Supercharging Your Annual Planning
I’m very fortunate to work with an amazing number of creators—entrepreneurs and small business owners who work every day to manifest the companies and lives of their dreams. Our work together typically begins by delving into their vision and getting a deep and clear understanding of what success looks like for them. Only when you know where you are headed can you find and invent ways to get there. Planning is an important part of growing your business, but there are ways to take your planning to a whole other level. Here’s how I help others supercharge their annual planning.
Start with a Vision
Regardless of the words you use—strategic planning, goal setting, business planning—they all start with a future state in mind, a vision for how the world will look, feel, be different as a result of making specific, intentional choices. Feeling overwhelmed? Not sure where to start? Or what the next step should be? Take time to think about and write down your vision. Then, of all the things you can do, ask yourself which ones will get you closer to your goal, closer to building the business you want. You can use this as a guide:
Vision/Goal – The What: Define and describe your passion, desire, vision for your business.
Strategy – The How (directionally): A specific plan for achieving your vision/goal (often broken down in years, quarters, months, weeks). Pro Tip: Spend some time brainstorming all the possible ways to create your visions (crazy, unrealistic—all of them), then commit to the 3-5 approaches that will do the most to get you where you want to be.
Rationale – The Why: Of the many ways you can achieve your vision/goal (see above) you have selected this strategy because… if you can’t explain why you have chosen the approaches you identified above, it will be hard to execute.
Tactics – The How: Specific actions (tasks) that need to be completed in order to turn the planning into action and results.
Sequencing – The When: Deciding the order to do things in to get the best result.
Measurement – The How Well: We will know we are successful by measuring these leading and lagging indicators (specific to your business) and evaluate whether any changes are needed to our planning, strategy, or tactics.
*Pro Tip: If you have a team (anyone other than you with how you are working to execute on this plan to create your vision), make sure you have shared definitions of these terms. It’s important to speak the same language to avoid confusion. And don’t forget to share your vision and plan with them so they understand how best to help you succeed.
Want to talk through some examples of this thinking in action or what it might look like for your business? Email me to schedule a 30-minute introductory call.
Supercharge Your Planning Process
Pretty standard stuff, right? (Even though doing it is sometimes harder than it looks!) So what will supercharge the planning process?
Believe it or not—numbers. Words + Numbers = supercharged
Even a simple, quick and dirty forecasting exercise, that turns your strategy and tactics into financial end results, takes the whole process to another level.
Why? This isn’t just about aligning your budget to your plan to make sure you have the resources you need to execute. It’s also not just about testing your gut to see if the numbers make sense. It’s about seeing your vision manifest in terms of revenue and profits—dollars and cents.
A budget or forecast makes your vision real. It makes the tedious, incremental tasks that have to get done mean something. It lets you visualize the reward that your hard work (and sacrifices) will make possible. It makes the abstract real.
Financial projections capture your thinking in numbers:
If I do this (my plan: strategy and tactics), I anticipate that the end result will be this (revenue, expenses, and profitability) which will give me more resources with which to create this (my big vision).
One of the coolest things about being an owner is that you get to decide what to do with profits. Reinvest into the company. Support your community. Take care of your family. Give it all away. The choice is yours.
Profits = possibility and potential = motivation and inspiration.
In addition to helping you get and stay motivated and inspired, a simple financial model is critical when things don’t go according to plan. When the situation changes, your ability to evaluate the circumstances and reorient to act depends on 1) whether you’re in the habit of regularly running “what if” scenarios and 2) if you have decision-making tools that help you quickly evaluate options. Your plan (strategy and tactics) plus your numbers (tangible outcomes of strategies and tactics) are part of that toolkit.
Your Vision + Numbers = Supercharged Planning
Clarity of purpose (your vision) helps you focus on the long game. Long and near-term plans broken down by years, quarters, months, weeks, and days help you adjust tactics in real-time. As days and weeks unfold, you may need to make new choices, take new actions to stay on track toward your goal.
Having trouble staying focused or feeling pulled in too many directions? Ask yourself if the incomplete tasks are mission-critical. If so, can someone else do them? If not, take them off the list and ask yourself what next steps you can take right now that will get you closer to your vision.
Hitting your goals faster than you anticipated? You might ask yourself if your vision is big enough. Or what the next best steps are to maintain your momentum.
Feeling pulled to do something new that’s not part of your plan? Not sure if it’s a distraction or a new path forward? Ask yourself if you’re acting from a place of fear or an abundance mindset. Consider the opportunity costs.
And in all cases, run the numbers to see what the impact will be on the top and bottom lines.
Ready to supercharge your business planning?
Purpose First Advisors supports small businesses, growth-stage companies, and organizations by providing strategic business consulting and coaching. Contact us to learn more or to book a consultation with our team.
