Did you have an absolutely crazy 2020 and don’t know how to start planning for 2021? Today’s podcast episode is all about how Cam plans out and preps her business for the new year! She teaches the steps that she went through at the end of 2020 and how her team is implementing the plans in 2021. 

As we all know, planning out your business is crucial to success. However, spending the time to plan and actually implementing the steps you need to take is the hardest part!  2019 was a pivotal year for our company because we planned and saw MAJOR growth. We honed in, scaled back our team a bit, hyper-focused on each branch of the business, and dreamed up plans of what we wanted to do next. This year, because we’ve all survived a crazy 2020, we want to walk you through every part of our company’s planning meeting! That being said, if you haven’t whipped out that notebook yet, now’s the time to do so! 

How to Plan for 2021

The very first thing we want you to do is to write down all the results you made happen in 2020. Everything that went well for your business! Then, write down all the places where you could use some improvement. We also suggest doing this for your personal life. We believe that taking the time to really look back and celebrate ourselves is just as important as deciding where we could improve!  Shoot, we made it through a global pandemic and that is definitely worth celebrating! 

Next, you’ll break down your business into sections. This could be by service or area of expertise. What you’ll do is write a pros and cons list of what went well specifically and want didn’t go so well in each section. You’ll want to define specifically what you offered in 2020 and what you plan to offer in 2021. Then, take a report of your sales-by-month along with the number of events you took on in those months. You’ll want to take a total of all events and the revenue, then create some averages. Then, while you’re talking sales, discuss how you will increase those sales this next year.

Once you’ve taken the time to look at each part of the business, you need to make a plan of action or a roadmap to get back on track by pulling out the results and room for improvement sections!

The last thing you’ll need to do is dream up what your team needs to look like at the end of next year with where you’re going. What are you doing in 2021 and what team do you need in order to get you there? With these teams, let’s look at some numbers. Look at what payroll expenses and overhead expenses look like for you and add 50% to that number (because we want to have a 50% margin on our business). That will give you your sales goal! So for easy math, let’s say your expenses monthly (your rent, utilities, software, and insurance) are $120,000 for the year on average. Then let’s say your payroll expenses are also $120,000 for the year. $240,000 plus 50% would be a sales goal of $360,000 for the year. We like to break it down by month, so if we divide that by 12, that means we need to bring in $30,000 in revenue every month on average to hit our sales goal of $360,000.

You can even utilize what’s happening in each of those months to determine where your revenue may come from! Between busy seasons, holidays, and various happenings each month, there’s usually something every month to market around. Below is a list of holidays that you could take into account when planning your monthly income:

Well, friends, we hope that you gained some perspective and knowledge around how you’ll plan for 2021! If you enjoyed this topic, we discuss it more in Episode 4, Plan to Succeed. Make sure to stay consistent and come back to these plans often to keep this top of mind. Plan for a monthly meeting to see where you’re at. Plan for a half-year planning meeting to see what has changed since you began your plan. You can do it! We believe in you. 

Joyfully, 

Brooke Hicks | Render Co.