How to Plan for 2020 so you Achieve your Goals
It’s that time of the year where we all get swept up in goal setting and planning for the year ahead. I’ve been asked about my planning process a couple of times now, so I thought you might also find it helpful for me to share how I am planning for 2020 so I actually achieve my goals.
After all, there’s no point making plans and having goals, if we’re not actively working towards them and achieving them!
I’ve broken my yearly planning down into 6 steps that I work through over a couple of days, although it is completely possible to do this in an afternoon if you wanted to.
Let’s get started!
Reflecting on the past year
A great way to start a new year is by reflecting on the year that’s just passed. By looking back before moving forward, you get a clear picture of what has and hasn’t worked for you throughout the year, and can make changes moving forward.
I like to start with my stats when looking back, so I can see how my business has grown. Some of the things I track are:
Traffic to my website – How many unique visitors I had and how many views I had each month, along with new keywords that I show in Google for. This lets me know how my website and SEO efforts are going over time
Email list growth – How many people are on my email list, how much my email list grew, how many emails I sent and the average open and click through rates. This tells me how effectively I am promoting my freebies, how effective my subject lines are and how enticing my emails are at encouraging action
Facebook group growth – How many people new people I’ve welcomed to my group and the pain points that were listed in welcome questions so I can come up with content ideas and refine my messaging
Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest growth – How many followers I have and the traffic that is coming to my website from each channel to see which marketing platforms are working the best for me
Sales calls – How many sales calls I took, how many clients I booked from those sales calls, and what my conversion rate is. Going forward, I will also look at where these sales calls came from to see where the most qualified leads come from
Finances – My monthly revenue, expenses and profit to see how I am tracking financially
I actually track these stats each month so at the end of the year I’m just reflecting on how I went. To be completely honest, I don’t particularly enjoy this part, but I know how beneficial it is to allow me to course correct if something isn’t working and it only takes me about 10-15 minutes each month, so it’s quick and easy to do.
Next up, I check in on the things I’ve loved doing and the things that have worked well to grow my business throughout the year. These are the things I want to include more of in the year ahead, so it’s definitely not one to miss!
I also like to see what didn’t work or I didn’t enjoy doing. After all, I started my business for freedom and flexibility to be with my family, so the last thing I want is to fill my time with tasks that I don’t enjoy and aren’t moving me closer to my goals! This gets me clear on what I am not doing or what I need to change up going forward.
The last thing I look back on is the challenges I faced and what held me back from achieving my goals. 2019 has been one of the month challenging years for me personally, having spent half the year sick, dealing with devastating family news and returning to work after maternity leave.
I’ve had times where I was disappointed at myself for not making as much progress as I would like, but reflecting on these challenges reminds me how much I did achieve even with everything that’s happened. I’ve also been able to identify ways to change my processes to limit the impact if these challenges come up again.
One other benefit of looking at what has held me back is that I’ve been able to get clear on the skills and processes I need to develop moving forward – my sales process and my brand voice – so I know what I need to work on moving into 2020.
Get clear on your vision for the future
Looking back is great to show you how the past year has gone, but you also want to check in on your vision for where you are going, both personally and as a business.
This is something I got clear on a few months ago, so mostly I was just checking in to see that I still felt the same about what I had written down, and making slight changes as needed to make sure I am working towards a life and business I actually want.
If you’ve never done something like this to get clear on your vision for the future, here are some prompts to start thinking about:
Where do you see yourself in 1, 3, 5, 10 year time?
What kind of lifestyle do you want?
Where are you living?
How does your day flow and what activities do you fit in?
How much time do you spend working each week?
How does your business fit in and add to your life?
How are your relationships with family, friends and clients?
What are you known for?
What does success look like for you?
What is your business earning?
How does this impact the people in your life?
Getting clear on a vision for the future really helps to focus your time and energy going forward since you will be more likely to take the actions that get you where you want to go. I know I have squirrel brain sometimes and can get caught up in the next new thing without thinking, so this keeps me on track!
Clean and organise your workspace
A messy, urorganised and cluttered space can make it hard to focus and find what you need, so it’s work taking some time to clean it up so you can start the year fresh.
For me, this meant going through a huge stack of random notes and throwing them out, filing them away or consolidating them onto lists. This forced me to think about some of my processes and I was able to create a central to do list, future projects list, and a new Trello board for tracking leads and opportunities.
Now that everything in my workspace is organised and easy to find, I’ll be spending some time in the next week or so going through my computer files as well and have set one of my goals for 2020 to actually clear out my craft room to turn it into an office space so I’m not working in the family room any longer.
Analyse audience survey responses
I created an audience survey in November to get clear on what people are most interested to see from my business in the future. After all, they’re the people that will likely buy.
Some of the questions I had asked included:
Were they happy with their website and if not, why not?
What the biggest challenge with designing and maintaining their website has been
What type of business they have
The top ways of promoting their business and generating leads
If they were going to spend money on their website, which would they prefer (having someone design it, doing a course to learn how to DIY, masterclasses on specific topics, a monthly membership with in depth trainings, 1:1 lessons, a group program, premium templates or something else)?
If they want to be taught to create their own site, what format would they want the content to be in?
The biggest thing that would hold them back from working with a designer
What they would search in Google if looking for a designer or how they would find one?
Whether they would want to jump on a market research call
These questions allowed me to assess some project ideas I have to see what has demand, gives me some ideas for content around pain points and objections people have and helps me refine my copy. I now know what projects to pursue in 2020 based on this feedback.
Set goals for the year
If you have followed along with the steps above, you’ll have a good idea by now of what you want to achieve in 2020, both personally and for your business.
It’s time to start writing down your goals, breaking down the steps to meet them and scheduling them in your planner!
Now you might be curious about the types of goals to set, so I’ll share a few examples of what I set goals for.
Business:
An income goal for how much you’d like to earn
A goal for how many clients you would like to work with
Goals around how you will raise your pricing
Goals for how you will put yourself out there to grow your audience
Goals around what products or services you will launch
Personal:
Fitness goals
Organising goals
Reading goals
Self care goals
Relationship goals
Once you have an idea of what you want to do for the year, it’s time to get clear on what you can realistically fit in, since we only have so much time we can spend working on our goals. If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably have to prioritize and cut a few goals out so you don’t burn out!
Now that you’ve made sure your goals are realistic, we move on to the most important step of the process: Breaking our goals down and scheduling them in so we actually achieve them!
I divide out the habits I want to create, and schedule them in for each day/week/month depending on how often I need to do them. This is quick and easy to do, since you’ll know right away which tasks require repeat actions.
Next I move on to the project goals. I like to divide these up by quarter, and then I start focusing on quarter 1. I break the project down further into monthly and weekly goals, and start mapping out the action steps I need to complete so I can schedule them into my planner.
Once my goals are mapped out, I’ll be able to check in regularly to see how I’m going and what needs adjusting and I’ll waste less time trying to figure out what I need to do each day to make progress towards my big goals.
Set yourself up for success
I don’t know about you, but for me, I know that if I don’t check in on my goals, I likely won’t do too well with achieving them. Now that you know what you want to do for the year and you’ve mapped it out, it’s time to set yourself up for success!
I do this by deciding how I’ll track my progress ahead of time, and scheduling some time in each month to check in on my goals so that I can course correct and make changes if something isn’t going to plan.
I’ve also decided ahead of time how I am going to track my progress for each goal, so that I’m not scrambling each time I want need to check in.
Here are some ideas for how I’m tracking my progress:
I have a spreadsheet that outlines my monthly income and expenses (which is super handy at tax time, too!)
I have a spreadsheet for my analytics, monthly highlights and monthly reflections
I have a Trello board for tracking my leads and opportunities so I know what I need to follow up on
I have a Trello board for the content I create so I can easily repurpose things
I’m using Elise Joy’s annual tracker to track habit based goals
I’ve created a simple list for the books I’ve read
I know it won’t work for everyone tracking things in different places like this, but it works well for the types of goals I have and how often I’ll be checking in on them. I have everything set up ready to go ahead of time, and know exactly where it lives, so come January 1st, I’m ready to hit the ground running!
I’d love to hear how you track your goals and what you want to achieve in 2020. Let me know in the comments below!
Is one of your goals for 2020 to create a website you love that books you clients? If so, let’s chat! Book a free discovery call on the link below, and we can see how we can bring your website goals to life!
