← The Amy Porterfield Show
The Amy Porterfield Show
#731: 2025 Business Planning Made Easy: Map Out Your Most Successful Year Yet
00:31:57
Reflecting on 2024, setting strategic goals for 2025, and upleveling your business and growth as an entrepreneur.
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Amy Porterfield
Your emotional well being is directly tied to your financial success. There's a full alignment and your emotional well being is just as important as your financial success. I'm Amy Porterfield, ex corporate girl turned CEO of a multi seven figure business. But it wasn't all that long ago that I lacked the confidence, the budget and the time to focus on growing my small but mighty business. Fast forward past many, many failed attempts and lessons learned and you'll see the business I have today. One that changes lives and gives me more freedom than I ever thought possible. One that used to only exist as a daydream. I created the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast to give you simple, actionable, step by step strategies to help you do the same. If you're an ambitious entrepreneur or one in the making who's looking to create a business that makes an impact and a life you love, you're in the right place, friend. Let's get started. Hey there. Welcome back to Online Marketing Made Easy. I'm your host Amy Porterfield and today we are talking about one of my most favorite topics which is planning for a new year. Now, I love to plan ahead. It's like in my DNA. So anytime I can get sit down and kind of reevaluate what I've done and then tweak what I'm going to do as I move forward, I'm all for it. So hopefully you love to plan and if you don't, then you're going to love this episode anyway because I'm going to give you the step by step so that you don't have to figure it out yourself. You'll have a playbook and you could get down to business. So I thought it might be kind of fun to point out some of my wins for 2024 to just to help you start thinking about your own wins as well. So when I plan for the new year, I always look at what worked and what didn't work. But for the sake of just having a little fun, let's talk about what did work. So for 2024, we created a brand new Digital Course Academy program. And what I mean by that is we added two tracks instead of one. So if you joined Digital Course Academy in 2024, or let's be honest, if you're an alumni, you always get the updated. So everyone in Digital Course Academy has access to this, where we decided that track one was going to be for my complete newbies, meaning you don't have an audience, you don't have an email list, you're starting from scratch. You might not even have a good idea for a course yet. And I want to ease you into digital course creation and launching. So in track one, I teach my new students how to create a workshop course which is a one hour live training that you charge for. And, and you obviously sell online. You deliver it live, you can record it and now you can sell that recording all year long. It's just a way to ease into digital course creation. And then when my newbie students get through that, then I invite them into track two, which is the core of Digital Course Academy. But if you come into Digital Course Academy already having an audience in an email list, then I'm going to encourage you just to start with track two and get your digital course created and launched and out into the world. So this was something new that we decided was really important. So we re recorded the entire program and it's been a huge success. We've welcomed over 4,000 new students into Digital Course Academy this year, which I'm just so very proud of. Now another thing that I'm really excited about, we launched our very first mastermind and 21 wonderful entrepreneurial women are in the mastermind at the time of recording this. I have my first live event with them this week. So I'm really excited. I get to meet everybody, we're going to start working on our businesses together. So that has been really fun. I also launched something called the Millie Club and the Millie Club is about, I think it's 23 women who, who are working towards their first million in their business. And so I'm really excited to share some of the principles and the ways I had to up level in order to get from let's say 400 or 500,000 to the million dollar milestone. So this is new for me. I've never gotten to work with women in this capacity so it stretches me and I'm excited to work with these women for the next six months as well. So those are some new programs that I actually introduced this year. And then in addition to that, one of the things I'm really proud of, that you might be surprised that I say this is that we have massively reduced our refund rate. Now when I say refund, I mean across all of my three programs. But also I don't know if you've ever experienced this, but when you launch a digital course and let's say you're in a 10 day launch, when people buy, there will be some people that just get buyer's remorse right away and so they buy on a Monday and on Tuesday, they're already asking for a refund. And this because I have such a large audience and so many people buy my program, those numbers can really add up before I even close my cart. And so not only were we focused on just refund rates throughout the entire year, but. But during that launch open cart period, I just didn't realize we kind of had no process for these refunds. And really, these are just people that are nervous, they're scared. They felt like they jumped in too fast, and then they thought, what if I can't do this? So we built an entire process and a system to support these people during that time as well, which completely blew my mind how successful it was. And I think not only did we save, saved the sale. More importantly, these people that really deserve to learn what it takes to create and launch a course and be successful in their business, they took a step out because they got scared. And we encourage most of them to get back in. And I think they're so very glad they did. And so that was really interesting. Kind of looking for a new process for that. So overall, we've actually saved hundreds of thousands of dollars this year by revamping our entire refund policy. The way we work with people who want refund, the way we support people who have that buyer's remorse, we just revamped the whole thing. I got to give credit to my customer experience team, headed by my director, Josh. They've done an incredible job. But I tell you this to say, if you haven't recently looked at your refund percentages or how you're managing refunds, if maybe someone on your team isn't assigned to really make sure that you've got these in check, I think that might be a really great initiative for the new year. And then we also promoted seven people on my team, and I'm really, really proud of that. I know that I am someone, when I worked a 9 to 5 job, I was always looking for growth and expansion. And so to know that I'm able to find it in my business and help my team members grow, expand, and be promoted, I'm really, really proud of that. So those are some of the things that I feel really good about. And then looking into 2025, I'm in the process right now of revamping some things, looking at my business in different ways. What do I want to do more of, what do I want to do less of? So I'm right there with all of you, like, getting into all of that planning now at the time that this episode is going to go live. It's going to be in mid November. And I know what you might be thinking. Amy, it's November, so shouldn't we be planning way in advance? Well, yeah. I have a friend that in June of this year, she actually was planning for the new year. And I got so much fomo, and I thought, what in the world is happening? I can't even think of the new year yet. And to me, that was a little early for her. It worked. For me, it didn't. But where I like to start thinking about the new year is in September. But because I have my biggest launch in September, it's just not going to work. I can't think of two big things like that at once. So. So come October 1st, boom, I'm starting to plan. I'm starting to journal a lot. What worked, what didn't work, how did I feel this year? Where did I get stuck? I start with me, and then I start to plan out the business in general. So if we're getting started now, we're a little bit later than I would like. However, maybe for next year, I would love for you to start thinking about planning in early October. But here's the only way it works. Put it on your calendar right now. If you're listening to this in 2024. I don't care when you're listening, actually. But if you are, you might be thinking, what are you talking about? Yeah, October. That first week of October. Let's book some time right now to start planning for the new year. And let's book time in October, November and December. So you have time to go back to your plan. You have time to refine it. You have time to do research, talk to your coaches, your peers, whatever it might be. I already have time in 2025 to start planning in October, November and December. So wanted to share that with you because it does make a big difference if you give yourself more time. But no matter if you haven't started planning yet or not, here we are. This is a perfect time for you to start planning. It's better than not planning at all. And you still have time. So let's get going. But next year, let's give yourself even more time. Okay? So the first thing that I want you to do is start to understand where you've been. So in order to plan ahead, we need to take a moment and look back. But just for a moment, we're not going to dwell there. We're just going to take a little peek behind us and really understand where we've been. So taking a look at 2024 metrics is a great place to start. I want you to look at several key areas of your business. First, your email list growth. How many new subscribers did you add to your list in 2024? How many people did you lose in 2024? We don't spend too much time on unsubscribers. However, at the end of the year, it is a good number to look at just so you have that information. Also, what were your average open rates? Click through rates overall engagement. So because you're obviously using an email service provider, you could look to see if there are any dashboards that you could set up for next year so that you're always tracking these numbers in one place and find out if there's a way to create your dashboard and then if not, you can create it outside of your email service provider and link to it. But I do think a really good metrics dashboard goes a long way. So anyway, when we're looking back, we're looking at email list growth and health. So anything you want to know about the growth and the health of your list, dive into those numbers and really just figure out where you landed in 2024. Second, and this is still about metrics. I want you to look at all of your offers for the past year. How did they perform? If you ran webinars for each of your promos, what was the average conversion rate? If you used other sales methods, were they successful? Did they work? Did they not work? Looking at the metrics is really important. Now you might think, Amy, I don't know if this is good or not. What conversion rate should I be looking at for different metrics? Here's what I want you to think about right now. Just look at your own metrics. Be your own benchmark, meaning if you haven't been really good at tracking metrics year after year, start with 2024 and just get clear on all the metrics. What did this year look like for you so that next year you can strive to increase from your own benchmarks. You've got to start somewhere. So I could throw out a number and say your goal is to get a 12% conversion rate overall on your webinars. But if you're at a 3%, that is incredibly too high to jump to. So what you should do is say, okay, I'm going to try to increase that by 3% so that you're going to be your own benchmark and you're going to be hitting your own milestones for your own growth. To me, I think that's just the best way to look at it, especially if you haven't really been tracking metrics year after year. So if you haven't been, make 2024 the first year you get dialed in and then continue that habit year after year. All right, so we've looked at our email list, we've looked at our overall offers, and the third thing I would do is examine each of your social channels. Are you seeing growth? Are you seeing engagement? We use something called Metricool. I think that's how you say it. It's M E T R I C C O O L and it's for tracking our social media analytics. And I think that it's a really great way to see all of the data in one place. But don't forget that most platforms like Instagram, they do have built in analytics tools that you can look at. So you don't need to use an outside tool like I do. But I think it's just easier to have it all in one place. And so that's why I've started to use Metricool for all of my social media planning and tracking. All right, and then fourth, I would take a look at some general business metrics, meaning your revenue, profit margin and any other key performance indicators specific to your business. So to me, this part is really important. I have tracked my profit margin from literally the first year of growing my business up until today. And my goal is always to hit somewhere around 40% profit margin, which to me makes sense for an online business. Plus I have a really big team and so payroll is a very big expense for me. So if I could stay around 40% profit margin, I feel good. If you're making some really great money and you have a much leaner, smaller team, your profit margin is actually going to be higher than that. And so tracking revenue and profit margin year after year, so incredibly important. Also tracking refund rate. So I had mentioned that earlier you could do an overall refund rate. I think what's more important is to do it by offer or program, product, whatever it might be. So I have a specific refund rate for List Builder Society and then Digital Course Academy and then a churn rate for my membership momentum. So those are the three that I break out and track year after year. Because think about this, and I talked about this earlier, but if you can get your refund rate down, you, you are saving money that you don't have to go earn someplace else to close the gap on your goals. Or your revenue goals. So it is a kind of a hidden area that I just don't think we spend enough time on. So something to think about. So again, revenue, profit margin, I think you should track this every single month. And we have quarterly revenue and profit margin goals and then of course we have a yearly one. So every quarter we know what we're trying to hit in terms of revenue and profit. So that has been really helpful because sometimes when you just have one for the whole year, it feels very overwhelming. But if you know what you're going to promote and when you're going to promote it, you can usually put together some quarterly revenue goals, which is absolutely what we do in the business. Hey there. A quick word from our sponsor, Shopify. If you sell digital products in your business, such as templates, planners, checklists, guides, any kind of printables, you should definitely check out Shopify. In fact, I just did a whole podcast about how selling digital products like printables is a great way to get a quick cash injection. So I want you to upgrade your business and get a high converting checkout. When you use Shopify, sign up for your $1 per month trial period@shopify.com made easy. All lowercase. So go to shopify.com made easy to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com made easy. Now if you're finding it really challenging to gather all this data, just make a note to create a system for easier tracking in 2025. A simple Google Sheet is a great start. You don't even need to use the platforms or the dashboards I mention. If you're really just starting from scratch on this, don't beat yourself up. Just get together a Google Sheet and pull out the numbers that you really would like to track. If you are starting from scratch and you think you're going to track 50 different metrics you won't like, let's just look for the top 10. But here's the thing. If you do that, you need to give yourself a reminder every single month to make sure that the numbers are getting plugged in correctly and that you're monitoring the numbers, you're using them to make some pivots or decisions, or just make sure you're on track and if you're off track, that you have a discussion with yourself or your team or whoever it might be. So it's one thing to create that Google Sheet and say, okay, starting January 1, 2025, these are the numbers I'm going to track. It's another thing to actually make sure you're tracking them and then using those numbers to make educated decisions. So it's twofold. Create the tracking document and then put monthly reminders in your calendar. Give yourself a good hour just to review all of it every single month. That's what I think is most important. So I actually did a podcast episode where we dive into some of the best tools to use when you're just getting started with things like this. So it's episode 306 and 307. So you can just go to amyporterfield.com 306 or 307, and I've got some great resources and tools that you can look into if you're just starting from scratch. Okay, so now that you have your data in front of you, it's time for some honest reflection. This is where the journaling comes in, and this is not always fun. I literally just did this with my CEO and some of it made me uncomfortable and some of it I felt like I don't know. I don't know what the answer is to this. And I really had to push myself. If you can do this with someone else on your team, it might be valuable, especially if you feel stuck, because I did it with my CEO and we could pitch and catch, but also we really as owners should be doing it solo as well, just to make sure that we give ourselves space and time to really get out all of the thoughts, feelings, insights that we know are there. So here's some questions. What strategies or offers performed exceptionally well? Why do you think they performed really well? Where did you struggle or fall short of your goals? Which tasks and programs and products and services brought you joy? And which ones felt like a slog? Like, which ones are you? Like, I hope I never have to do that again. This reflection, it's not just about the numbers. So, yes, the metrics are important, but it's also about how you felt throughout the year. Because your emotional well being is directly tied to your financial success. There's a full alignment and your emotional well being is just as important as your financial success. And so it's important to identify how you felt. And I will say, some of my year felt heavy and I actually am not 100% sure why yet. I'm still kind of in that stage of gathering information, talking to team members, looking at what I committed to, I'm sure I committed to too much and asking myself why I continue to commit to too much. I'm literally talking to my coach about this right now. So there's some, I think, underlying emotions that come up with that that I just didn't even know were there. And so getting really honest with yourself about how you felt throughout the year and then why you think you felt that way. So it's a really great exercise to do. Not always fun, but very important. Okay, so with your 2024 insights fresh in your mind, it's time to start dreaming about 2025. Consider how you want to feel in your business next year. What's your big vision? What do you want to achieve? What skills do you want to develop? How do you want to improve as an entrepreneur? So don't censor yourself at this stage. Let your imagination run wild. Dream really big, because the next step is to kind of land the plane a little bit and get some concrete, achievable goals. Goals for 2025. So I always say it's better to set fewer, more focused goals than to spread yourself too thin. The key here is to be specific and realistic. So don't just say you want to grow your email list. Decide by how much and by when. Specifically, instead of a vague goal to increase revenue, set a very specific target. Again, I would love to see it by quarter. And also, I'm a big fan of good, best and better goals. Or sometimes we say like good, best and hairy, scary goals or whatever you want to do here. But maybe even allowing a little bit of a sliding scale for your goals could be good for you as well. So just something to think about, but get specific here, and here's a pro tip. Write these goals down and keep them somewhere visible. There's something powerful about seeing your goals in black and white that helps keep you accountable and motivated. So for us, we have our revenue goals and our quarterly goals at the top of our meeting notes every week. So my leadership team meets every single week, and they will see what the revenue goal is for that quarter and what the specific goals are that we're trying to meet that quarter as well. Every single week, it's right in front of them. And I think this makes a very big difference. Okay, next, I want to talk about a little bit of flexibility in your year. And this is something that I actually haven't been really good at, and I'm going to make it a focus for 2025. Listen, we're coming out of an election year, and the economic and political landscape might feel a bit uncertain right now, and that's okay. This is exactly why building flexibility into your plan is so crucial. So remember, while it's important to have a solid strategy, and I want you to create one for 2025. I really want you to create a 12 month calendar of goals and promotions and mapping out when you're going to promote and when you're going to take time off and putting in your vacation time and writing out all the goals for the year. I want you to do all of that. But I also want you to allow yourself to be adaptable. So in order to do that, you want to schedule regular check ins throughout the year to review your progress and adjust your plan as needed. Remember how I mentioned I wanted you to put in your 2025 calendar in October, November and December? Time to plan for 2026. Well, for your 2025 calendar, I'd also love to see you at the end of every quarter or maybe like the beginning of each new quarter, review that prior quarter. What worked, what didn't. Did you hit your goals? If you're off track, are you going to do something about it or are you going to just wait a moment and not change everything? So you've got to ask yourself what's best for your business and for your well being. But if you do not do quarterly check ins, the year is going to get away from you. And believe me, we definitely made some pivots this year, so I can't say I'm terrible at this. We definitely made some pivots. We readjusted our budget about 3/4 of our way into the year, kind of knowing where things were sitting. So readjusting and checking in is so important. Now. What's not okay in my book, this is my personal opinion, but it's my podcast, so I guess that's okay, is that I don't think that when things get tough you just automatically say we're going to change the goal. So let's say you want to have a $500,000 year and in the summer you realize you're really off track. So you're like, okay, maybe a $300,000 year. I wouldn't do that. Depending on where you are and where you get off track, you still might have a lot of time in the year to pivot, make some new decisions, try some new things. So don't just give up too quickly when you get off track. Don't use your check ins for that. But at one point or another you might need to kind of reevaluate. So you just do what's best for you. But also don't throw in the towel too early. I know it's scary when you're off track, but it's kind of Amazing what you can do even in the final three months of a quarter. So just wanted to put that out there. And then the last thing I want to say, this is just a shorty episode so obviously you can dive into all of this in so much more detail. But one thing I don't think I talk about enough with planning is your own self care. So just make sure when you're planning for 2025, I want you to think about rest, relaxation and just having some adventures. Putting your vacations into the calendar now, setting boundaries and non negotiables that you're going to stick to in 2025 and ask yourself, did I take enough time off this year? Did I have fun? Did I make time for the things that are most important to me? Did I spend enough time with my loved ones? That answer is probably always going to be no for all of us because we probably all feel like we can spend more time with our loved ones. But really asking yourself, did I bake in enough time for me? And remember, you're the boss, you can do this. So this might be a great time to say what did I love about my off time in 2024? What did I want more of? Now let's see if we can bake it in to 2025. Doing this early allows you a better chance to actually stick with it. And if you have a team letting them know about when you will be taking off, when you do want to plan for relaxation is always good. And listen, some of you have said to me that you want to do a four day work week like I do in my business and I have an entire episode on how to ease into a four day work week and I'll make sure to link to it in the show notes. However, what I wanted to say was that sometimes a great way to ease into a four day work week and I have a good friend who did this is to do summer Fridays. So in the summer of 2025, so let's say June, July, August, maybe your whole team has Fridays off summer Fridays and so you can start to plan to take those days off. What do you need to shift? What kind of mindset do you need to have? How do you need to communicate with your team as an experiment for maybe in 2026 doing a four day work week. So think of things like that. Maybe look even beyond 2025 and think what do I want in 2026, 2027? Is there anything I can do in 2025 to start planning for that? Another fun thing to think about is to think about what you want your team to look like at the end of 2025. You might be a one man or a one woman show right now, maybe it's you and an assistant. But what would be really cool at the end of 2025, if you looked at your team and let's say you had a new marketing project manager, or you had somebody that was managing all your communities, or you hired a part time customer experience person so you didn't have to do that anymore. What feels exciting and expansive to you, even if you're not going to do it till the latter part of the new year, something to think about now so you can start planning for it and start looking for those opportunities. So there you go. This was just a shorty episode to kind of plant some seeds around planning for 2025. If you haven't started planning, it's time. It's time for you to dive in and start planning right away. And if you have started planning, maybe I said something today that you're like, ooh, I didn't even think about that. I'm going to add that to my planning process and make sure that you book a little time to not only plan, but then come back to it. Because I know for a fact I could never do this in one session. Quite honestly, it's like five little sessions adding up for me to kind of get to a really good plan. Plan. So give yourself the time and space. All right, my sweet friends, thank you so much for tuning in. And here's to your most successful year yet in 2025 and beyond. I'll catch you on Thursday for the next episode. Same time, same place. Bye for now. Ra.