3-Steps to Plan Next Year’s Growth

Business

Oh it’s THAT time of the year. No, not last minute gift shopping, Christmas carols, or copious amounts of tamales.

It’s the most AMAZING time of the year: we get to finalize our 2025 business plans!

Next week JD and I are headed to Deer Valley, Utah to meet with teammates to lock in our objectives, growth plan, and timelines.

But I know I’m not alone. In fact, this past week I worked with three 7-figure entrepreneurs to help outline HOW to do this, and WHAT to prioritize.

While I won’t get into the specifics of those conversations, I will spill the tea on the common themes and how you can apply them as you plan for 2025 growth.

1. BRAIN DUMP – In order to feel hopeful and optimistic about business growth, you need to get it out of your head and onto paper. Once you released all of your ideas, initiatives, projects (IIP), rank them on a scale from 1-10 (10 being most important).

2. RANK – Focus on the items of your brain dump that are ranked 6 and above. Make a new list with just these IIPs.

3. PRIORITIZE – This is the most important part. The order in which you accomplish your IIPs will have a significant impact on your goals. Let’s break this down into three main considerations…

a. Order of Effectiveness

i. Last week I consulted with a saas founder who wanted to focus on growth initiatives, but I suggested they focus on decreasing churn before expanding. When people are unsubscribing from their business, it’s a clear sign there’s a leak in their bucket. If we could shrink the size of the leak, the expansion efforts will be far more effective (as it impacts the Life Time Value).

ii. Now let’s talk about what this means for you: When you prioritize your IIPs according to the order of effectiveness (what should happen first for optimized results), your efforts are more effective toward your goals.

b. Time of Deployment

i. I spoke with another 7-figure founder who had five major initiatives in her business, but didn’t know which to prioritize (as they were all equally important). One of the initiatives was to expand her business cycle. They were running on a 16-week business cycle, but their team was burnt out, they weren’t lead-building at the rate they needed to, and they had no time to expand their vision. I asked if they could expand their business cycle from 16 to 18 weeks, without it impacting cash flow. The answer? Yes. In a matter of minutes, we added 2 weeks to their business cycle, with clear objectives for more time focused on recuperation, lead-building, and vision expansion.

ii. Now let’s talk about what this means for you: Can any of your IIPs be accomplished in a manner of minutes, by adjusting the timeline? If so, start there.

c. Cost

i. Before you establish IIPs, ensure you have an updated cash flow projection. When I consulted with a 7-figure e-comm entrepreneur, we identified that—based on their inventory investments—they had to reprioritize their IIPs simply because there wouldn’t be enough cash on hand until inventory orders were fulfilled.

ii. Now let’s talk about what this means for you: While your Profit&Loss statement is important for your IIPs, your growth plans must also be anchored to your cash flow. Ensure that you’re working on IIPs that your cash flow can support.

I hope this helps as you plan for the new year.

I’ll be creating a vlog about our planning retreat (yup, you can be in the room with us!), so be sure to keep your eyes peeled on my YouTube channel for its release.

In the meantime, feel free to check out these vlogs:

Sending you so much love as you build your business plans…and sing Christmas carols.

We all sound like Mariah Carey with the volume high enough,

j*