Build a Stellar Business Plan for the New Year: A Comprehensive Guide
A key component of running a business is reflection and planning. It can be so difficult to set aside time to work on our own business, especially when our schedule is packed full with client work. However, tracking analytics, setting goals, and planning out your year can really help make sure your business is heading in the right direction.
This time of year is the perfect opportunity to set aside a couple days to build your Business Plan for the New Year. In this comprehensive guide I am going to walk you through 5 steps to building a stellar business plan that is sure to set you up for success in the New Year.
#1) Deep Dive into the Analytics
Making decisions for your business can be scary. There is always a risk when making choices, especially when it comes to what products or services you should be offering, who to work with, who not to work with, and all those other decisions that determine the path your business will take. However, you can make those decisions a little less scary by taking out some of the emotion and relying on analytics and statistics.
The overall goal of this step is to answer the following questions:
What am I already doing that is working really well?
What am I doing that is not serving my business?
To answer these questions I look at what products and services are contributing to my income (including affiliate income and passive income), the marketing strategies or audience building strategies I am using, and the administrative or business tasks that are required to run my business.
A) Income Streams
I first make a list of all the income streams in my business. For each one I then calculate how much income that stream brought in during the past year. I also calculate the annual expenses that come from having that income stream. Is there memberships or account fees needed to run this product or service? Am I paying someone to manage or run some portion of that service? Is there processing fees or any other fees associated with that product or service? This allows me to calculate the Net Income for that product or service to see how much income it is bringing into my business.
Then I look at the time commitment. How much time am I spending on this income stream each month? If I was being paid per hour, how much net income per hour does this work out to? Do I enjoy spending time on this or is it something I consistently procrastinate on? Can I make it more efficient? For example, is there a way to automate part of the process, would it be worth it to hire someone (like a Virtual Assistant) or can I lower the expenses?
Using all that information I decide whether I want to continue exactly as I am, if I want to make some changes to improve or scale this product to increase revenue or if it no longer needs to be an income stream in my business.
B) Marketing and Audience Building
I then follow a similar process for all of my marketing and audience building tasks. Currently, I do not use any paid advertising. If you are using paid advertising you will need to do some more in-depth analysis on your advertising analytics.
I start by making a list of all the ways I build my audience. For example, you may blog, post on social media, offer freebies, or cross post with other businesses. For each one I then make a note of how well it is contributing to building my audience. This can be a little subjective as each strategy may have a different metric here. They will most likely all contribute to each other as well so it may be hard to determine whether someone is in your audience because of a Freebie or a Social Media post. They have probably interacted with a few different strategies. So I may record how many subscribers signed up for a particular freebie or where my website traffic is coming from. The goal here is to rate the strategy on how well you believe it is contributing to building your audience based on whatever metrics match the strategy the best.
I then record any expenses associated with that strategy. Although I am not currently using paid advertising, there may be other costs associated with the marketing strategy I am using. For example, I use Canva to create graphics for my blog. I also have an email marketing system to collect subscribers and send newsletters.
I then look at the time commitment. How much time am I spending on this strategy each month? Do I enjoy spending time on this? Can I be more efficient? Am I using this strategy because it makes sense for my business or because I feel like it is something I “should” be doing?
Finally, just like I did with the Income Streams I use all that information to decide whether I want to continue exactly as I am, if I want to make some changes to improve or scale this strategy or if I no longer want to use that strategy in my business.
C) Administrative Tasks
Just like I did with the income streams and marking strategies, I then make a list of all the other tasks that take time or cost money. For example, answering client emails, bookkeeping, paperwork, professional development, legal or government paperwork, etc.
I then rate each task on a scale of 1 to 10 on how necessary the task is for me to personally be doing it in my business. I again record how much time I spend on each task and whether I enjoy spending time on this or if it is something I wish I could hand off to someone else. Again, I ask if I could make this task more efficient with automations or batching or whether it is time to hire someone to take over this task. Out of all the tasks in your business, administrative tasks are generally the ones you want to hire out for first. This can be a great way to improve efficiency in your business and give you more time to work on the parts of your business that make you money or bring you joy.
So, just like I did with the Income Streams and Marketing Strategies, I make a decision based on the above information as to whether I want to continue exactly as I am, if I want to hire someone to take over this task, or if it not a necessary task for my business.
Download My Business Planning: Analytics Spreadsheet
To make it a bit easier for you, I have put all this information into a Google Sheet and PDF Guide. Sign up below to get a copy sent to your inbox.
#2) Do Market Research
Now that you have a good idea of what is working (or not working) in your business, it is time to get creative and start thinking about what new income streams or audience building strategies you can add to your business.
The overall goal of this step is to answer the following questions:
What product or service could I add to my business?
What marketing strategy or audience building strategy could I add to my business?
It can be super tempting in this stage to open up a Word Document or pull out a notepad and just start listing all the ideas you have for your business. Maybe you saw a competitor release a cool product or had an idea come to you on your morning walk. However, before you let your mind run wild, it is important to start with some market research.
The biggest mistake I made when starting my business was to spend time building the products that I wanted to offer before verifying that my audience actually wanted or needed the product to begin with. I then spent a huge amount of time trying marketing strategy after marketing strategy trying to convince my audience that my new product was something they needed. I got super frustrated thinking I just hadn’t found the right marketing strategy or the right way to package my product when in reality there just wasn’t enough need for the product I was trying to sell. That was such a hard pill to swallow because I had spent so much time and energy on a product that I was super proud of. However, I forgot that the whole point of my business is to provide products and services to help my audience succeed. Its not about me.
So, before you start making that list, I strongly suggest you gather some information from your audience.
Who is your ideal client? What are their interests? What are their goals?
What are their pain points? Where are they struggling?
What questions are they asking me?
Do I see a need anywhere that I am not filling?
… and more. Once you have an understanding of who your ideal client is, what they need, and why they make the decisions that they do, you can make a list of ideas that you know align to their needs, preferences, and lifestyle.
Paige Brunton has some great advice on Market Research and how to choose what products and services you should be adding to your business. Check them out…
#3) Set Some Goals
Goal setting is so important for keeping your business on track and helping you stay true to your values and priorities when making business decisions.
The overall goal of this step is to answer the following questions:
Did I hit my goals from last year? Why or why not?
How will I define success for my business this upcoming year?
The first thing I like to do is look over my goals from last year. Did I achieve what I had set out to? What helped me achieve my goals? What got in my way? What should I do differently this year to help me achieve my new goals?
Then I decide on how I want to define success for my business this upcoming year. It sounds like an easy question but I urge you to really evaluate your mindset before answering this question. How you define success for yourself and your business will really form the baseline for how you make decisions in your business. It is important that you analyze what your priorities and values are when it comes to your business and the lifestyle that you want to build.
In general, what do you want to happen in your business over the next year or the next few years? Do you want to increase your revenue, have a better work life balance, be more consistent with your marketing strategies, or enjoy your business more? Envision yourself next year sitting down to make a new business plan. What do you want to see in your Analytics? What would make you smile and make you feel like you had a great year?
Then I want you to get specific. What do you need to do over the next year to make that happen? Break it down into quarters or months. For example, let’s say you are currently making $80, 000 a year (about $6500/month) and your goal is to have your first $100,000 year (about $8500/month). So you want to be making $7000/month by the end of the first quarter, $7500/month by the end of the second quarter, and $8000/month by the end of the third quarter so that by the end of the year you are making about $8500/month. When you break it down into quarters you can see that you want to increase your revenue by about $500 a month by the end of each quarter. So what can you do in your business to increase your revenue? Maybe you plan on raising your rates, offering a new product or service, trying a new marketing strategy, etc.
The idea is that you want to choose some attainable goals for your business and then break it down into time-bound steps that you can check in on throughout the year. This will help you stay on track with your business decisions and reframe your mindset when things get tough.
#4) Put a Date On It!
At this point, you have decided what current products, services, marketing strategies and administrative tasks you are keeping, scaling, and removing. You have came up with some new products, services, or marketing strategies you want to add to your business and you have set some attainable goals to keep you on track.
The overall goal of this step is to answer the following question:
How does this all fit into my life over the next year?
Having all these ideas and strategies is great, but unless we put a date or timeframe on it, it might not happen. Pull up your calendar and whatever planning system you use (I use Google Calendar and Asana) and start entering some dates and to dos.
A) Personal Life
First, go through your calendar and add in any personal dates you need to be aware of and plan around. When do you want to take vacations? What are the government holidays you need to be aware of? When do you need to have a slower season?
B) Analytics and Goals
Based on your Analytics and the Goals you set, what are you continuing to do and what will you stop doing? When are your launches, product releases, sales, promotions, etc? What does your annual, quarterly, monthly, and weekly schedule look like? Are you hiring or outsourcing any work? If so, set aside time to go through the hiring process.
C) Market Research and Goals
Based on your Market Research and the Goals you set, what new products or offerings are you adding to your business? What does your audience want to see? How does this fit into your current schedule?
D) Business Tasks
It can be super easy to get caught up in client work and lose sight of your goals and the plan you had set for yourself. So, schedule in time monthly or quarterly to work on your business. During this time you can track any Analytics you will need for next year’s business planning session, work on your own business website, graphics, and branding, do some market research, and reflect on your progress towards the goals you set.
#5) Review and Reflect
Lastly, it is always a good idea to reflect on your plan and analyze whether anything is missing and if it is a good fit. We can sometimes get a little carried away with our ideas and goals and we want to make sure that we have not tried to put too much on our plate at once.
The overall goal of this step is to answer the following question:
Is this a good plan?
It may be a good idea to take a step back at this stage and give yourself some time to think over all the ideas you have put in place. Then go over your schedule and to do list for the next year and ask yourself the following questions.
Does this plan make me excited for the next year?
Will this plan help me reach my goals?
Does this plan align to my business’ vision, mission statement, and identity or am I jumping on trends and doing what I feel like I should be doing?
Is this a realistic plan for the time/money/etc that I have available?
If your answer is a solid YES to all of the above, then there is a great chance you have created a fantastic Business Plan that sets you and your business up for a successful year. Congratulations! I wish you the best of luck in the New Year.
Business Planning: Analytics Spreadsheet
To make it a bit easier for you, I have put all this information into a Google Sheet and PDF Guide. Sign up below to get a copy sent to your inbox.
