You sit down to plan for 2027. Pretty soon, you’ve got a list of projects, hires, marketing ideas, and things you’ve been meaning to fix since June. Now you have to decide what comes first.
When I’m planning for a new year, I look at four areas: offers, growth, fulfillment, and operations. They help me see how the whole business is working before I decide what to change.
Four areas to review in your annual business plan
Offers. Look at what you sell today. Which offers deserve more attention next year? Which ones need some work, and which ones would you be better off letting go?
Growth. Look at how you market and sell those offers. If you’re the only one taking sales calls, a few well-qualified appointments may be more useful than a long list of leads you can’t get to. If you have a team of reps, you need enough opportunities for them to work. Build your marketing around how your sales team is set up.
Fulfillment. Follow the customer from the moment they buy. Who takes over after the sale? How do you get the customer started? Look at where the handoff gets messy and what might be keeping customers from staying.
Operations. Look at what keeps the business running behind the scenes: your team, technology, and finances. Pay attention to the work that still stops when you’re the only person who can make a decision.
Decide what needs your attention first
Your Business Blueprint will change as the business grows. The plan that gets you from $500,000 to $1 million will look different from the one that gets you from $1 million to $3 million. You can use the same four areas to see what the business needs at either stage.
During your next thinking time session, rate each area from one to ten. Write down why you gave it that score. The lowest score is worth a closer look, but I’d start where an improvement would make the biggest difference.
Here’s a question to take into the weekend:
Which of these four areas would make the biggest difference in your business if you improved it before 2027?
If you’re having trouble deciding where to start, book a Game Plan Call. We’ll look at where your business is today, where you want to take it, and which gap to address first.
