Who needs a quarterly plan in business?
If you’re anything like I used to be you might think you don’t.
I thought I could fly by the seat of my pants. Wing it. Go with the flow.
And I did for many years. But I was just being reactive and I missed SO MANY opportunities to grow my business, scale my business, improve and be more efficient and more.
These days a quarterly plan is essential for me and I think you’ll find it could be for you as well!
Creating Your Quarterly Plan
There are so many ways to create a quarterly plan.
Write it on a napkin? … sure
Put it in a printed planner?… if you like
Put it on a spreadsheet?… one way to do it
So how do you choose?
I suggest you start with a way that feels most natural and fun to you!
When I got started I saw people doing full year plans on big dry-erase boards but I didn’t want one of those. Instead I printed out Google Calendars and I used sticky notes to plan out all my promotions for the year.
It worked great but then when my daughter was young she loved to find them and play with them so I went digital:
I used that Miro system for many years. I teach how it works in my class Finish Strong.
These days I use a spreadsheet in Google Sheets in order to see my entire plan for the whole quarter in one view. It looks like this:
That’s the rest of my year planned out with products I’ll promote, coupon codes for the products and the dates on which I’ll promote them.
I love that I can see everything in one view.
Here’s how I created this:
The Steps to Creating a Quarterly Plan
Step 1: Decide how many offers you will make this quarter.
Step 2: List out all the offers you will make (product names).
Step 3: Fill in your promotional calendar with the products.
Step 4: Set up any coupons necessary for sales.
Step 5: Batch your email content promotions.
Step 6: Add other income generating tasks to your promotions.
When done well your email marketing will be your number one income generator so that becomes the number one priority.
After email you can add items like:
- Affiliate team promotion
- Improving sales messaging
- Creating pop-ups to coincide with the sale
- Creating content to promote your offers
- Promote offers in your community
Doing your quarterly planning like this can change the entire trajectory of your business, especially if you’re used to doing everything on the fly.
Now you have reaction time of more than a split second. You can improve your promotions. You can adapt to hot offers and trends. You can create a more comprehensive promotional campaign.
It’s a big win for your business progress!
Quarterly Planning Template, Free!
I’ve created a simple Quarterly Planning Template that you can copy and move into your own Google Sheets. Get it here < Click to make a copy in Google Sheets
That template is actually free. There’s no opt-in required so you’re not paying with money OR your attention.
If you do want to learn more from me and how I run my business I invite you to join my email list here. 🙂
Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan
Creating the plan is just step 1!
Next you will need to work your plan.
I think it’s very acceptable to allow your plan to be adaptable. This way you can move with trends, unexpected life events or the needs of your community.
You’re going to need determination, grit, vision and discipline. You can do this!
Want a Full Step by Step to Creating Your Quarterly Plan?
Here’s what we cover in the Finish Strong class:
