5 Questions to Plan for a Successful 2020

50 days. Fifty days until a new decade begins and we roll into 2020. How crazy is that? 

November is the perfect time to start reviewing your year (or decade, if you’re really hardcore) and start planning for 2020 aka your best. biz. year. yet. Are you with me? 

I’m a big planner and organisation freak by nature and I’ll be the first to tell you that heading into a new year without a plan is like going to the grocery store without a list. You’ll get what you need eventually, but you’re likely to spend waaaay more time and money than you’d like to. 

So that’s why, in this blog post, I’m sharing with you 5 of the most important questions I ask myself every November as I start planning for the year ahead. This isn’t an in-depth yearly review & plan (I’ll be diving into that in December) but these are some important questions to get you started.

1. WHAT ARE MY NUMBERS?

The very first thing I look at are my finances. At the end of the day, we’re all trying to run a profitable business here so we need to ensure that our numbers align with our goals and expectations. 

I use Dubsado for all of my invoices and I actually categorise each service on the invoices, so that, at the end of the year, I can clearly see which category was most/least profitable.

Once you have an overview of your 2019 sales, you should ask yourself: 

• Am I happy with these numbers?
• Is this what I expected? 
• Are there any surprises?

Often times, we may think that we sold more of a service that we actually did. Or perhaps one of the services performed particularly well. In any case, you should ensure that your numbers align with your business goals. So if a service didn’t sell as much as you hoped for, maybe it’s time to look back at your marketing strategy and make some changes.

2. WHAT PROJECTS DID I HAVE THIS YEAR?

The next thing I look at are the projects I completed this year to see which were my most/least favourite projects and why. I ask myself:

• Where did my favourite clients come from? 
• How did I convert them from enquiry to client status? 
• What went particularly well? Or what could’ve been avoided? 
• Did I build a strong ongoing relationship with this client or do I need to work more on that? 

I like to analyse my past projects in-depth because there are toooons of interesting insights and patterns that you can discover as you do so. In fact, I tend to go as deep as reading through my email exchange with the clients and the proposals I sent them to really understand what was the client experience from a to z.

The goal is to keep on improving your process all the time and repeating the pattern you used to attract your best clients.

3. WHICH MARKETING EFFORTS WERE MOST SUCCESSFUL?

Did you run any campaigns this year? Used any strategies to grow your email list? Has any of your social media content performed particularly well? 

This is where you look at all the cool stuff you’ve done this year to market your business and figure out what went well and what was a flop. Some of the things you may consider are:

• Social media ads
• Organic social media content 
• Blog posts
• Guest blog posts
• Podcast interviews (your own podcast or if you were a guest on a podcast) 
• Virtual summits 
• Live events 
• Workshops (IRL or virtual) 
• Google Ads
• Email List Building strategies
• Etc. 

Take some time to analyse why some marketing efforts performed better than others and use the successful campaigns as an example of what to try more of in 2020. 

4. WHAT MISTAKES DID I MAKE IN MY BIZ THIS YEAR?

Now this is the time when you need to be very honest with yourself. We all make mistakes in our business and, unfortunately, sometimes these mistakes can be preeeetty big. But hey, it happens and I encourage you to look at these “oops moments” as opportunities for growth. 

In 2019, I had a big “oops moment”. The kind that cost me nearly £10,000, unnecessary stress and pressure, and legal action. I will tell you more about this when the air is fully cleared but I just wanna say that – it happens to all of us.

We can’t know everything and situations like these are important so that we can learn and grow in the process. So think about your “oops moment” of the year and think about what lessons can you take from this? How can you become better? What do you need to do to make sure it never happens again? 

5. WHAT LAUNCHES DO I HAVE PLANNED THIS YEAR?

Finally, a new year – means new awesome launches happening in your business! 

I have no doubt that you got plenty of great things up your sleeve, so time to put them all on paper and organise your time around it! Each launch requires a pre-launch strategy, and you also have to be mindful of your client load during this time.

I have a 12-months calendar up on my wall which is dedicated for blocking out launch periods and holidays, so that I know exactly when I can take on new client.

Here are the future launches I have on my calendar so far: 

• November 13th, 2019: Podcast Launch Squad Group goes live
• November 27th, 2019: The Create Connect Convert Podcast launches!
• January OFF from client work to focus on Signature Course building
• February 3rd, 2020: Begin Launch Strategy for my Signature Course
• March 3rd, 2020: Signature Course Launch 

Off to you now! Time to get planning all these amazing launches, friend! 
These 5 questions should set you on the right track for planning a truly transformational and successful 2020 and I can’t wait to see all the amazing things you will achieve.

I will be releasing an episode on the Create Connect Convert Podcast where I take you BTS of my in-depth planning for 2020 on December 3rd, 2019, so make sure to subscribe to my Coffee Chats if you want to plan with me (and get my free planning workbook!)