When I started my business back in 2007, my business coach was all about planning and making goals. When I moved to Wyoming, my new business coach was all about…. surprise surprise…. planning and goals, coincidence I think not!! My point is, planning is super important for business owners.

I recently read in a book, “We don’t plan to fail, we fail to plan” and that can’t be anymore true. Without a plan, you don’t know where to take the business. Without a plan you can’t move the business forward. All you are doing is working day to day, the business is working you instead of you working the business. But here is some advice that helps me with it comes to planning.

In the first month of the 4^th quarter, I start my planning process of my business for the next year. There are three steps that I look at when planning for the upcoming year:

1. I look at my current year and ask myself,

- Did I reach my goals?

- Was I on track with my budget?

2. I create my personal budget for the next year.

3. Is the current vision still the vision for the company?

Next week we are going to go talk about Steps 1 and 3 in more detail. Step 2 is very important to know, why you ask? Because if you don’t know your personal budget, how can you pay yourself enough? If you are self-employed, how can you take the correct owner draws without hurting the business? Which we will talk about in a later blog, so stay tuned if you want to know why how important a personal budget is for the year.

Every year I carve out time to do Steps 1-3 and write down next years plan. Then I have my business coach, my wife, some folks in my Mastermind and Accountability group look over them. The more people who know about your plan, makes easier to stay on track and hold you accountable. As small business owners, we can’t do this alone! Make sure you surround yourself with people who you trust, going to build you up, and help you along the way.

Make sure you make time this week carve out a couple of hours out of your day and do some planning, and if you need help don’t hesitate to make an appointment at https://go.thryv.com/site/pinabiz!