Good morning and happy New Year. It’s early January, that moment when everyone feels fired up and convinced this is the year everything clicks. That enthusiasm is great. The problem is what usually follows. We dive in, start fixing things, and burn through that burst of energy before February even arrives.
So Alison and I spent this episode talking about how to slow down just enough to plan the right way.
Not the flashy kind. The useful kind.
Good morning and happy New Year. It’s early January, that moment when everyone feels fired up and convinced this is the year everything clicks. That enthusiasm is great. The problem is what usually follows. We dive in, start fixing things, and burn through that burst of energy before February even arrives.
So Alison and I spent this episode talking about how to slow down just enough to plan the right way.
Not the flashy kind. The useful kind.
The biggest mistake I see every year is business owners choosing action before clarity. Planning feels like a delay when momentum feels urgent. But without a plan, momentum turns into exhaustion. Fast.
We broke planning into four buckets, because lumping everything together is where people stall.
First is the operating plan. This is the unglamorous backbone of your business. How the business runs day to day. Who handles what. Where the work comes from. How money gets tracked. What happens if you are not there tomorrow. If the business only works because you personally hold it together, that’s not a business. That’s a very stressful job.
Even if you skipped this step at the beginning, there is real value in going back and writing it down. Not to impress a banker. To make the business less fragile. The key is treating it as a living document. Something you revisit, laugh at, revise, and improve instead of filing away like an old MBA assignment.
Next is the strategic plan, and this is where things shift. Strategy is not a wish list. It means choosing what matters most this year and letting everything else wait its turn. When we built ours, we did it as a team. We looked at where the business stood, where we wanted it to go, and identified the gaps. Then we turned those gaps into specific actions with owners attached.
That’s the difference. Big goals mean nothing without short, concrete actions someone owns. Saying you want more revenue is not a goal. Deciding how many new customers you need and what you will do each week to reach them is.
A solid strategic plan also gives you a filter. When the next shiny idea appears, and it always does, you can ask one simple question. Does this move us toward our goals or does it distract us? Not every good idea belongs in your business right now.
Then we moved into financial planning, which does not need to feel intimidating. It means taking your budget, projecting it across the year, and checking in monthly to see how reality compares. With today’s accounting tools, flying blind is a choice.
You do not run a business by glancing at your bank balance and hoping for the best. You need to know what you earn, what you spend, how long clients take to pay, and what losing one major account would actually do to your business. If one client disappearing would cause panic, that’s not bad luck. That’s a planning issue.
And finally, my favorite, the marketing plan.
Marketing never exists in isolation. It connects directly to strategy and finances. Who your customer is. What they care about. Where they pay attention. And why you show up there.
One of the most common mistakes business owners make is believing they can stop marketing once things go well. Customers age out. Markets shift. Familiarity fades. Marketing is not a faucet you turn on and off without consequences.
Balance matters. New customer marketing takes time and money. Trust does not appear overnight. Marketing to existing customers often costs less, works faster, and produces better results. And yes, your time counts as a marketing expense even if no invoice exists.
Timing matters too. Marketing rarely pays off immediately. There is always a lag. Stop too soon and you miss the return. Expect instant results and you decide nothing works. The only way through that tension is regular review and thoughtful adjustments, not dramatic course changes.
The thread running through all of this is simple. Planning does not predict the future. It supports better decisions today and creates room to adapt without chaos.
Lay a foundation. Choose clear goals. Review them often. And stop trying to do everything at once.
That’s how enthusiasm turns into progress instead of burnout.
