How to Plan For The New Year Without Becoming Overwhelmed
[content field=”callout1″ format=”true” class=”calloutwide”]Community Q: I’ve been trying to put a plan together for 2015 but I’m finding it so overwhelming! Where do I start?
Lisa Rehurek: My recommendation for business owners is to always start with the money. It’s a simple place to start, and it’s also the most logical. That makes some people uncomfortable, but it puts things in perspective and gives you a compass. [content field=”callout1″ format=”true” class=”calloutred”] The purpose of each and every business is money, because money allows us to do all of the other amazing things we want to do. We can serve more people, add more staff, donate more to charity. And as the leader of your company, your main responsibility is the growth of your company.
Step one is to start with the end result. How much revenue do you want to bring in for the total year? Break that down by product/service offering, and now you know what your sales goals are.
Once you know your financial and sales goals, you can set your strategies in support of those goals. What marketing and sales activities will help you meet those sales goals? Be as specific as possible. I recommend one to three strategies per offering, although often times there is overlap. An example of a specific strategy might be, “Two live speaking engagements of 50+ people per month.”
That will put you on track for your 2015 goals, as that’s about three-quarters of what your goals should be for the year. You will also want to set goals in the categories of Personal Development and Operations. I suggest one to three goals for each of those categories; more than that will become overwhelming. You can always add to it as the year progresses. Go through the same exercise as you did with financial – think about the end result, and reverse engineer to identify strategies to support each of your goals.
If you sit down and take it one simple step at a time, you will arrive at a solid plan for 2015.
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