5 Tips for 2025 Planning for Small Businesses

We love Q4 around here. It's where you take time to step out of the daily grind to look back on the year, reflect, and plan for your desired outcomes for next year. And yes, Q4 is typically very chaotic and busy because things ramp up personally AND professionally… but we hope you can carve out some time to slow down and pause. Here's our Top 5 Tips for Strategic Planning for 2025. Book a few hours with yourself over your favorite cup of coffee to work through this list:

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1. Review your 2024 budget and plan your 2025 budget

Look back at your market spend for 2024 and ask yourself: What worked well? What could have gone better? What was effective? Did you achieve the results you wanted with your marketing efforts? What do you want to replicate? Do you want to try something new? From there, set your 2025 budget and forecast your spend per category. We like to break down marketing budgets into the following general categories (some or all may apply):

-Advertising (online and traditional)

-Content Creation + Social Media Marketing, SEO

-Events (trade shows, workshops, webinars, conferences)

-PR

-Market Research

-Marketing Automation & Tools

-Creative Development

-Client Gifting / Swag

-Donations / Sponsorships / Charitable Outreach

-Strategic Partnerships / Referral Groups

-Misc.

Make sure you forecast any potential strategic partnerships that you may need to fill in the gaps. This exercise will be your guide for the entire year! We suggest marking a time in June on your calendar to review for the second half of the year.

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2. Look at your numbers

You MUST look back at your numbers outside of the budget. Here's what we mean:

-How many new clients or customers did you acquire in 2024?

-How did you acquire them?

-How much did it cost you to acquire those clients?

-What is your revenue per customer or client?

-How are you segmenting your clients, and does this need to change for next year?

Each company and industry is unique in terms of what data matters most, but you must be tracking the most critical data points. Q4 is a great time to determine what data points you need to track for next year. If you don't even know where to begin in tracking these numbers, start there. Determine what you need to track and how you will do it for the upcoming year. Numbers speak louder than words, and you need this type of data to make insightful business decisions.

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3. Hold an offsite

It's always valuable time to get away with your leadership team, a key department, or your entire company for an offsite. If you are just feeling like you need more time than an hour meeting to discuss key priorities and move them forward, an offsite could be a great solution. This can work a number of ways, whether you take a 1/2 day out of the business, or a 2-day retreat. Our tip here is to:

-Make sure you have the desired outcomes of the planning and brainstorming offsite

-Have an agenda and share with the team beforehand

-Ask your team to do some thinking on the topics beforehand

-Get actually offsite, aka not in your regular office/place of work (a change of scenery is critical!)

-If you can, have a facilitator and notetaker to capture a summary & next steps

And make it fun! Start with a team-building activity or a workout/movement, and include lunch/snacks (because food is always a good idea, and your team needs the fuel to make the magic happen).

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4. Visualize your desired outcomes

When you think of 2025, how do you want to feel? Where are the areas that are weighing you down? Do you need to stop doing certain things, or hire/outsource? Where do you want to grow? What risks do you want to take? Spend time in those feelings, and write the things down. We love to keep a "brilliant ideas" notebook for things like this. Start your own. This is the fun dream space, so don't hold back!

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5. Make the plan

Now that you know your budget, it's allocated by category, you know your revenue and acquisition numbers, you've gotten on the same page as a team and you are dreaming big with no limits, it's time to MAKE THE PLAN. We recommend breaking it down by quarter, and reviewing at least quarterly. These are the action steps. In your plan, make sure you are specific, and that everyone on your team is aware of their part in the plan.

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What are you doing to plan for 2025? Share your ideas with us! We hope this is helpful and useful for you!