The end of the year is fast approaching. This is usually the point in the year where I start my business planning process for the year ahead.
At the beginning of the year most people are often thinking:
Where did the year go?!
How did I not achieve my business goals?
Why didn’t I make enough money?!
These are common questions at the beginning of each year for eventpreneurs. But at that point, it is often too late to make any changes and fix any problems. To be successful in your event planning business, you need to make changes early and prepare for the year ahead.
For this reason, I use the fourth quarter of every year as my business planning months. Today I’ll be taking you behind the scenes of my business planning process and sharing the 4 key tips I use to guide my review process.
1. Business Planning should be done early, Not on New Years Eve
It is somewhat of a tradition to set your goals for your business and personal life on New Year’s Eve. This is what we know and what we’ve always been taught to do.
I’m here to say, this is wrong!
Business planning and goals setting tasks should be a regular part of your business operations. This means that you should be having monthly and quarterly reviews of your business. You should be setting goals for the future and checking in to see if these goals are being met.
When you plan and prioritize, you enter each new year in your business with an action plan, rather than a reaction to your failures of the previous year. The difference? One is strategic and the other is reactionary.
Solution: Start business planning for the upcoming year 3 months in advance. You will enter the new year with an action plan and be equipped to facilitate the change your business needs.
2. Review Past Numbers
To effectively plan for your business’ future you need to have a better understanding of the past.
What were your income and expenses?
What was your profit?
Were these numbers in line with what you had expected, desired or planned for?
The answers to these questions will help you to identify shortfalls or advantages.
For example, did you bring in more income from baby showers than you did from weddings? If you did, you can now investigate why and how you might be able to use this to your advantage to increase your revenue in the upcoming year.
3. Plan your Future Revenue Goals
Think of the desired revenue that you would like to make and add it to your plan. This will be your benchmark for the year ahead when you complete your reviews.
Keep in mind what you would like to achieve in your personal and business life. Then determine the level of income you would ideally and realistically like to see based on these desires.
By thinking about your future revenue goals, you’re putting your business in a better position to identify the gaps that need to be filled to achieve this target. This leads to step #4 in the business planning process.
4. Create an Action Plan
Once you’ve reviewed your income numbers and set an income goal for the new year, it is now time to put a plan in place.
Begin by exploring the steps you need to implement to achieve your goals.
For example: Let’s assume you were able to make $8000 in the previous year from 8 baby showers (see Step 2 above). For the coming year, you would like to make $30,000 for the entire year (see Step 3 above). This means to achieve this you would need to plan at least 30 baby showers that year to achieve this income goal.
With this information, you’ll need to create a plan to book 30 baby showers for the year. Maybe that will be achieved through increased advertising, partnering with a baby clothing store, or upselling your past brides who might now be looking to start a family.
Your action plan should capture the HOW to achieving your income goals. Remember, the more prepared you are, the less ambiguity you will have and the more likely your success will be.
