There are a million training programs, free webinars, and excel documents out there about how to plan for the New Year.

No one loves the smell of a new Passion Planner more than me, and I’ve been a yearly planning junkie every December since 2006.

My yearly planning method is a little bit of a hybrid – things I’ve picked up here and there. I designed it to help keep my clients (and myself!) focused and in action to actively grow their business every month.

And, it shifts more and more off your plate every quarter because hey, you created your coaching business for more freedom, right?

If you are still looking for a better system to plan out your business goals, marketing efforts, and achieve your revenue goals, then you’ll want to keep reading.

Here’s a look at how I planned my 2016, and you can steal this system if you’d like.

Four Quarters

As small business owners and solopreneurs, we have the ability to be way more agile than a larger company. We can course correct faster, change priorities, and slow down at will.

That’s why I love planning in quarters or 90-day chunks.

For each quarter, select one BIG goal you want to accomplish. Some ideas to get you started include:

• write a novel
• launch a new group coaching program
• host an exotic retreat
• redesign your website
• create a store
• host a live event

Make each quarter about the “thing” you want to accomplish first, and then you can break up the months in to manageable pieces of your project.

Here’s a sneak peak at my 2016 quarterly plan:

Q1: Launch Fresh Baked Funnels
Q2: Engage fully in my Mastermind
Q3: Create a membership site
Q4: Build an internal team

Divide by 3

You may already know how I LOVE the Rule of Three, but I have a particular way I like to use it in yearly business planning.

Choose three activities to do every month in the following categories:

• Marketing
• Content
• Maintenance

This may be the most important plan to create growth in your business.

A quick example of how to break this down might be…

Marketing

1. Host a webinar
2. Run Facebook ads to evergreen opt in
3. Publish a guest post

Content

1. Write my weekly blog post
2. Create a new ebook
3. Record video for membership site

Maintenance

1. Create SOP for newsletter send out
2. Start using project management software
3. Design an affiliate program

If anything you do in the Marketing category works really well, continue rolling them over in to the next month (no need to reinvent the wheel!) But, if you don’t see an increase in traffic or list growth, you can easily move on to three new tasks the next month.

Making the Money

You may have noticed that nothing I planned so far in my year was about money or setting a money goal.

That’s because it doesn’t matter if you are doing the rest of the work.

Whether you want to make $5,000 per month, or $50,000, you can find that in one premium client or in just a few joining your group coaching program.

What matters is that you’ve set the foundational elements in your business, that keep new clients coming in the door. That keep you in action. That ultimately drives the limitless revenue available to you, as long as you are creating content, actively marketing your services, and streamlining your business processes in house.

Bonus Daily Planning

If you like to get down in the nitty gritty of your day to day, and break down your plan further than just the big picture, make sure to keep the following tips in mind:

1. Block off your vacation time in your calendar FIRST. Also set reminders at the start of the previous month before you travel, so you and your team can make arrangements ahead of time for automated content and marketing.
2. Don’t schedule discovery calls or coaching sessions the day before or after returning from a trip or holiday. You won’t be in the mood! Save yourself the cancellation email or text, and just wait the extra day.
3. Batch like tasks together. You may have heard about context switching, and it’s so real! So, if you’re going to block out your days, make sure you’re doing all of your social media marketing together in an hour or two, and then turn off the notifications. Schedule times to check your email throughout the day. Only hold coaching calls for certain hour blocks on Tuesdays and Thursdays (or whatever schedule works for you!).

So, to recap my 2016 plan…

1. Every quarter has a main focus.
2. Each month I’m increasing my marketing efforts, streamlining my in house processes, and creating engaging content for my existing audience.
3. I prioritize my personal goals and desires above the desire for a specific income, knowing that it will come as I do the work above, and stay focused on my quarterly goals.

Leave a Comment: What do you think of my planning method? Will it work for your coaching business?