An alternative approach to a year-long action plan for designers
As a business analyst and pricing manager, August wasn't the time for the summer holidays.
Instead, it was budgeting season for the upcoming year. I vividly remember nights spent crunching numbers, setting targets for each month and determining how much revenue each month should come from each of our 7 target markets, countless iterations, unexpected adjustments of a few 100K, the endless discussions to get all departments on board. And let's not forget the nerve-wracking presentations to top-level execs. Phew, it was quite the process!
After more than 20 times of going through this rigorous budgeting routine, I thought it was the only way to operate. So, when I started my own design business, I naturally carried over the same rigid planning mindset. After all, it had been drilled into me for so long. But little did I know, it was a recipe for frustration and burnout.
I learned the hard way that rigid planning in our creative businesses can quickly become suffocating. It can make us feel like quitting and drain the joy out of what we love to do.
But here's the good news—I found a better way to plan, one that keeps our creative spirit alive and our businesses thriving.
In this blog, let's shine a light on the risks lurking behind those meticulously crafted year-long plans and explore how we can strike the perfect balance between structure and flexibility in our planning process.
We're breaking this up into 4 different sections:
The drawbacks of planning for a full year
What to do instead of planning for the whole year
How to implement this approach
Finding the right balance between structure and flexibility is key to unlocking the true potential of your design studio.
The drawback of planning for a full year
Picture this: you, as a passionate designer, invest a significant amount of time into creating a plan to drive revenue growth for the upcoming year. Your main focus? A new service that you believe will be a game-changer for your business.
As the year begins, you pour your heart and soul into creating this new service, meticulously planning your marketing strategies and setting ambitious revenue goals. You're excited, envisioning the impact this launch will have on your bottom line for the rest of the year. But then, something unexpected happens—the program falls short of generating the buzz you anticipated, and no one buys it.
The designer in this scenario? Me.
As a pricing manager in my previous corporate career, missing budget targets wasn't the end of the world. But as a business owner, it hits differently.
When I planned my whole year in advance and failed to achieve my Q1 targets, self-doubt started creeping in. I questioned my abilities and wondered if I was cut out for running my own business.
The weight of responsibility as a business owner is immense. Every success and setback directly impacts our bank accounts and our sense of self-worth. It's a different ballgame altogether.
After my failed launch, I found myself feeling demotivated and on the verge of giving up on my business.
It took a good few months before I picked myself up and refused to let self-doubt define my journey. I realised that a strategic plan doesn't have to be an inflexible roadmap. It can be a guiding compass that allows for adjustments along the way.
Since then, I've connected with countless designers who have faced similar challenges.
They've poured their hearts into launching passive income ideas, believing that it would be the answer to growing their revenue. Yet, they faced disappointment when those ideas fell flat because there was no audience to sell them to or because the audience was not looking for the product they launched.
But there is a different way. By finding a balance between strategic planning and flexibility, you can embrace the ever-evolving demands of your business while staying true to your goals.
And if you've experienced setbacks or doubts in your journey, know that you're not alone. We're in this together.
What to do instead of planning for the whole year
Let's talk about an interesting phenomenon I've observed in business—the tendency to swing to the opposite extreme when things aren't going as planned. It's a natural reaction, but I would advise a more balanced approach.
When faced with the frustrations of rigidly planning a year ahead, some entrepreneurs decide to throw planning out the window entirely. But here's the thing—without clear goals and objectives, how do you know what to focus on? How can you ensure that your business will be a success and make the desired contribution to your family?
Instead of abandoning planning altogether, let's consider a different path—one that combines:
shorter planning horizons,
milestone-based approaches
and the courage to embrace change.
This approach allows you to navigate unexpected challenges and seize new opportunities that can propel your design studio forward.
Now, let's dive into an alternative scenario that highlights the power of flexibility and adaptation.
Picture this: You, as a designer, have set a bold financial target for the year. Determined to achieve it, you meticulously map out the steps required to reach that goal. You set specific milestones, develop detailed strategies, and create a comprehensive plan.
But here's where you're going to do it a little bit differently—instead of planning every detail for the entire year, you create a strategic outline that includes your objective (the financial target) and the main areas you need to focus on to achieve it. Then, you zoom in and create a detailed plan for the first quarter, leaving room for flexibility and adaptation in the subsequent months based on the results of the first quarter.
By focusing on detailed planning for the first quarter, you lay a solid foundation for success. This allows you to align your resources, set clear targets, and establish a roadmap that leads to your objective. But here's the key—beyond that first quarter, you embrace the freedom to adapt. You remain open to change, emerging trends, and new opportunities that may arise.
This balanced approach combines the power of structure and flexibility. It empowers you to respond effectively to the ever-changing demands of your business, making it more resilient, dynamic, and capable of achieving the success you're looking for.
By finding the harmony between detailed planning and adaptability, you set yourself up for growth, innovation, and long-term sustainability.
How to implement this approach
Let's dive into the practical steps for implementing a short-term planning and milestone-based approach that will set your design business up for success, while still maintaining a clear strategic plan for the full year.
Step 1: Set your overall business objective and turn this into a financial target
Think about the big picture and define your objective. An example of a business objective that I think many designers will be able to relate to is creating regular and predictable income that covers all your financial needs.
Next is that you'll need to quantify your target. What amount do you need to cover all of your financial needs? If you don't know this yet (don't worry with most of my clients we need to do a bit of digging to get this clear) check out my articles on having a finance routine, the 4 key pieces your Design Studio needs and how to create a revenue budget as a design studio.
If you know your targets but want an easy way to track your revenue? Have a look at this article where I dive into How to track your revenue in ClickUp as a designer
Step 2: Set your priorities to reach your business objective
I've watched many designers have goals that are based on things they like to work on like creating a new offer or starting with passive income products like website templates because that is still very closely related to things you would do for clients.
But you need to focus on what your business needs, rather than simply what you enjoy working on.
Therefore based on the objective you'll need to ask yourself what elements of your business you need to focus on to reach the objective. This could be:
Brand strategy
Visibility
Audience growth
Content creation
Sales process
Service creation
Systems and processes
Business model
Below is an example from my business plan for 2023. This is one of the 3 priorities I had set, which was then broken up into 3 goals to improve the quality of the programs that I offer. Each goal has a few steps that will help me to achieve the goal.
Strategic Priority 3 = Improve the quality of the mentor program and Dubsado/ClickUp done-with-you setup programs
Create resources for all 3 services
Determine the top 3 most important resources for all 3 services
Determine what needs to be done to create each resource
Plan in time in the schedule to create resources
Improve onboarding process
Determine how the onboarding process for each service can be improved
Determine what needs to be created per service
Plan in time in the schedule to create resources
Improve my knowledge about the systems that I offer
Pass novice, intermediate and expert ClickUp exams
Go through Dubsado University again and complete Dubsado for beginners & Intermediate and advanced courses
When I added this into ClickUp I added even more steps to break this down into actionable steps that I can plan into my calendar.
Ideally, you would pick a maximum of 3 focus areas that would have the biggest impact on you achieving your objective, otherwise, you'll add way too much to your yearly planning which will only leave you feeling like you're not able to complete all those tasks that you're supposed to.
Step 3: Plan the first quarter in detail
If you follow the above steps, you will have 3 priorities and 6 to 9 goals you want to achieve for the upcoming year or 12 months. Next is to determine the order in which you'll tackle these goals based on their importance and any dependencies.
In the personal example I shared above I could work on any of the 3 goals in any order as none of them is dependent on the other.
But if you want to launch website templates but your design projects mainly come through referrals, one of your priorities for Q1 would be to grow your visibility so that you have a large enough audience to sell to instead of creating the website templates.
There is a lot that comes with growing your visibility like creating a marketing plan, a content plan, narrowing down the topics you talk about on social media etc so this would be a great focus for Q1. This builds up the audience for the templates but also allows you to sell your design projects for Q1.
Then instead of already planning for a launch of the website templates in Q2, you will let the results of your audience growth goal determine your focus for Q2. If the growth goes according to plan you can start the build of the templates in April and launch in June. But if it is going slower than hoped, you continue with audience growth in Q2.
To me, this is the balance between structure and flexibility. You have not abandoned setting a business objective and priorities because it did not work the previous time and you still have a strategic plan in place. But as nothing was set in stone in terms of dates, you're flexible in the execution of the strategy to make sure your business or audience is where it needs to be to have a successful launch.
Step 4: Allocate dedicated time in your weekly schedule
Execution is key! And that is exactly why a lot of designers' growth is stagnant. If you only work on business development tasks when you have time left, the chance you will reach your goals is quite slim.
Block off specific time in your weekly schedule to work on your business objectives.
Make it a priority to focus on tasks that will move the needle forward, before diving into client work. This might require a mindset shift, but it's crucial for success.
I have a few articles that can help you to structure your week and how to determine what to work on in your time blocks that can help with this:
Step 5: Planning for the next quarter
I quickly mentioned an example of how the results of Q1 will determine your focus for Q2 but you shouldn't wait until the end of the quarter to evaluate your progress. Instead:
Implement a weekly planning session to review what you've been able to accomplish in the past week and make adjustments to your schedule for the coming week.
Implement a monthly review process to ask yourself monthly review questions, track your metrics, update your financials, review your goals and plan ahead for the next month
Have a process in place of what you'll do when ideas pop up that are not tasks or not priorities & where you will store them
Use a system like ClickUp to manage these processes. Like being able to drag and drop tasks into your time blocks
Finding the right balance between structure and flexibility is key to unlocking the true potential of your design studio.
By following these steps and staying committed to the process, you'll find a powerful balance between structure and flexibility. Your strategic plan will guide you while allowing room for adaptation based on client feedback, and current results.
Remember, it's not about abandoning planning altogether or swinging to the opposite extreme. It's about finding the harmony between structure and flexibility, allowing you to adapt, innovate, and seize new opportunities.
And you're not alone in this journey. Reach out for support if you feel you can not look at your business objectively, have blind spots or limiting beliefs, or can be in your own way. All you have to do is book a free mentor session so that you can get a feel of what it would be like to have me as your mentor.
With this new approach, your design business will become more resilient, dynamic, and capable of achieving remarkable success. Embrace the journey of growth, stay committed to your objectives, and never lose sight of your passion and creativity.
You've got this!
Stephanie
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