Things You’ll Learn in this Episode of Doing it Online:

• My 5 step process to plan your most epic year 
• How to map out your goals and most importantly turn them into actionable and achievable plans
• Download your FREE copy of my amazing planning spreadsheet at hellofreebies.co

Welcome to my 5 part mini series where I’ll help you plan out your most epic year yet!

This is a special planning process that I use in my own business which I find super useful and empowering…

And it’s worked really well for me! 

Which is why I also take my eCourse Empire clients through it to help them map out their goals and most importantly, to turn those goals into actionable and achievable plans. 

We do this in much more detail during our virtual CEO days, but in this series I’ll be walking you through the main 5 steps – so you can get yourself ready, excited and confident for the year ahead. 

Now, I know everyone has their own way of planning and goal setting, but just be warned…I’m a facts and figures girl. I like to set my goals based on real numbers not just plucked out of the air numbers.

Particularly when it comes to setting big sales goals or targets, I think it’s so much more powerful if that number actually means something AND you have a clear path for how you’re going to achieve it.

For example so many people have a goal of 100K… but what does that even mean?

To help you do this I’ve created an amazing planning spreadsheet that you can download right now (it’s totally free) at hellofreebies.co

Ok, ready?! Let’s plan your epic year right now!

Step #1 to plan your epic year – Create your budget

I can hear you yawning from here! 

But this isn’t just any budget – this is a specific 3 part process that makes setting your goals and your plans SO much easier and clearer.

Grab your spreadsheet and let’s get clear on your budget.  

Part #1 – Your personal baseline budget 

Consider what you need to take home from your business to cover all your current life expenses.  

Include your spending and your plans for the year (family holiday, getting married) so you can figure out your personal baseline budget. 

And don’t forget to add tax!

Part #2 – Your business baseline budget 

This includes your personal baseline salary above as one line item, as well as all your business expenses such as tech costs, team costs and any events you want to attend.

This number is your MINIMUM goal. This plus 20% is usually what I set as the first revenue goal for my clients’ funnels. 

Part #3 – Your dream budget 

You never want to AIM for the bottom…so work out your dream budget.

Think about the things you want to achieve in the next few years…

• Bringing on another team member…add that
• Moving to a bigger house…how much extra is that?
• Is there a big family holiday you want or to upgrade your car? 
• Don’t forget savings! Plan for how much you’d like to put aside. 

So this will give you the exact figure of how much your business needs to bring in for you to have all of the things that you want.

Now this may be bigger or smaller than you thought, but either way it’s so much more meaningful to know exactly how much your dream life costs and not just aim for some random number.

Step #2 to plan your epic year – Set your goals

It’s time to choose your goal for the next 12 months – and then breaking it down to find out exactly what you need to do to make it happen. 

In the spreadsheet, open up tab #2 (the budget tab) and pop in a goal number that is feeling good right now. This is your starting point and will be somewhere between that baseline and your dream life number from step 1.

From there you’ll be able to see how many sales you need to make in the next 12 months to be able to hit that number. 

So if you have just one offer then it’s easy – divide your goal by the price (just do the full price or the average annual spend if you have a recurring offer)

If you have more than one offer then it’s good to know what the split of sales was over the last 12 months (was it 20% one product, 50% another etc)

Put all these details into your spreadsheet and it’ll start to tell you just how many sales you need to make to hit that goal.

And personally this is where I like to play a little bit to find that sweet spot of a number for something that feels exciting, a stretch but still possible. 

But you don’t stop there.

Next you need to go one level deeper and see what that number breaks down into – so not just how many sales needed in total but also the number:

• Per launch
• Of launches
• Of sales through your funnels. 

So that is what tab #3 is all about. 

You’ll see one section for launches, and it’s pretty simple for each month you’re planning a launch, just pop in the estimated number of sales you’re expecting to make of that offer .

For example: If in January you’re planning a launch for offer #1 and you estimate you’ll make 20 sales in that launch, pop in 20 there and so on.

And then repeat the same for any funnels you currently have. Put in the average number of sales you make in your funnels each month.

Or if you’re planning to add a funnel, choose a month when you’re aiming to have your funnel up and running and add it in there.

And if you’re not sure what that number would be – usually 2% of your new subscribers each month is the approx number of sales you’ll get through your funnel.

It might sound a bit complicated, but it’s honestly the best way to start to really see what this goal actually means and how you can achieve it.

And if you need to adjust your goal up or down now you’ve seen it broken down, go for it! That’s the whole point of this process, to make sure not only are your goals meaningful, but they feel exciting and achievable too.

Step #3 to plan your epic year – Make it happen!

It’s time to take those goals and turn them into plans.

Plans that actually happen.

The best way to do that is to add them to your calendar. 

It’s totally up to you how you do this or the tools you use. 

We use ClickUp for our task management and our calendar, but you can use Asana, Trello, Google Calendar or even straight into a physical calendar. 

Whatever is going to work for you – do that!

The task today is to take your launches that you’ve got planned and put them into your calendar. 

Map out:

• The key dates of your launches (challenge dates, open cart, close cart etc)
• The pre-launch prep work such as setting up all the tech
• The post-launch work including when you will actually run your program if it’s live
• Double check any key holidays for your clients, this includes school holidays and holidays in different countries
• Your own holidays
• Planning days 
• And most importantly – times of rest and down time. 

This is all about creating an epic year where you kick some goals – but doing it in a way that serves you and is enjoyable.

Step #4 to plan your epic year – Choose 3 holes or habits

Now it’s all about making sure you have the skills, support and HABITS you need to make your epic year happen.

It’s usually at this point in the planning process that stuff starts to come up. You’ve sat down and mapped out the plans and goals for your epic year…and then the self doubt starts to creep in.

Can you actually achieve these epic goals you’ve planned?

So it’s this point of the planning process that’s really key. 

It’s one thing to know the numbers and put dates in a calendar…but if you really want the outcome of this year to be different to last year…then you need to grow too!

You can’t keep doing the things you’ve always done and expect a different result – that’s the definition of insanity. 

This part of the planning process is about identifying and finding solutions to the “holes” that are in your business AND thinking about some habits that would be beneficial to you and your business.

So let’s start with holes – these are the gaps in your business and could look like:

• You have to bring on 200 new clients to reach your goals but if you do, you won’t be able to keep up with the customer service – so your hole would be you need to bring on some team
• To do the launches that you want to do, you need to be really good at webinars, but right now you’re not – so your hole is that you’ll need to learn more about webinars – we teach this in eCourse Empire *wink wink*
• You make all these plans but you always seem to self-sabotage yourself and never follow through with your plans – so your hole would be your around your mindset and perhaps you need to bring on a coach to support you and cheer you on

When you identify these holes you’re allowing yourself and your business to grow. 

So include the solutions to these holes in your planning for next year.

Next up is habits. Layering habits into your life can make such a huge difference.  

To make the necessary changes to help you reach your goals…you need to turn your to-dos into habits. Instead of trying to nail them all in one go…add them in one at a time.

It’s a matter of breaking down your goals so they’re achievable and not so overwhelming.

If you know you should be sending more regular emails to your list, commit to a habit of sending one email a week to your list for the next month. Then figure out how to make that habit as easy as possible for you to follow through on – with systems, reminders, hiring a VA etc

Once you’ve got the hang of that first habit…add another!

Other business habits could look like:

• Tracking your sales every day
• Having a regular team meeting
• Quarterly planning sessions for your content

So pick 2-3 holes and habits to start with and get them your diary and commit to them. Once you’ve nailed those…add 2-3 more!

Step #5 to plan your epic year – Reward

This is my favourite part of the planning process.

I think it’s so important when you’re planning a big juicy goal (of any kind) to also set yourself (and your team) some kind of reward.

You’ll know what motivates you the most, but I’m sure you’ll agree that hitting a goal is one thing…but hitting a goal knowing that you’re then allowed to go out and buy yourself a new handbag totally guilt free…that’s next level!

It doesn’t have to be an expensive reward – it could be taking some time off or going to get your nails done.

It’s that gold star, that pat on the back you need as a business owner. 

This is an important ritual where you get to celebrate what you’ve achieved – your wins and your progress. How you choose to structure your reward system for yourself and your team is totally up to you.

So there you have it! My 5 part series to help you plan your epic year! Don’t forget to download my FREE planning spreadsheet at hellofreebies.co I hope it’s super useful when you’re sitting down to plan your year ahead.