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. 

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.