Leading up to New Years’ Day, the internet is filled with resolutions that people have created and want to accomplish in the upcoming year. These resolutions can vary from attending the gym once a week to going on a week-long vacation to an island. Regardless of their goal or resolution, many of these are thrown to the side and forgotten because they were not planned out in a reasonable timeframe. They didn’t keep themselves accountable to the goal every few months, they didn’t check back to make sure they were accomplishing things in time, they simply made a goal and forgot. The same thing happens in business when plans and goals are created without accountability and regular assessments of progress. 

Quarterly planning creates manageable goals that are able to be reviewed at the end of each quarter. These 90-day plans are relatively short-term but overall promote the long-term success of a business or brand. In addition, the goals you make for your business through quarterly planning increases flexibility.

How do you make a quarterly plan?

Focus Areas

There are many benefits of quarterly planning which we will touch on below. However, the first step is creating an effective quarterly plan. How is that done? A popular business website, Inc, provides a few steps to get started. One of the most important steps to take before making your quarterly plan is to identify your focus areas. What do you want to improve or work on in your business? Are you looking to hire new employees? Is there a new product you’re looking to advertise? Answering these questions will provide you with specifics to create a useful quarterly plan. Beware to not create too many focus areas as you will spread yourself too thin. It’s advised that three focus points should be your max.

Criteria for Success

Once you have determined your focus areas and your goals for the quarter, what qualifies that goal as met. At what point is success achieved? Determining your own, individual criteria for success is vitally important according to Workfront. Without criteria for success, it’s impossible to judge whether your goal for the quarter has been successfully achieved or if it’s at a point that still requires more work.

KPI

Successful quarterly plans tend to have a KPI. This is a Key Performance Indicator. A method to judge how your plan is unfolding and the successes you are achieving. This is a way to measure your progress throughout the quarter, promoting change and drive throughout the quarter. Without a KPI, you may think you are doing well, but in reality, find yourself slowly falling behind your goals.

The importance and benefits of Quarterly Planning

We know how to create a quarterly plan but why spend time creating one. What are the benefits for you and your business?

Flexibility and Adaptability

Imagine you set yourself an annual goal of 50k in profits. After the first quarter, you’re on track to reach 75k in profits. Since it was an annual goal you continue without any changes to your goals and achieve that 75k in profits. However, if you were to exercise quarterly planning, you would assess your achievements through the first quarter, make changes to your plans and processes. These changes and new methods allow you to achieve the 50k in profits by the end of the 2nd quarter and you are able to then reassess and plan for another monster quarter. This may lead to 100k in profits rather than 75k in profits by the end of the year. The ability to change your goals based on your current success or failures at the end of a quarter allows you to adjust accordingly. These adjustments can lead to great strides in your business, better promotion of your brand, and a spike in productivity for you and your employees. 

Correcting Failure

Another superb aspect of quarterly planning is the ability to correct your failures in a quarter and adjust for the next quarter. Fell short of your goals for the quarter? The time frame of a quarter allows you to simply look back and reflect on the areas you fell short in. From there you are able to make adjustments and create new ideas for the next quarter, these new ideas will correct the failures you had and allow you to have a much more productive next quarter.

Drive for Success

Similar to the flexibility in your goals, quarterly planning gives you a drive for success and distances you and your business from complacency. By constantly measuring your goals and success, you can drive for more, rather than continue within the same boundaries you originally set for yourself. This flexibility with your goals and ability to increase your goals as you notice success, promotes a constant drive for more. The sky truly is the limit and quarterly planning opens that door for your business.

Realistic Expectations and Timelines

Some of your business-related stress could simply be related to the expectations you set on yourself and the timelines to complete the work. Long-term goals without short-term units to measure lead to feeling burnt out. It clouds our view from our small successes in the short term that will lead to that long-term success. Using quarterly planning eliminates this aspect of business and contributor to stress. According to Signature Analytics, “setting quarterly goals helps make those bigger, longer-term goals, feel attainable.” Celebrate the small victories, the success in the last quarter, and assess how you can do even better in the next quarter. Forcing yourself to hit X goals in a year without regularly checking up on your progress isn’t good for you or your business. Another reason that quarterly planning is extremely useful.

Using Quarterly Plans in your business provides measurable goals, flexibility, and realistic expectations in your business.

Have you used quarterly plans in your business? If not, now is the time to start. These realistic expectations and timelines help promote success, but also alleviate a lot of the stresses of long-term goals in business. Not only will these quarterly goals help you, but your employees as well. Benefits for everyone!

Book a Collaboration Call with me today and let’s see what a quarterly plan could do for your business!

Kiva Slade is the CEO and Founder of The 516 Collaborative.

As a Change Agent, Fractional COO, and Certified Director of Operations, she is committed to providing small business CEOs with top-notch strategic growth through the high-level strategy, business planning, team leadership, and operational excellence they need to show up as their best self in their business and personal lives.

Kiva holds a Master's degree in Public Administration and has operated her own jewelry business. Her 20 years of experience run the gamut from Legislative Director for a Congress member to chief encouragement officer for her teenage children.

In her free time, you can find her indulging in gluten-free desserts, playing in the dirt in her garden, or with a good book.