If you’re like so many online entrepreneurs I talk with, you are most likely a planner. And this season of planning is one of my favorites all year long. Today I want to chat about the benefits of planning, and then how I put planning into action in my business based on everything I learned over the years of running marketing teams.

1. Saves you time by keeping you focused

• Studies show that 1 hour of planning will save you 10 hours of doing.
• That’s a great ROI for your time, and if you weren’t taking planning seriously before, hopefully this stat will help you create a planning habit for yourself.

2. Keeps your business moving forward

• Set goals to push boundaries and gives us space to think about what’s possible

3. Know what’s working

• Gives us something to benchmark against
• Often I find if you’re not sure if something is working, it’s because you didn’t have a plan that included goals of what working means to you

How to put planning into action:

Annual

• Revenue Goals + Budget > Impact Goals [there’s more about this in episode 10]
• High-level calendar - launches!

Quarterly

• Budget review
• Weekly Content - set topics for the next quarter [learn how to put together a content calendar in episode 5]
• Social media themes assigned daily [don’t use themes in your business yet? Check out the details in my social media guide]
• Lead magnet review

Monthly

• Batch schedule for content creation:  Podcast, Lead magnets, Emails, Social media captions & graphics
• Check analytics:  what’s working and what’s not, what’s popular

Weekly

• Schedule social content
• Assign daily “top 3” tasks: projects + admin

Daily

• Review schedule for day and adjust if needed
• Check in on emails twice a day (morning and evening)
• Spend time engaging with others on social: 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes in the middle of the day and 15 minutes at the end of the day

Want to start the year off strong? This workshop is a can’t miss! You can learn more and register at www.kristin-miller.com/workshop.