “working vacations” to squeeze work in over top of your time off.
Of course, there will probably be days that come up throughout the year where you’re sick or need to be out of the office for something short notice. But for your longer, planned days out, knowing when these are in plenty of time will help you to better communicate with your existing clients and ensure that you’re not taking on too much work.
EVERYTHING STARTS WITH A GOOD PLAN
It can feel overwhelming to think about planning a whole year at once. But knowing exactly where you want to go and taking the time to think about how you want to get there will make your marketing and business development much easier, and probably more successful.
For freelancers or solo consultants in particular, annual planning may be a new concept. If you’re struggling to get started and feel like a helping hand would be beneficial, one-on-one business coaching could be for you. Get in touch to find out more and turn your strategy into action.