How I Plan My Business for the Year Ahead
If planning your year feels overwhelming, vague, or like it turns into a chaotic to-do list by February, this is your reset. Long-term planning is not about control, it is about clarity, consistency, and protecting your energy so you can actually follow through. In this episode, I walk you through the exact yearly planning system I use to map my offers 12+ months ahead, build in quarterly breaks for regulation and radiance, and create a business plan that feels spacious, realistic, and genuinely supportive.
Why Most Business Owners Struggle With Consistency
A lot of the inconsistency I see in women business owners comes from avoiding long-term planning. If you are only thinking one month ahead, your content feels reactive, your offers feel scattered, and your nervous system never gets to exhale. Yearly planning creates a calm container around your year so you know what you are selling, when you are selling it, and what you are focusing on, without scrambling.
Step One: Set Aside a Full Day to Plan Properly
This is not something you squeeze into a spare hour. I recommend setting aside a full day to plan your year, and to renegotiate your calendar based on what your dream business actually looks like day to day. You need space to think, to reflect, and to tune into what is changing in you and your business. That is how you build a plan you will actually execute.
Step Two: Do a Yearly Review Before You Plan Anything New
Planning without reviewing is guessing. A proper yearly review gives you the data you need to make grounded decisions, rather than building your year on hope and wishful thinking.
In your review, look at:
What worked, what did not work
What felt easeful, what felt heavy
What drove sales and traction
What you planned to do versus what you actually did
What you avoided, and why you avoided it
This part is often where the gold is. If you did not follow through, it is usually either a skills gap, an overestimation of capacity, or fear of visibility and rejection. Business is experimentation. Avoiding failure is not a strategy.
Step Three: Map Your Offers and Launches 12+ Months Ahead
Once you have your review insights, plan your year through the lens of what you are selling.
Decide:
What products or offers you are launching in the next 12 months
When each launch will happen
How long each launch window will be
Whether the timing makes sense for your audience’s buying behaviour
This is where you stop launching purely based on personal impulse and start thinking like a strategic, customer-centric business owner. Your offer timing should match real demand.
Step Four: Schedule Your Breaks First
Before you lock in any launches, plot your breaks into your calendar. I aim for at least four breaks per year, one per quarter, and at least one longer break. Your breaks need to be real and protected, not the kind that get cancelled because you “got busy.”
Put the dates in your Google Calendar. Put them in your partner’s calendar. Put them in your team’s calendar. Treat them like a non-negotiable business commitment, because they are.
Step Five: Plan Your Preparation Periods
This is the step most people miss, and it is why their breaks are never restful and their launches feel chaotic.
You do not just write “holiday in June” or “launch in March.” You plan the preparation in the month before, so everything is scheduled, supported, and smooth.
Preparation is what allows you to:
Be fully offline during breaks
Run launches without last-minute stress
Avoid scrambling, rushing, and emotional overwhelm
A lot of sustainable business success comes down to being a prepared person.
Step Six: Plot Backend Projects and Strategy Work Across the Year
If you want to rebuild your website, implement automations, overhaul your funnel, or set up a new tool, you need to plan it across months, not as a side quest you tack onto an already full calendar.
This is also where most plans become unrealistic. Women business owners often overestimate their capacity. My recommendation is always the same: do less, commit to less, become consistent, then add on later.
Consistency first. Expansion second.
Step Seven: Schedule Upskilling So It Actually Happens
If you buy courses and never finish them, or you know you need to build a skill, you need to schedule it into your year. Give yourself at least three months for deeper upskilling so you can integrate properly, not rush, binge, and abandon.
Upskilling without scheduling is just another form of avoidance.
A Values-Led Planning System That Supports Growth and Wellbeing
This is what aligned yearly planning really is. It is review first, then strategy, then structure. Breaks planned in advance, offers mapped clearly, capacity honoured realistically, and the entire year designed to support both growth and regulation.
Ready to Plan Your Year With Clarity and Ease?
If you want support putting this into practice, start here:
Free Yearly Review Business Workbook
Begin with reflection before you plan. This guided workbook helps you review what worked, what didn’t, and where your energy and revenue actually came from, so you are planning from data rather than guesswork.
Explore Our Business Planners
If you want everything mapped in one calm, central place, explore the Sigma WMN monthly and yearly business planners. They are designed to help you plan launches, breaks, content, and capacity in a way that supports consistency, regulation, and long-term growth.