2025 Planning: How To Intentionally Grow Your Business in the New Year
Tis the Season! The season to celebrate, mourn, spend time with our loved ones, and look ahead. To set new year goals for our lives, and our businesses.
And I love that for us. But we’re not talking about wishes we make when the ball drops today.
We’re talking about real planning. Planning that makes wearing all the hats less overwhelming. Planning that helps your business grow sustainably, and work harder for you.
Before we dive in to the how, let’s talk about the why for a minute.
Many entrepreneurs resist yearly planning - or sometimes planning of any kind - because they can’t predict the future. Who knows what the stock market will do. Or how AI will affect your industry. Or [fill-in-the-blank external factor].
Other entrepreneurs feel that planning doesn’t leave room for miracles.
Entrepreneurs who are just starting out think that they don’t really know yet what they even want their business to look like at the end of next year, so why try to plan it.
There’s some truth in all of that.
And yet…
Getting creative, dedicating time to really bringing to life your vision, and putting your big goals for your life and business into the universe will drastically change the long-term trajectory of your business AND help you manage your day-to-day with more ease.
Let me explain.
When you identify and schedule the big stuff in your life, you avoid the conflicts and chaos of trying to manage kids on their day off of school or fit in that dentist appointment or go to your best friend’s milestone birthday party. Don’t waste your precious energy trying to figure out how to fit important personal moments into your work calendar when they come up - just plan for it now.
When you actually carve out the time to dedicate to planning out your year, you not only send a message to the universe about your intentions and priorities, you also make fresh connections in your brain. You're able to see new opportunities and learn from your data in ways that you miss when you’re in the thick of daily life. You get into a flow state.
And - bonus - studies have shown that writing down your goals makes you at least 42% more likely to achieve them. Yes, please.
So let’s do this.
Schedule your Planning Retreat
You do absolutely need dedicated time to do this. Find 2-days to get away from your typical home- and work-space. It could be a vacation home in Mexico, or a family cabin in the woods, or a hotel down the street. But do it right. Respect your time and energy enough to make space for aligned, big-results creation.
Reflect & Assess
It’s important to look at your data over the last year. If you’ve never really used data in your business, give it a try. It can actually be a very creative exercise to look at data in new ways, break free of self-limiting beliefs when coming to conclusions about data, and using it to craft new goals. And, it’s also just as important to assess the joy, time, and energy that your business provided you - or took from you. Just because a launch went well or a product sold out doesn’t mean it really helped you grow the business you want. Sit with your MVP (mission, values, and purpose), identify what you want to keep doing, and what is not really moving the needle or feeding your soul.
Get Real
I’m calling this section “Get Real” because - for me anyway - it sometimes feels like reality is an inconvenience that doesn’t want me to get through my to-do list. But the reality about reality is… we can predict most of it. And we can plan the unpredictable (more on that in the “Make it Happen” section). And if we plan for it, it’s no longer a distraction, or a curse word, or an excuse. It just is. So… let’s do that! Voila. Life is easier. You work your schedule around getting a massage AND have time to take that vacation you desperately need. Because you planned it. Put reality on your calendar first. And if something like a vacation to Bora Bora doesn’t feel like a reality, I still encourage you to block the time. Put it into the universe, plan for it, work for it, and watch it happen.
Set Goals
I have an exercise I like to do with my clients where I ask them to imagine 10x’ing their revenue goal. I get giggles, big eyes, and gasps. But I have two reasons for going big. One is that classic quote: If you want to reach the moon, aim for the stars. The other is that we get so used to what we’re used to, that we tend to forget what’s possible. Shake it up. I want you to set goals based on your reflection exercise, and then multiply them by 125% (1.25). Aim for the stars. Then, map out how you’ll reach the stars. You probably won’t get there how you planned but the important thing is that you work toward it, and that starts with what you know today. So use your offers and reverse engineer your goal to make it happen.
Make it Happen
You’ve got your non-negotiables on your calendar and your goals mapped. Now, it’s time to look at your weeks and days. First, identify big launches or promotion periods that will need special attention. Put them on your calendar - but you CANNOT move your reality for your work. Reality comes first. So plan around life. Where does it make sense to have that launch? If you want to take December off, when do you need to have your products and content ready for holiday promotions? Create a supporting marketing and sales calendar for your team to be prepared. Next, look at how you want to spend each day. Block time regularly for projects that will need your devoted attention, because they will happen. And, remember those miracles you want to leave room for? Block at least one day a month on your calendar for catch-up, fire drills, and miracles. Because they will happen, too.
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It will feel backwards at first, I know. But scheduling your work around your life will help you create that time freedom you know is possible for entrepreneurs - while growing your business with intention and protecting your energy. Plan for the life you want.
