Every December, January, and sometimes November, a lot of businesses start talking about doing a yearly plan for their small business. Yearly planning content appears everywhere, and most sell a program to make it easier. The thing is, it’s a solution that doesn’t work for everyone.
Why Planning Became a Kerfuffle
Yearly planning is an easy topic for businesses in all niches to write about. After all, “everyone” does it, and the big corporations publish their plans through various avenues. Therefore, there’s lots of information out there to work from.
Since it’s something “everyone” needs, it’s also an excellent topic to reach a broader market. After all, who would trust a business that doesn’t have some kind of roadmap or plan? Snagging people for planning webinars, courses, and accountability groups is easy.
Additionally, the programs for yearly planning are quick to set up and require minimal investment. This fact makes it attractive to people looking to start their year off with a profit boost, especially if the holidays are a slower time in their industry.
Why Yearly Planning Doesn’t Work (For Me)
The big issue with yearly planning for me is that it locks in a not-really flexible plan for the next 12 months. There’s little room to change or respond to a market that might pivot (hello, SEO algorithm changes!).
It also requires detail orientation. Unfortunately, my type of detail orientation is not conducive to figuring out what I will be six months later. It’s more immediate, so plotting out what week I can write course content in October, for example, doesn’t actually work out.
Then there’s the time allotment portion of yearly planning. I’m a caregiver for a family member; my schedule may change drastically from week to week, never mind months in advance. The long-term, detailed planning most yearly planning programs advocate simply isn’t practical.
What I Do Instead of Yearly Planning
Now, all this is not to say I do not have a plan. It’s just not the pretty yearly planning approach that many people sent emails about. Instead, my long-term business goals are less tied to dates and more to the outline of what needs to happen to achieve that objective.
I also do both monthly and quarterly planning. Granted, my monthly planning is typically for blogs usually happens in the last week of the previous months (have you seen our example sites?). However, quarterly planning helps me plan for immediate needs and meet those long-term goals.
As I’ve discovered, the checklist approach is much more manageable for handling my planning. It’s easy to mark things off and add more without mucking up the overall plan like a yearly planning approach requires.
Like this article? Check out the Silver Magpie Email list so you never miss new content!