I’m a sucker for motivational quotes. And there’s one that always pops up around year-end for me.

A dream written down with a date becomes a GOAL.

A goal broken down into steps becomes a PLAN.

A plan backed by ACTION makes your dream come true.

While I love a great Pinterest board (so much) there are few quotes that I actually find myself resonating with. That last one, however, is definitely a big one — and using it in my business to plan out both monthly and yearly goals has been incredibly helpful. After all, goal setting is key to any entrepreneur. When you look at the process in those major pieces (goals, plans, and actions), those monthly and yearly goals all start to seem much more reachable.

As we enter this new year, I mapped a very clear plan to ensure my goals become a reality. Key phrase here? Very. Clear. Plan. If you’re looking to have your most productive year yet, here’s how I’ve planned 2021’s yearly goals.

The Benefits Of Planning Your Yearly Goals Ahead Of Time

If 2020 taught us ANYTHING, it’s that you simply cannot control time. No matter how much of a think-ahead kind of entrepreneur you might be, there’s no reading the crystal ball when it comes to life. However, there are huge benefits to taking the time to plan out your yearly goals in advance anyways. 

While they might change and mold throughout the year (and probably should), laying your goal framework ahead of time is key to intention in Q1 and in Q4. By planning ahead, you can make sure that your yearly goals lead you into alignment with your business — which is all we can really ask for.

How To Plan Your Yearly Goals For This Year

1. Review the Previous Year

You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been, right? Before you can start planning, take a look at how your business did the previous year. What were your revenue sources? How much did your email list grow in the past year and what brought in the most leads? How much gross profit did you earn? What were your total expenses and what did you spend on? How did each of your campaigns and launches do? (If you’re just starting your business and don’t have any previous metrics to serve as your baseline, set everything to zero and move onto the next step)

Once you have your numbers, ask yourself which of your efforts felt easy? Which felt hard? What did you love creating and working on? What do you never want to do again?

Compiling and taking note of this data before you plan can help you shape your upcoming year more intentionally and approach your planning more realistically and authentically so you’re planning things you actually want to be working on, things that feel right for your business, and also attach realistic numbers to each of your efforts to hit (and blow out of the water).

2. Create Your Vision Execution List

A Vision Execution List is a brain dump of everything you want to do and execute in the upcoming year. Set a timer for 30-60 minutes and start brainstorming. What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

Tip: A great app for this (if you like digital brainstorming) is Miro.

3. Select Your Big Events

From your Vision Execution List, circle the Big Events. These should be NEW things like launches, campaigns, or events that are revenue generating and are in addition to your on-going work and projects. If your on-going work and projects include things like creating blog posts and podcast episodes, Big Events are new product launches, hosting a mastermind, or putting together your first retreat.

4. Set Your Revenue Yearly Goals

Now it’s time to dig into your numbers. How much do you want to make this year? This is your annual revenue goal—write it down. Now work backwards from there. List out how you’re going to get to that number with how much you project each one of your revenue streams will make.

For example, let’s say your annual revenue goal is $300,000. Your list might look like this:

Annual Revenue Goal = $300,000

• • 1-1 Clients = $60,000
  • Mastermind = $50,000
  • Signature Course = $90,000
  • New Course Launch = $80,000
  • Affiliates = $20,000

5. Schedule Your Yearly Goals

Take out your calendar and schedule out each project to create your master timeline. Be mindful of when you’re forecasting each income stream’s cashflow to come through and that you’re creating enough space around each launch so you don’t feel rushed.

Once you’re done with that, take a minute. Walk away and let things marinate (I’ll let it sit for about a week or so). Then come back to your schedule and see how things feel or if you need to do more revising and finalizing. Once everything is final, share with your team.

Next Steps

After putting in the work and planning things out, it’s time to do every entrepreneur’s favorite thing: actually executing those yearly goals you took the time to make. The thing is, you wouldn’t have made those goals if you didn’t want to achieve them. However, life gets in the way, which is where intention comes into play.

My biggest advice? Don’t let those yearly goals of yours become an afterthought. Hold yourself and your team accountable for reaching them, whether that’s by setting quarterly goal check-ins, posting your goals on the wall of your office, or even looking back on steps you took during the week to make those yearly goals of yours come true. Honestly, it’s all about reminding yourself at each and every step that you have checkpoints to reach. Those checkpoints matter.

Is one of your yearly goals to finally find clarity on that incredible brand of yours? Download my Standout Brand Statement Guide, and we’ll work together to hone in on your vision and magnify your business.