Creating an annual plan for your small business can feel a bit like a guessing game if you don't have the right numbers to guide you. In this video, we'll talk about how to use three main numbers to anchor the goals in your business with a real small business plan example. This allows you to see where your money is going and where it's coming from when you start a small business plan of your own.

Videos & resources mentioned in this episode:
🔗 Watch How to Pick Key Metrics for Small Business
🔗 Join the waitlist to be notified when the book is published:.
🔗 Join the first-ever in-person operations conference by ProcessDriven. Learn more about Ops Ahoy here.
🔗 Watch A Simple System to Delegate Projects Effectively
🔗 Learn how to build more routines in your business

Creating an annual plan for your small business can feel a bit like a guessing game if you don't have the right numbers to guide you. In this video, we'll talk about how to use three main numbers to anchor the goals in your business with a real small business plan example. This allows you to see where your money is going and where it's coming from when you start a small business plan of your own.

The first part of this annual planning example is about focusing on things like your take home pay, your total expenses, and your overall income gives you a clear picture of what you need to do to grow your small business this year.

Here's what this video covers:
00:00 Introduction: Why Annual Plans Fail
00:59 Step 1: Choose Your Core Business Number
03:06 Building a Small Business Budget
06:04 Calculating Product Sales Targets
06:57 Step 2: Break Down the Big Numbers
07:11 Reverse Engineering Your Sales Funnel
08:24 Setting Weekly KPI Targets for Your Team
11:01 Step 3: Planning Strategic Business Projects
11:43 How We Manage Projects at ProcessDriven
13:40 Adjusting Your Plan Throughout the Year

Mapping out a path for your small business growth requires looking at the specific math that makes your sales or service possible. For example, you can work backward from your big income goals to find the exact number of people you need to reach every single week. Tracking these types of details manually (yes, manually) helps you stay close to the data and helps you understand better if you're on track to reach your goals.

A successful annual plan relies on your ability to stay flexible and adjust your expectations as the year unfolds. You can keep your big goals fixed while changing the smaller steps you take every three months to reach them. This approach to working allows you to address the biggest challenges and roadblocks in your business as they happen rather than sticking to a schedule or plan that no longer fits.