Learn how to effectively plan your year with this 5-Step process to reach your business goals.

You’re experiencing a drought when it comes to creating content every day, you lack the traffic and buzz to fill your new online course, and you’re so busy with the administration of your business you lack time to market effectively, What Do You Do?

First, you’re not alone and Second, I can help you solve this because I’ve been there and my clients have been there too.

The reason it’s happening is you lack a road map and traveling buddies. Let me explain…

For years, I planned the editorial calendar for my blog but neglected to map out my financial path. This led to sporadic income and stress from not knowing where my next client was coming from.

Having a road map that clearly showed where I was going, when I needed to refuel, and where the rest stops were, would have helped immensely. Having a few solid (and fun) traveling buddies would have helped too.

The best way to fix your content drought, lack of traffic and students and lack of marketing time is a road map. You can pick up traveling buddies along the way. Grab a pen and paper or PRINT the PDF of this post.

If You’re Ready to Find the Time to Effectively Market Your Business by Driving Traffic to Your Online Course, filling it with Eager Students Ready to Learn, All While Creating New Content Every Day, Pay Attention and Follow These 5 Steps to Your Personal RoadMap.

Case Study: Personal Development Coach Goes from Overwhelm and Stuck to Clarity

Effectively Plan Your Year Quick Links

• Step 1: Plan Your Yearly - The Big Picture
• Step 2: Plan Your Monthly - Breaking It Down
• Step 3: Plan Your Weekly - A Sigh of Relief
• Step 4: Plan Your Daily - I Can Do This
• Step 5: Action It, Toss It, or Delegate It

In this example, my client is a personal development coach. She wants to fill 15 spots for her course which she runs three times per year. She uses Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter for social promotion. She also participates in Twitter Chat interviews, Podcasts, Guest Blogging, and Webinars or Workshops. Her yearly financial goal is $135,000.

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Step 1: Effectively Plan Your Yearly Goals

Have a big picture view of your entire year helps to see where you’re going, what needs to be prepared or outsourced, and who you need to contact. Adding your personal time, administration days, and vacation days eliminates any conflicting appointments PLUS you stay happy, healthy, and sane.

• Grab a yearly Calendar (you can create custom yearly, monthly, and weekly printable PDF calendars HERE)
• Mark all your days off including holidays, family days, personal days, events, conferences, and business administration days
• Add your financial goals ($135,000/year)
• Add your enrollment goals (45 students or 15 students per session)
• Content goals (24 Blog Posts, 12 Guest Posts, 3,650 Tweets, 1460 Facebook posts, 12 LinkedIn Articles and 365 posts)

When Setting GOALS, Look at the BIG PICTURE #productivity #smallbiz Click To Tweet

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Don’t want to read the entire post? Here are my recommended people:

• Traffic strategy - Michelle Shaeffer
• Filling up your Online course - Jeanine Blackwell
• Time Management and Productivity - Tammy Bjelland

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Step 2: Effectively Plan Your Monthly Goals

When my client first came to me she was overwhelmed and stuck by her yearly outlook. I do the same thing when I don’t break things up, in fact, this was the case as I was planning my 2017 until I broke it down.

Can you believe after 9-years of being online, this is the first year I actually broke this down for myself? Just because I can do this for others, doesn’t mean I do it for myself.

I told my client to take a deep breath, grab a cup of warm tea, and walked her through breaking her year down.

• Grab a monthly Calendar (you can create custom yearly, monthly, and weekly printable PDF calendars HERE)
• Add all appointments, promotional events (podcasts, Twitter chats, guest posts, interviews), Facebook Live Events, email promotions, Webinars/Workshops etc.
• Add your financial goals ($11,250/month)
• Add your enrollment goals (3 new students/month)
• Content goals (2 Blog Posts [3,000 words each], 1 Guest Post [3,000 words], 305 Tweets, 122 Facebook posts, 1 LinkedIn Article [2,000 words] and 30 posts)

OVERWHELMED? Stuck? Learn how breaking goals into smaller pieces helps relieve stress Click To Tweet

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Step 3: Effectively Plan Your Weekly Goals

Still a little overwhelmed, I walked her through breaking down her goals even further. Take a look at how her weekly goals below. Don’t you think they are more manageable? When you effectively plan your goals into smaller and smaller pieces, your overwhelm diminishes. You’re able to see that you CAN reach your goals.

• Grab a weekly calendar (you can create custom yearly, monthly, and weekly printable PDF calendars HERE)
• Add all appointments, promotional events (podcasts, Twitter chats, guest posts, interviews), Facebook Live Events, email promotions, Webinars/Workshops etc.
• Financial goals ($2,616/week)
• Enrollment goals (~ 1 new student per week)
• Content goals (Blog- 1,395 words, Guest post – 700 words, 71 Tweets, 28 Facebook posts, LinkedIn Article – 500 words, 7 LinkedIn Posts)

Are Your GOALS manageable? Here's how PLANNING your week helps Click To Tweet

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Step 4: Effectively Plan Your Daily Goals

When I heard her sigh of relief, I knew I was on to something. Breaking her goals down even further peaked her curiosity (and mine). What does this look like on a daily basis?

• Grab a daily calendar (you can create custom yearly, monthly, and weekly printable PDF calendars HERE)
• Add all appointments, promotional events (podcasts, Twitter chats, guest posts, interviews), Facebook Live Events, email promotions, Webinars/Workshops etc.
• Financial goals $375/day
• Enrollment goals (~ ½ student per day) ^_^
• Content goals (Blog – 200 words, Guest post – 100 words, 10 Tweets, 4 Facebook Posts, LinkedIn article – 70 words, 1 LinkedIn Post)

BREATHE a sigh of relief by breaking down big goals into manageable daily goals Click To Tweet

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Step 5: Action It, Toss It, or Delegate It

This step might just be the most important one in this whole process. Now that she is able to see clearly exactly how to get to her financial goal, her course enrollment goal, and her content goal, I walked her through ways she can eliminate some of these tasks. She looked at me and said, “Is that possible?”

Below is the rubric we used to evaluate each task:

1. Action It - Do it yourself
2. Toss It - Get rid of it or Save for another time
3. Delegate It - Assign it to someone else or outsource it

In her case, she chose to write her blog posts, articles, and guest posts. She also is the only one responsible for teaching her course and making the money. After a bit of mulling over what is necessary and unnecessary, she decided to eliminate a few events off of her calendar.

Sometimes, even if something is great, like a conference of like minded personal development coaches, you have to weigh the opportunity cost. In the big picture view, is it worth it? Can it be postponed? Is a similar option available that better suits you? These are hard questions that need to be asked.

Finally, she outsourced all of her social promotion and some content creation. She also decided to let go of researching podcasts and Twitter Chats herself. She hired someone to do this for her as well as manage her calendar.

Learning to delegate and even tossing something aside is tough for control freaks and those who believe they MUST do everything themselves. Luckily, there are people who love do set up systems and strategies, like Elna Cain. She wrote a guest post for Blogging Wizard on How to Delegate Better.

#PRODUCTIVITY Tip: Action It, Toss It, or Delegate It Click To Tweet

Conclusion

My client almost reached her financial goal of $135,000 last year. Her first class didn’t fill up as she’d hoped (-7 students) and her last class was just 2 shy of her 15 student goal. In my eyes, she succeeded.

Let’s Review

You’re experiencing a drought when it comes to creating content every day, you lack the traffic and buzz to fill your new online course, and you’re so busy with the administration of your business you lack time to market effectively, What Do You Do?

The best way to fix your content drought, lack of traffic and students and lack of marketing time is a road map. You can pick up traveling buddies along the way.

• Map Your Year
• Map Your Month
• Map Your Week
• Map Your Day
• Action It, Toss It, or Delegate It

This looks like an easy process fit into 5 steps but it does take some thought and time. If you’d like help with the process, book a discovery call with me. I’ll be glad to strategize with you.