Why planning is so important for your business
Do you want to hit 2023 with a bang? Do you know where you’re headed in the next 12 months? Planning is so important for your business, because without a plan you will not hit those goals, won’t know what content to create and will not understand where your business is going.
And with no way of being able to plan or make decisions to grow your business, you’ll just end up sort of bumbling along with no actual way of making the money you want or getting your business where you want it to go.
Why planning is so important for the year ahead
Now we’re getting towards the end of 2022 you need to start planning for 2023. It's really important to get a plan in place so you can look at everything from pricing to through to outsourcing. Do you want to outsource some client work or hire a Virtual Assistant? How will you know if you can afford to grow your business and how will that look? For example, what do you want to do more or less of, in your business?
And then there’s contingency planning. This is especially important with things the way they are right now. How much should you have in your business to help cover you for the year ahead? What will you do if you lose a client? What do you want, and how can you make sure that if something happens in your business, you have a contingency plan in place to still get that?
All of those things require planning!
Planning helps clarify your next steps
You may have a goal to offer more coaching and teaching. How about more done-for-you work or an online course? If you're looking at something like an online course, it’s something that will not make you money on day one. You probably won’t make your money back until you’ve run it two or three times. Can you afford to wait that long?
If you’re thinking of taking on extra resources - do you want to work less? How will 2023 look, in terms of your working time and hiring staff? It’s so crucial to have a plan in place, so you can clarify what you want and what you need to do to get it.
Break it down into actionable steps
Once you’re clear on what you want and have a general annual plan in place, you can then break it down into 90 day sprints. This helps you stay focused on what two or three things you’ll focus on for the next 90 days. It avoids overwhelm and helps you avoid over-committing.
How might that look? Well, it could be a client thing, setting up a new funnel and working out your finances ready for your tax return.
Always look at costs
Assessing your costs is another crucial element of a good plan. What are your costs looking like? What revenue have you got in place that's already guaranteed? Do you have big events lined up and are there things you should plan around? This could be big industry-related events and personal events.
You also have to look at how much you need to charge in order to cover all the things in your plan. Even if you're not a planner, set some goals about what you're going to be doing in the future of your business, because it's really tempting to just go along with the flow - and that’s when things get missed or neglected.
So always look at the levers and drivers that would affect how your business looks. Often your costs are fixed, but there is some flexibility around revenue. You can afford to lose the odd client, but it’s harder to switch off certain costs - especially if you have an office and a team in place.
You can’t afford not to plan in business
Because if you never set targets and goals, you can’t see how you’re progressing. And there's something about stretching to make those goals and doing what’s needed to reach them. Stretching them often makes you work harder to reach them.
So look at what you really want to do and spend some time thinking about the bigger picture in your business. It’s so easy to get stuck in the weeds of your business and not bother planning - but you can’t run a successful business that way.
And if you need a little extra help with planning for 2023, I’m running a 2023 planning masterclass on the 29th of November at 10am. Head over to http://thepricingqueen.com/2023plan to find all the details.
