How to Create Your Owners UP Annual Action Plan in Four Steps

Oct 24, by Tanya Alvarez

Building an annual action plan will help you strategize for the year, set yourself up to achieve company and personal goals, make sure you’re financially on track, and consolidate all your marketing goals and tactics into one easy-to-read-and-access document. This plan will act as a touchpoint that you can reference at your convenience, keeping you from having to waste time bouncing back between charts and graphics. And as entrepreneurs, we all know our time is already at a premium.

Ready to learn how to build an annual action plan of your own? Keep on reading, and we’ll break it down, step by step.

1. Get a Grip on Your Revenues and Write Down the Specifics

In order to set your company up for financial success and growth, you have to know what that looks like.

First, you’ll want to figure out your last year’s total revenue.

After, divide that number by twelve to get your monthly revenue average, giving you a concrete figure to hit regularly; both pieces of information will go in the “Last Year” box.

Now, take a look at your current month’s finances, making sure to jot down the number of clients you worked with during that time and the total amount of revenue earned from them. All of this information will go in the “Current Month” box.

Finally, it’s time to get a bit more detailed. Here in the “Notes” section, describe things that, financially speaking, pertain to your business like client turnover and retention, rates and pricing, etc..

2. Set Goals and Remind Yourself Why You Got Into Entrepreneurship

As entrepreneurs, we sometimes get carried away with our day-to-day tasks and forget why we even got into the crazy line of work, at all. Well, here’s where the Annual Action Plan can help you rediscover past (and future) goals of yours, be them in your business or personal life.

Filling out the “Why” section of this plan is fairly straightforward: answer the question of why you become a business owner in the first place? And whatever that reason (or reasons) is (or are), write them down. When things aren’t going exactly as planned, this will serve as a reminder as to why you need to keep on trudging along.

Following suit, the “Personal Goals” should be a short-but-sweet bulleted list of things you want the year to look like outside of the office. Maybe you want to do an Alaskan cruise, hold Koalas in Sydney, or make room for more “you-time,” overall. Jot those down, and don’t be afraid to get very specific.

Lastly, carry that same future-setting over to your “Business Annual Goals,” fleshing-out certain company achievements you want to accomplish that year. Complete this section with items like “hiring a head of PR” or “hitting six-figures in yearly revenue,” whatever you seem fit.

3. Break Down Those Quarterly and Monthly Projections

Get ready to bust out your trustworthy calculator—or smartphone, in all reality. (Does anyone still use an analog calculator these days still, anyway?)

In this section, we’ll break down revenue targets for each quarter and month, giving you a tangible idea if your revenue figures are “thriving” or sitting at an accepted “minimum.” Completing this section will also help organize quarterly business goals, i.e. “setting up landing pages in Q1.” After all the quarterly legwork is solved, boil those projections down even more into monthly targets, giving you clear and concise metrics to hit from January to December.

Also, take note of “Show Up” section and really take it to heart. Visualize the person you need to be in order to see these goals and figures to fruition—and consciously work toward being that person, day after day.

4. Get All Your Marketing Ducks in a Row

As us business owner know, all our marketing campaigns and tactics seem to go in a million different directions all at the same time. Suffice to say it’s about time you put all those marketing strategies in one place to look at and review at your will.

In our final section, we’ll lay out the groundwork for each and every marketing tactic your business want’s to employ during that calendar year. We’re also going to prioritize the importance of each tactic, while, too, scoring individual entries with an “impact” and “effort” score. The lower the score, the easier it is to practice that tactic or have it impact your company at all. A higher scored item would mean that it’s harder to employ, but it’s far more likely to yield a growth-related result.

Also, we’ve already pre-written the annual plan with a few tactical suggestions, but you’re more than welcome add and remove entries.

For more information on our Annual Action Plan and how to complete one, be sure to watch the YouTube video below. And if you aren’t already working with us, sign up today to get insights on how you can start accelerating your company’s growth, ASAP!