Unlock The Power Of The 90 Day Business Plan

The Amazing Benefits Of The 90 Day Business Plan

Strategy & Planning

90-day business plan is the new trend on planning and for very good reasons. 90 days is short enough that you don’t lose focus but long enough that you can make significant progress towards your goals and aspirations. It’s really the perfect amount of time for a plan.

A lot of times we create detailed business plans at the beginning of the year with our strategies and tactics to get things done for the whole year, including timelines all the way through December. We spend so much of our time, manpower  and some times resources on this exercise. And then a few months or even weeks later, something changes and boom! all of a sudden we have new priorities! Those carefully crafted plans will have to be to be redone again.

Isn’t that crazy?!

In this fast-paced world, strategies or tactics that you decide on at the beginning of the year may be outdated a few months later. A better system is to create a very high-level annual plan and save the details for your 90 day plan. Breaking your annual plan into 90-day plans gives you the flexibility you need to achieve your goals.

A 90-day plan also helps you gain momentum. You don’t want to wait until the end of the year to see results, do you? No, you want to see success early in the year, and regularly, because that will keep you motivated to keep going.

Here’s the process I am following to create a 90-day plan for my business.

Review and reflect on the last 90 days

If you haven’t reviewed your progress, then that’s the place to start. Look back at the previous 90-day period. Which goals are on target and which do you need to focus on? Think about what’s working well and what needs improvement. Also, look at your plan from the last 3 months if you have any. Did you accomplish everything on your list?

One of the things to try, is to keep your plan in a place that you can easily access it. I usually write plans and most often will not refer back to it. 

I Forget it, and I don’t think I ever look at it again. As a result, I end up coming off as scattered and unfocused.

Now, I have resolved to keep my 90-day plan on a board, so it’s always just in front of me.

Your 90 day plan should be an extension of your annual plan

Once you’ve reviewed the last quarter, it’s time to take a look at your annual goals. Compare where you are now with what you need to accomplish the remainder of the year. By keeping an eye on your annual goals, you can adjust your quarterly plan as needed. Achieving your 90-day goals puts you on track to achieve your annual goals.

Tip

If you find yourself getting caught up in all the things you “have to do” each day, remember there is a big picture in your small business. 

However, you don’t have to include every category from your annual plan in your 90-day business plan. There may be areas that you are going to focus on more in the 1st quarter than the 3rd, etc. For example, launching a coaching program may be in your 3rd quarter plan, but your priority in the 1st quarter is to hire a Virtual assistant.

There may also be seasonal considerations in your planning. Are you going to take a break during the current 90 day period?  If so, an item on your 90-day plan might be to have enough blog posts and newsletters pre-written to cover the time that you are on vacation so that you can relax and enjoy yourself.

Get My Free 90-Day Goals Planner 

Don’t be afraid to include your personal goals in your plan

I’ve written before about my personal life when I started my business. I spent too many of my early years in business neglecting my personal life in favor of my business. I know that in order to achieve any thing that looks like a balance, I need to include non-business goals & strategies in my plans.

My plan includes physical goals, goals related to my home, christian life etc. I’ve done really well developing a routine for physical activity and I enjoy the time spent exercising. However, I know that’s a habit that is so easy for me to backslide on. It requires constant vigilance, so I continue to add it to my quarterly, monthly, and even daily plans.

Limit the projects that you focus on

Choose three business objectives to focus on in each 90-day plan. If you choose more than three business objectives, it will be very hard to stay focused. These should be your top priorities - the projects or initiatives that will really make sense in your business.

If you want to be even more focused, then go all-in on one objective for the quarter.

What is the one thing I can do right now, that by doing it everything else will become easier or unnecessary?

90 days is the perfect amount of time to focus on a high-value project. Think about the progress that you could make by picking ONE thing every quarter and really giving it your all!

Don’t forget about your personal development

When you’re in business for yourself, you can’t afford to ignore your skills. You must work to continually increase your marketing knowledge, learn new ways to help your clients or customers prosper, discover new technologies, attend trainings etc.

In fact, you could easily spend all your time learning and no time at all actually implementing what you learn. That’s a common time trap that many solopreneurs fall into, much to the detriment of their businesses!

The solution is to create and follow a personal development plan. I strongly encourage you to include one development objective in each 90-day plan. Have you purchased a course that you haven’t completed yet?  Or maybe there’s a business book that you want to read or listen to? A podcast you want to listen to? A training you have been postponing? Include that in your plan.

Be sure to include your action plans

A plan without action items is just an ordinary dream. After you determine your focused objectives for the quarter, break each one down into three to five action items. These should be major steps toward achieving your objective. Don’t be too detailed at this point or you may lose sight of the big things and settle for lesser things. And, of course, be sure to include due dates for each action item. Then, put it all in your task management system, whether that’s a paper planner, a spreadsheet, or an app 

PRO-TIP

Be sure to include a task to repeat this exercise every quarter.

How will you track your progress?

You need to be able to see what you’ve accomplished. There are lots of ways you could track your progress in a spreadsheet, on a printable sheet, in a notepad checklist, or an app. Choose a method that works for you.

I will most definitelyuse a printable sheet. I have a planner with annual and weekly goals, so I can see exactly where I stand.

My 90-day business plan is a printable one so that I can access all my projects and tasks. This is how I would stay on top of the major action items and day-to-day activities derived from my 90-day plan.

Download 90-Day My Goal and Action Planner

My 90 days planner is just few pages. Want a copy of My 90-Day Goal & Action Planner that walks you through each step? Then visit this post for a detailed walk-through of how to use the 90-Day Action Planner.

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