Quarterly Planning Your Business For Online Entrepreneurs
Quarterly Planning for Entrepreneurs
Can you believe it is almost the end of June already? Crazy. Wow. Time flies when you're having fun. What does the end of June mean for you? For me, it means looking ahead at the next quarter and seeing all the things I want to accomplish in my life and business. Quarterly planning for Entrepreneurs is essential to the success of your business. As an Operations Manager, I understand that quarterly planning isn’t always an entrepreneur's cup of tea. Here are the things that go into the quarterly planning process. Do you resist planning? Here is a link to download a quarterly plan template!
Process for Planning Your Business Quarterly
You may be wondering about different steps in the quarterly planning process. Is creating a quarterly plan necessary? Yes, it is.
With quarterly planning entrepreneur, you figure out what you want to accomplish in the next quarter verse flying by the seat of your pants.
Do you know everything you want to achieve and the steps to accomplish it?
Creating a quarterly plan will keep you from feeling completely overwhelmed and busy daily. Calm and ease are why planning is a good thing.
Well, first off, we always get to pick our hard. You have two choices, would you rather spend a little bit of time working on the hard now by quarterly planning, or do you want your hard to be spending a lot of effort and time spinning your wheels every day?
It's your choice; you get to choose and make sure you do what feels best for you. Is creating a quarterly plan for your business the best use of your time and energy?
Psst… Yes, it is.
Figure out your time
You must be wondering what I feel is necessary when quarterly planning.
Pull out your calendar.
If you haven't already, put the dates that you're planning to be out of the office for time off, such as vacation, appointments, rest, leisure, whatever it is, figure those days out, and put them on your calendar as Out Of Office. Do it right now for the third quarter. Heck, while you’re at it, block off your out-of-office days for the remainder of the year.
Once you have all your time blocked off on your calendar, that's the number of the working days you have to move forward with all your different goals and projects that you have scheduled or are hoping to accomplish in the third quarter.
Define Your Goals.
An excellent quarterly plan should help define your goals. You need to set realistic goals so you can measure your progress. If you set too high a goal, you might not achieve it. If you set too low a goal, you won't feel satisfied.
Now grab your notebook, open up your computer, whatever it is, time to create an exhausted list of all the projects and goals you would love to accomplish in the next three months.
Start by defining what success looks like for your business. What do you want to accomplish? How will you know when you've achieved those results? Once you've defined your goals, think about where you want to go next. Are there any new products or services you'd like to offer? Do you want to expand into a different market? Or maybe you just want to make more money. Whatever your goals are, write them down.
What if everything were to go as planned? As you write out your list, think of all the “What ifs” that will help you create a big dream list of all the things you want to get done.
What are all your ideas?
Get it out. Even those crazy ideas don't matter. Whatever it is, no project is too small or too simple for this list. Write it down. Everything that pops into your mind without any judgment add it to your list.
Creating the list should not be a tremendous amount of time, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, whatever feels right for you—just enough time to get everything out of your mind. Heck, you might even be able to do it in five. Whatever works for you time-wise, set a timer, and get everything out of your head.
Now you have it. How are those projects aligned with how you want to think, feel, and your vision for your life and your business?
Cross things off the list
When you have your whole and exhausted list, look at the things that feel the most aligned with how you want your life to feel. How do you want your business to feel when tackling that list. Go ahead and cross off anything on that list that is out of alignment or does not bring you joy.
Cross off the things you dread unless it's an essential project; then, you probably need to leave it there.
However, when you break things down, they all become easier. Now I want you to go ahead and circle all the ideas you feel are in alignment with your life and your business. So what are those things?
What are those goals that are important to you? What are the things that you feel called to do and accomplish?
Mindmap the Actions For Your Quarterly Plan
After that, we have what we want to accomplish for our life and business in the next three months. Let's go ahead and mindmap out that project.
My favorite way to create a project plan is, to begin with, a mindmap. Have you created a mindmap before? If not, I recommend this to all my creative entrepreneurs.
You can do it however you want. I like paper. You might prefer to do it on an app that allows you to mind map. However, it is entirely up to you.
Mindmap Actions
First, write one goal or project in the middle of the paper and draw a circle around it.
Second, all around the big circle, write all the ideas that pop into your mind on how to accomplish this project. Go ahead and circle those too. Connect the big circle to the idea circles with lines.
It will look like spokes coming off the big circling connecting your ideas.
Third, add the actions you need for all the ideas. These actions will also be circled and connected to the idea with a line.
Example how to use mindmap for planning
For example, if one project in the next quarter is to create a new opt-in. You’ll need a landing page for one of the items. What are the small accomplishable daily tasks to create a landing page? Here are a few ideas.
Find images
Write Copy
Create Wireframe
What else do you need to do?
Using a mindmap would be how I suggest for the brain sweep or thought download of all the actions that need to take place for that project to happen.
Now, granted, sometimes, when I'm laying everything out in my project management system, I'll have other things that pop into my mind. I didn't take that into consideration. So, that is how you do a general mindmap.
Since you have all your action items, let's get it scheduled.
Get it scheduled
Now that you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve, it's time to implement your plan. This means creating a detailed strategy for reaching your goals.
If you have a project management system, you can set this up inside so you know what to do when. If not, a paper calendar or Bullet Journal will work just fine.
Once you know all the actions that will need to be done, give each an estimated time it will take to complete. A quick word of advice, if you’re not sure about the time, estimate double the amount of time you think it would take if you did know.
You should also consider who will help you reach these goals. Who will you need to hire? Who will you need to partner with? And who will you need to outsource some work too?
Let's get it on your calendar and figure out the who and the when.
Generally speaking, work from the end forward because if you know the date you want it done by, it will allow you to have the correct timeline.
Do not build too many bridges
Build one bridge at a time, focusing on one project until it is completed instead of jumping back and forth between multiple projects.
So now you have your list of everything that needs to be done. You have an idea of the due date; the next question is, who will get it done? Is it you or somebody on your team who needs to get it done?
Perhaps, you’re focused on a life goal over the summer while you’re spending more time with the kids. Are you the only one who can do the work, or can you involve your kids?
Do you need any special resources to be able to accomplish your project and get it done?
For example, if you're landscaping your front yard, what are all the things you'll need to get ordered before you can even start working on that project?
As yourself again, are you the best person to do this task? It's essential that you stay in your own lane and delegate out any task that somebody can do more efficiently because they have better knowledge of the project, and it will take them far less time to get accomplished than if you kept it on your plate.
Review Your Results.
Once you've completed your plan, review your results. Did you meet your goals? If not, why not? What did you learn from your efforts? How do you think you can improve next quarter?
What is your goal?
If you have any questions, write them down below in the comments. I'd love to hear what is the next big project your planning for the quarter?
I hope you have a wonderful day. I appreciate you.
If you need some help figuring these out, I invite you to apply for my private coaching. Here is the link: https://misstask.com/mini-session; working on all those project plans together would be fun.
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