814: Steal My Exact Annual Planning Process

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2:01I know constant change feels exhilarating. I know that a lot of entrepreneurs crave chaos and create chaos, especially when they have consistency. And so I want to challenge you to really look at how can you stay consistent and make minor tweaks and not try to overhaul everything in your business every single year? I'm Jenna Kutcher, your host of the Gold Digger podcast. I escaped the corporate world at the age of 23 with nothing more than a$300 camera from Craigslist and a dream. Now I'm running a seven figure online business that feels even better than it looks all from my house in small town Minnesota with my family.

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3:20This is the Gold Digger Podcast. You know those people in your life that start decorating for holidays months before they actually come? Well, I feel like this is that for me, which is annual planning. I get so excited to do it. And I feel like the older I get, the earlier I want to start. This is the time of year when I get so excited. I'm thinking about the fresh opportunities. I'm thinking about the things I want to do next year. I'm thinking about the vision I want to hold for the coming year. And maybe you're the same way. But before you get lost in a sea of ideas, I want to talk about how to create a rock solid plan that actually works, that you can actually follow through on and execute.

4:03Now, if you're asking questions like, should I plan annually or quarter by quarter, or what do I do about the things that aren't working? Should I double down or pivot? Or how do I actually audit this year to know exactly what is driving my results? Then this episode is for you. This episode will be the encouragement to lay the foundation well for your year, and it will totally change the way you annual plan for the better. So if you are ready to set yourself up for a year of growth and balance, then grab your notebook and get ready to get nerdy with me because this episode is going to give you the blueprint to annual plan like a boss.

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5:24They've also reimagined their marketing and content hubs with new ways to create breakthrough content, updated features to generate better leads, and lots more to up-level your marketing and your revenue forecast. Get ready for growth without the growing pains. Visit HubSpot.com slash spotlight to see them all and demo for yourself. That's HubSpot.com slash spotlight. I recently did an ask me anything on Instagram and somebody asked like, what is something you are excited about right now? And I'm going to tell you, I am a nerd when it comes to annual planning. I love annual planning. And this is crazy because I am someone who even just a few years ago hated any type of plan, systems, structures.

6:09It felt too confining for me. And now that I understand that I have ADHD and I'm this really wild and creative person and I am a visionary, I get it. But I think having kids invited me to bring more structure and systems into my life. Not only are they required, but they help me show up in the ways that I want to show up, especially in this stage of life. And so I absolutely adore the annual planning process. And I think now is an incredible time to start digging in. So if you are someone who historically you leave annual planning till December 31st, this is your invitation to bring it into your life and business earlier this year, because not only is there still time to finish this year strong, but you are coming at it from a place with this renewed energy, this back to school vibes, which has scientifically been proven to be an incredible time for people to achieve their goals.

7:06But it is also a beautiful time where you are not overwhelmed with the holidays. You're not stressed. You're not on a sugar high or a sugar crash. Like this is a really beautiful time so that you kind of know here is the picture that we are painting for the upcoming year. Here's what I see. So where do we begin? I was recently doing a coaching call with someone that I'm coaching and we talked about annual planning for her for next year. And she said, well, where do you even begin? Like, I don't even know where to start. I just stare at a blank calendar. And what I told her is start from what you know.

7:37So if you have already been in business, even just one year, you want to take the time to review your last year's numbers or this current year's numbers and the plans that you had and kind of how everything shook out. Now, if you do not have a business yet, understand that the annual planning that you're going to do for this coming year is going to help lay the foundation for future years. So you actually want to spend some time doing this because what you do today or this month or this coming year is going to be what you're going to be working off of for future years. So basically your future self is already thanking you.

8:14So here's what you need to understand. You do not need to start from scratch. In fact, I'd argue do not start from scratch. Build off of last year's numbers and plans and results. And so you really want to take a historic look at how this last year has gone, how it's shaken out. And this is also where I invite you to bring in any data into the equation. So if you're a solopreneur, this is where you want to look at your month by month numbers and any other results. If you have say an accountant or a bookkeeper, this is also where you want to lean on them for your numbers or any insight from them.

8:54So back in the day when I was a wedding photographer, I kept track of all of my books. So I did all my finances. I had accountants help me with taxes, but I basically took track every single month. Okay, here's how much I'm bringing in. Here's what this looks like. Now I have a bookkeeper and an accountant and they are running my numbers every single month. So every single month we can see profit and loss. We can see how many sales, revenue, we can see all of those numbers, expenses. And so it's super helpful to have the month by month landscape because a lot of times we're not really paying attention to money in, money out and understanding the bigger picture.

9:32And so for example, this year, I sent an email to my accountants and said, Hey, every month, can you just tell me three things you're seeing just from looking at our books? So they are not people that are intimately inside of our business every single day, day in and day out. And so every month they've sent me just three bullet points of what they're seeing. So, you know, Hey, this month, your expenses were up. Is this like a one-time thing? Or did you add a new contractor? What is happening here? Or why is this happening? Or this month, Holy cow, your revenue crushed last year's numbers. what happened how do you do this again and what do you account for that and so it's been really helpful month by month having just even three bullet points from someone outside of my business that's looking at the numbers and so I also leaned on my accountants and said hey I'm about to do my annual planning can you just kind of give me a snapshot based off of this past year what we've seen so far what kind of things should I be looking at what should I look for what were our top performing months, what was happening during them.

10:33And so they were just pulling basically out of the numbers things for me to be aware of. So if payroll expenses are up, are we aware of that? Yes. Things like that. So we do not reinvent the wheel each year. In fact, I would say for the last six years, essentially since I became a mother, our business and our plan has looked pretty similar on an annual basis. So year by year, not a ton has changed annually. And so we're looking at timing. We're looking at what launches we did. We're looking at what our goals were. And most importantly, we're looking at what the actual results turned out to be.

11:13Now, I did an entire episode about measurement and data. And so if this is something where you're like, I don't even know how to report on any of these things, or I don't even know what my numbers are. I don't even know where to look for my numbers. Go back to episode 726. It's called, if you want bigger results, you have to do this. I'm going to link the episode in the show notes for you to listen to. But this is where I break down what we measure in my business, why we measure it, and how you can start measuring your results right away. And this is a really great episode for people that are kind of at that next stage of business where you want to get more nitty gritty.

11:50You want to have a more raised awareness and you want to dig deeper into the data. This is like where it gets really fun. So essentially, when we start annual planning, we start first by reviewing last year's plans. And so we're looking at what worked, what didn't work, what do we want to optimize, and we're not recreating anything. And we also want to note important KPIs, which are key performance indicators. These are things like revenue, conversion rates, lead generations. We're looking at all of those digits overall for this holistic look at how did last year go or how is this year going and what should we be aiming for next year.

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14:25Sign up for your$1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com slash gold digger. Go to shopify.com slash gold digger, shopify.com slash gold digger. So the second thing that we really focus on is consistency over constant change. And this is something that I see so frequently with small business owners is that they are seeking constant change and they are not doubling down on consistency. And so we're talking about minor tweaks, not overhauls. And so one thing that I have really had to focus in on and make fun for me, again, this like creative, multi-passionate visionary is making it fun to have a rhythm in my business.

15:18Understanding that predictability isn't boring. And again, this is something I've had to learn over the years. And I think that this stage of life, having two young kids and And being in this stage where I want to work part-time, I have to understand that consistency is sexy right now. Constant change, yes, thrilling, I understand it. But it is not the time or stage of life for me to do this. And there is so much power in consistency. And so when we are working off of our last year's or the current year's plan, we are able to just do minor adjustments. So for example, we had a big affiliate launch and then one of our own internal launches that fell really close together this year.

16:03And the timeline was condensed because of the election. And we wanted to just make sure that we were planning things out and not having to fight through all the media noise and all the things that come with an election year. And so for next year, we're like, we do not want those two launches to be back to back again. That was really rushed. It felt like a heavier workload. We want to be able to space things out. So again, we're just looking at minor tweaks and adjustments. We're not overhauling everything. Now, two years ago, I remember I was in this stage of life of like, what is next? My book had come out.

16:38It hit the New York Times bestseller list. I was on this high of creating something new and putting it out into the world. And I remember thinking, okay, now what? Now what? And a really wise friend of mine. I remember sitting down with her and I was like, well, I don't know what to do next. And as we went on in the discussion, she said something to me. She said, the rinse and repeat nature of your business is the gift, not the burden. And I think that often entrepreneurs are always onto the next thing or chasing the excitement. I am putting myself in that camp. I can get just as guilty with that.

17:13And so instead of constantly creating new, creating fresh, starting from scratch, getting really excited about the creation piece. How can we make what we're doing or what's working well exciting again? How can we add that excitement in? I was just talking to a dear friend of mine. She has three kids. We have literally come up in business together. And she messaged me the other day and she's like, do you ever daydream about just shutting it all down, burning it all down? And I was like, oh yeah, I've done full podcast episodes about this topic? Yes, absolutely. And we were talking and she's like, you know, I just, I can't find my mojo.

17:52Like, I don't know. I don't want to talk about the same things anymore. I've been talking about them for a long time. And I said, now is not the time to scrap what you've spent years building, what's actually working. Now is the time to find ways to make the old feel exciting again. And so how do you add that excitement in? Maybe it is changing up your marketing strategy. Maybe it is changing up your communication. Maybe it is doing something you've never done before, doing something different. And so how do you make it exciting again? For me, and this is very nerdy, but going back to point number one, when we started really getting deep in our data, that started to almost gamify the business again and make it really fun where we were setting these goals and then we could see how our efforts were actually tying to the results.

18:39And it took out the feeling of like, I have been talking about this topic for five years straight and it made it fun again of like, what is a new way we can do this? What is a new way we can get to that result? What does that look like? And so for us, the rinse and the repeat of our business has been such a gift. When I look at my journey as a mom and the work that went in while we were in our season of waiting before I became a mom, I have so much gratitude because I would not be able to be the kind of mom that I want to be and show up in the way that I want to show up without having this rinse and repeat nature that we built intentionally in my business.

19:21So for us, a lot of the things repeat from year to year. So we have this rhythm and this flow and we know when certain things are going to land better than others. And so different times of the year we know. And so we don't change our major launches or our promotions drastically. We just basically tweak based on last year's learnings. So in this last year, one of the things that was new that we did, which was basically a small tweak from the year prior, is I said, I do not want to do any launches June, July, and August. I want to be off with my kids. I don't want to be focused on the work. And so we had to move around and scoot around other promotions to make that happen, which meant we had a bit of a heavier spring and a bit of a heavier fall in order to give us a lighter summer.

20:07And so again, it's just wiggling things around and looking at the year at a glance in order to keep the rinse and repeat nature of the business with just minor tweaks and adjustments. So I know constant change feels exhilarating. I know that a lot of entrepreneurs crave chaos and create chaos, especially when they have consistency. And so I want to challenge you to really look at how can you stay consistent and make minor tweaks and not try to overhaul everything in your business every single year. It is so beneficial for you, for your mental health, for your business to stay on a consistent schedule and just make small changes in order to improve efficiency or in order to match your vision better.

20:51The next thing that we really focus on, this might be a little bit surprising, is subtraction instead of addition. We are not trying to add more to our plates. I don't know about you, but even as I go less and less and less, I still feel busy, right? And so how do we do this? How do we remove things that no longer serve us or no longer fit the vision instead of adding more. And the way that we do this is through a calendar audit. So years ago, I learned about John Maxwell's calendar auditing process. And it's all about evaluating how you spend your time in order to make sure it aligns with your goals, your values, and your priorities.

21:33So here's kind of an overview of what the process is. Obviously, John Maxwell teaches this in an incredible way. And so if you want to learn more about it, go seek this out. But basically what he teaches is, is that you start with reviewing your calendar. So you literally pull up your Google calendar, or if you do pen and paper calendar and you look back at your schedule from the past year, or if you do this on a quarterly basis, which I highly recommend, you can see where your time went. Now, something that's really interesting about this is even a few years ago, I did not really use my Google calendar.

22:06I wasn't someone who like kept track of everything. And over the last few years, I've been really cognizant of adding in basically everything to my calendar. Not only does it keep me on track, especially with an ADHD brain that can very easily lose track of time and appointments and meetings, but it allows me to do these calendar audits so that I can see. And so you want to review your calendar and look at what activities or events took up most of your time and what results did they produce? So I have meetings on there. I have appointments on there. I have self-care on my calendar. I have it all mapped out and I even color-coded it, which is a little bit next level.

22:42But it allows me to really quickly look at each month and see like, ooh, we were really heavy in meetings this month. Or man, I did a ton of recording this month. How did that feel? And so reviewing your calendars where you start, then you evaluate what worked. And so you want to identify what activities were productive, which ones brought you joy and which ones aligned with your business and your personal goals. And so the goal here is to ask yourself, like, what should I continue doing because it's working well? And I love, and this is why I think I really was attracted to John Maxwell's idea on this, is that it's not just a calendar audit for the sake of productivity.

23:21It's also looking at like, what brought you joy and what was in alignment with what you say is most important, whether it's business or personal. And so evaluating what worked is such a beautiful step. And it also allows you to say, okay, what can I continue because it worked well? Now, the next part of this is eliminating what didn't work. And so looking at your calendar and pinpointing the tasks, the meetings, the commitments that were either unproductive, stressful, or didn't yield significant results. I have been someone, and I've shared about this on the podcast this year, where I I have gotten really specific about how I want the rhythm of my weeks to go.

23:57And I recognize I am so wildly fortunate to be able to say like, Hey, I don't want to have meetings on Mondays. Not many people can do that. But if you are in a place of entrepreneurship where you are the boss, you are also in control of your rhythm. And so I have done a lot of restructuring over this last year when I was realizing like, Oh my gosh, every single day I have like two meetings. Would it work better if I could just have one day that's super meeting heavy, but then that would free up the other days of the week. And so you want to look at like, what is not actually working or what are you dreading that's on your calendar?

24:31And John Maxwell emphasizes removing the time wasting activities so that you can make space for more meaningful work. Again, we're focusing on subtraction, not adding more to your plate. And so what can we cut out? And a lot of times we're the ones responsible for the things that we hate, right? Like sometimes I'll see something on my calendar and I'm like, who agreed to this? And I'm like, ah, I agreed to this. Why am I saying yes to these things? And so eliminating what didn't work or figuring out different ways to approach something that isn't productive or isn't worth your time. Lately, when people ask me to do a meeting and it's some initial consult call or something that I'm not even sure I'm fully invested in, instead I'll ask them, hey, can you record a quick loom or a five minute video or an audio note telling me about this opportunity so that I don't waste either of our times trying to coordinate our calendars and get on for a meeting.

25:25That way I can listen at my leisure, which is really helpful, especially as a mom, because some days I'm like running in to help put Quinn down for her nap, or I get sucked into lunchtime with my family, which I love. And I don't want to be missing those things because of meetings. And so I've been asking people and just saying, Hey, this is a boundary of mine before we dive any deeper. Is there any way that we could just eliminate this initial meeting and get that information shared so that we can make those next decisions. The next thing that you want to do is make space for priorities. And this is something I've also really learned from Marie Forleo in her program Time Genius, is she talks about like the big rocks, like what are the big things in your life?

26:04Because there's that whole story of like, if you fill a jar with sand first and you try to stick your big rocks on top, they're not going to fit. But if you put your big rocks, aka your big priorities, your values in first, all the little sand pieces will fit around it. I probably just butchered that analogy, but you get the picture. And so after cutting out what's unnecessary, this is where we want to refocus our calendar around the high priority tasks that align with your goals and bring value to your life and your business. And so this is how having no meetings on Mondays makes space for priorities like deep work.