In this blog we discuss The Buildify Methods approach to doing proper Annual Planning for start-up’s, fast growing companies, tech companies even large businesses.

Annual Planning is the single most important thing a business owner can do to grow their business each year. Annual Planning is the process of taking yourself and your team through the process of planning out each aspect of your company. You and your team will touch on Management Planning, Administration Planning, Finance Planning, Marketing Planning, Sales Planning, Production Planning and Quality Assurance Planning.

The Buildify Method’s approach to Annual Planning is a step by step process that walks you through each are of your business and helps you plan out each area. We also address the key business systems that make up your functional business plan. During the annual planning process, we teach you how to develop these key business systems, structures and processes.

ANNUAL PLANNING CHECKLIST

THE BUILDIFY METHOD FOR ANNUAL PLANNING:

Effective and well-planned company that, causes increased profits and expansion.

  1. Completing your current year:
  • Complete previous year’s accomplishments and goals.
    • Start with your Personal Goals that you had set. Go goal by goal, acknowledge how you performed toward achieving each of them.
    • The point is to be complete with each goal regardless of how you performed. You don’t want to drag old things from one year into the creation of a new year.
    • Remember, by completing your goals you are not giving up on any goals that did not get accomplished. You are simply getting complete with the fact that you did not accomplish that goal this year.
  • List 50 things that you are grateful for that you experienced in this year.
  • Set your Celebration! What will you do to “celebrate” what you accomplished this year?
  • Declare the previous year complete!
    • This means that you have fully let everything go and you are not dragging anything from the previous year into the creation of your new year.
  • **To watch our seminar on “How to Powerfully Complete Your Year”, go to our YouTube channel to see the video here.
  • Start creating your New Year:
  • What is your ‘Motivation’ / your ‘Why’? 
    • Write out what your motivation/why is. Be very specific and clear as you do this.
    • Your Why must emotionally engage you. Your Why is a critical ingredient of achieving any goals that you set.
    • *Write out your Why by using the Buildify Annual Planning Timeline template.
  • **To watch our seminar on “Motivation – A Life by Design”, go to our YouTube channel to see the video here.
  1. Set your Context / Theme for the New Year.
    1. Your Context / Theme is the overall experience you want to have in your new year. The Context / Theme shapes and gives life to your experience of your year.
    1. *Write out your Context / Theme by using the Buildify Annual Planning Timeline template.
  1. **To watch our seminar on “How to Consciously Create Your New Year”, go to our YouTube channel to see the video here.
  1. Annual Personal Planning:
  1. Set Personal Goals, Consider All Areas of Life (Finance, Wellness, Relationships, Travel, etc.)
  1. I often recommend that people consider having some of their Personal Goals be around their Financial Freedom / Retirement, their mindset, or a personal habit that they want to improve on. 
  2. *Build out your Personal Goals by using the Buildify Annual Planning Timeline template.
  1. Set your Personal Schedule / Calendar for the year:
    1. Schedule all birthdays and special events
    1. Schedule off holidays observed
    1. Set vacations & time off
    1. Ensure schedule has balance items in it such as haircuts, massages, facials, exercise, meditation, etc.

(If it’s important to you, it deserves to be in your schedule)

  1. **To watch our seminar on “Scheduling & Task Management Essentials”, go to our YouTube channel to see the video here.
  1. Set up your Personal Budget for the year.
    1. Make sure you are putting money away for vacations, personal reserves, retirement / investments, etc.
    1. *Build your Personal Budget for the New Year by using the Buildify Budget template.
  1. **To watch our seminar on “Budgeting & Finance Essentials”, go to our YouTube channel to see the video here.
  1. Annual Business Planning:
  1. Set Business Goals
    1. One goal must always be the company’s Annual Sales Goal.
    1. Define / breakdown exactly what you need to sell to accomplish your Sales Goal. Do this by creating an Annual Sales Goal Breakdown document.
  • Set the rest of your other Business Goals
    • After you have set your Annual Sales Goal, it’s time to set your other Business Goals for the year.
    • Remember each goal must have a date by when you will accomplish it and it must be measurable and integral vs. emotional.
    • We recommend that you have a total of 3 Annual Goals. Your Sales Goal plus 2 other Goals for the company.
    • *Build out your Business Goals by using the Buildify Annual Planning Timeline template.
  • Now it’s time to set your Department Goals.
    • Once the Goals have been set for the company, you can then derive Goals for each department in your company.
    • Department Goals should support or contribute in some way to the greater Company Goals that have been set.
    • We recommend sitting down with your team and co-creating the Department Goals with them.
    • *Build out your Department Goals by using the Buildify Annual Planning Timeline template.
  • Next, set up your Buildify Lead Tracking Form for the year.
    • At this point in your planning you know how many leads you need per month. Highlight the row that coincides with your lead goal. Example: if your lead goal is 10 per month, highlight row 10, 20 & 30 on each tab of the Lead Tracking Form. (each tab represents a quarter of the year)
    • *Build out your Lead Tracking Form by using the Buildify Lead Tracking template.
  • Set up your Buildify Pipeline Report template for the new year.
    • Your Monthly Sales Goal should appear under each month. This will help keep you present to how well you are doing achieving your monthly and quarterly goals.
    • Your Pipeline Report should show all your active customers per month and calculate the potential sales against your goals so you can clearly see where you stand each month / quarter. 
  • Lead Source Breakdown system – Create a pie chart that breaks out where you want your main source of leads to come from this year.
    • Example: 25% Business Alliances, 40% Database, 7% Internet, etc.
  • Create your Annual Marketing Initiatives for the New Year. Marketing Initiatives are a few key places you want to forge new openings for business and opportunities.

Your Annual Marketing Initiatives should not be confused with your Marketing Plan. A Marketing Plan (which we will address in the next section) is the actions taken to market the business. The marketing actions, actually encompasses moving the initiatives forward

  • Create your Marketing Plan for the New Year. Plan must provide the volume of leads needed to accomplish the company’s Sales Goal.
    • *Build out your marketing plan by using the Buildify Marketing Calendar template.
  • **To watch our seminar on “Word of Mouth Marketing”, go to our YouTube channel to see the video here.
  • Next, review your companies Brand Description document to ensure that all aspects of the brand are up to date and accurate for the upcoming year. 
  • Now it’s time to build out your Annual Timeline for the year.
    • The Timeline is where you really start to ‘plan’ out your year.
    • At this point you should have captured your Why, your Context, the Company Goals, and Goals by Department on the first page of the Annual Planning Timeline.
    • Now that you have your company goals and goals by department, the next thing you will want to do is timeline out each Goal.
    • Start with the Company Goals by taking one goal and listing out several milestones that need to be reached over the course of the year to hit that goal on time. Note each specific milestone under the month that milestone needs to be accomplished by.
    • After you have listed out a few milestones for each of the Company Goals, move on to the Department Goals. Repeat the process of listing out a few key milestones for each of the Department Goals and note those milestones under specific months of the timeline.
    • *Build out your Timeline by using the Annual Planning Timeline template.
  • The next part of building out your Annual Timeline is to fill in the key Actions that need to be taken for each Goal & Milestone that you listed.
    • Review your Goals & Milestones and ask yourself what are the key Actions that you would need to take in order to accomplish those Goals & Milestones.
    • Then list the key action you need to take and put those actions under the months you will need to take them.
    • Remember, you don’t have to list every single action you need to take, just list the major actions that will be impactful.
  • The last part of building out your Annual Timeline is to fill in the Obstacles that could arise.
    • Fill in the Obstacles that you could experience that would keep you from hitting any of your Goals or Milestones.
    • Then list a few actions you could take to overcome that Obstacle.
  • Next thing to assess is YOU! If you want your company to grow, that means that You also have to grow by addressing your own Personal Obstacles. Please assess yourself in the following 3 ways.
    • Mindset – What habits, beliefs, etc. need to change so that I can be a match to my goals? (list out what you see)
    • Education – What do I need to learn so that I can be a match to my goals? (list out what you see)
    • Physically – What need to change in my physical space so that I can be a match to my goals? (list out what you see)
  • The next system to update will be your Staffing Model.
    • First update your staffing model to reflect your current staffing configuration.
    • Next, add open slots to hold space for the positions you feel will need to exist this year for your company to achieve its goals.
    • At Buildify we believe: “staff for where you’re going, not for where you are.”
  • Set KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) for the company so you can track and measure the performance of the company during the year.
    • Set up KPI’s for each position in the company to measure your staff’s performance and effectiveness in their roll. Set Quarterly reviews to hold them accountable to these measures.
    • Set up KPI’s for each department in your company to manage the performance of each department.
    • Create your own KPI Dashboard so you can track all the statistics that matter to you.
  • Set up your Business Budget for the New Year
    • Make sure your Salary & Distribution are enough to cover your new Personal Budget.
    • Make sure you have Taxes in the budget.
    • Make sure you have Business Savings in the budget to ensure you have adequate reserves.
    • *Build your Business Budget for the New Year by utilizing the Buildify Business Budget template. 
  • **To watch our seminar on “Budgeting & Finance Essentials”, go to our YouTube channel to see the video here.
  • Set Schedule / Calendar for the year:
    • Schedule all time off
    • Set work schedule
    • Set all standing business meetings
    • Ensure schedule has balance to it

(If it’s important to you it should be in your schedule)

  • **To watch our seminar on “Scheduling & Task Management Essentials”, go to our YouTube channel to see the video here.
  • Create a Vision Board that contains pictures that represent all of the goals and areas of focus you have for your life  (Business Life and Personal Life)
  • Set all Meetings with staff
    • Get agreement on company goals
    • Set goals for each department

Let’s Connect!

*For more information on doing your Annual Planning along with other helpful information on growing your business, you can check out our podcast at “The Buildify Method” on iTunes, Android & Spotify.

Business Education Video’s

*To watch our 2-part Annual Planning Seminars you can watch it on the Aaron Keith Consulting YouTube page here.

To access a wide variety of our business education video’s go to our video page on the Buildify Systems website or on our YouTube channel here.

Thank you for reading The Buildify Method Blog. We hope you got a few nuggets that you can take back to your business. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to our podcast and leave a review. It’ll help other entrepreneurs discover us and benefit from the community we’re building. We look forward to having you with us for the next Blog-isode.

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Author: Aaron Keith