The Power of 90-Day Planning for Purpose-Driven Businesses
Over the last two weeks, we’ve covered why a Theory of Change is critical to the success of your business and how to bring that to life with a robust business strategy. These two elements form a rock solid foundation, but they aren’t going to help you day to day. That's where 90-day planning comes in.
90-day planning is the process of breaking down your long-term business goals into actionable steps that can be achieved within a 90-day timeframe. For the last five years, breaking my larger strategy into 12 week blocks has allowed me to be more focused, flexible, and productive than I ever was in corporate.
In this week’s blog, we'll explore the power of 90-day planning for purpose-driven businesses and businesses with a social purpose, break down the steps you need to take to go from overarching business strategy to a 90-day plan, and develop strategies to ensure this plan actually supports your business’s growth.
Why 90-day planning works
If you grew up in the corporate world, you know all about the annual goal setting process. For years, every November and January, two things would happen:
I’d dust off my files and look at the goals I’d plotted out the year before and scramble to make sure I could show progress on these goals
Map out my goals for the upcoming year based on the cascading waterfall of goals from up above
Now, to be clear, I was not a slacker. But it’s not uncommon for business priorities, and therefore the focus of your goals, to shift. That’s because it’s difficult to predict how the business landscape, the market, or the company’s priorities will morph over the course of a year.
I often hear business owners say how overwhelming it is to set annual goals, and I agree. I go through the process of setting some larger business objectives each year, based on my business strategy, but in order to stay focused, I have to break it down into smaller parts. This makes the whole process feel more actionable, and that’s incredibly powerful when you’re trying to make a big impact.
Lastly, it’s easier to adapt and pivot when the business needs to shift if you're working in 90 day increments. COVID definitely taught us about the importance of agility, and 90 day planning gives that to us in spades.
How to go from big business strategy to a 90-day plan
You know from the last few articles that your theory of change informs your business goals and objectives. But how do you actually make it actionable?
The first step in creating a 90-day plan is to look at what you want to accomplish, typically over the course of a year. In some cases, your time horizon may be longer than that, but it’s just as, if not more important, to break those bigger, longer term goals into smaller, more achievable targets.
At the risk of being too corporate, I do believe there’s something to ensuring your targets are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART), because it helps to know exactly what success looks like from a goal-achievement perspective. But importantly, you need to know WHY these goals matter. The why, usually rooted in your ToC, grounds you and keeps the fire alive, especially when things feel hard.
Once you have identified your targets, map out the action steps you need to take in order to bring that target to completion within your 90-day timeframe. As you’re mapping this out, I strongly recommend considering other factors like your team's capacity, your available resources, and any potential challenges you think may arise during implementation. This allows you to proactively problem-solve instead of waiting for it to be a bigger problem down the road.
Where marketing and sales fit into your 90-day planning
I’m often asked where marketing and sales activities fit into this process. I’m a huge believer that they should be integrated into your 90-day plan. In addition to other goals, I have a single “Client Attraction” goal that is broken down into:
How I plan to get in front of new audiences
How I’m going to connect with those new prospective clients and bring them onto my email list
How I’ll continue to cultivate my relationship with them, so I’m consistently building trust
What I plan to sell each month (especially if it varies) and how many clients I need to hit my revenue goals
How I will create a great client experience for them
These client attraction goals have specific metrics associated with them, so I can effectively track my progress and see where I need to adjust. Having this one goal has literally changed the game for me over the last few years. For years, I was sort of winging it in this area, but when I map it out and check where I stand each week, it reduces the overwhelm that can easily well up when you’re in growth mode.
Tips for executing your 90-day plan successfully
Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “Good planning without good working is nothing.” Executing your 90-day plan effectively requires discipline, consistency, and focus, and I’ve found that when I at least map out my weekly activities on a monthly basis, I have the most success. There’s nothing worse than sitting down at your desk on Monday morning, staring at your computer screen, wondering what the heck you’re supposed to do.
If getting too granular stresses you out, pick a focus area or two for the week, and make those your priority. Ideally these activities would be your revenue-generating tasks or the activities that only you, as the CEO, can do.
Lastly, I’m a huge fan of CEO Time. It’s a weekly practice I’ve had for a lot of years, because it gives me time every Monday morning to get my head on straight, look at what’s on my plate, and get some awareness about any adjustments I might need to make.
You know yourself. Build in the accountability and support you need to ensure you’re taking action, and don’t let yourself off the hook. Your work is too important to dabble.
As we wrap up this series, I hope you’ve seen the importance of having a Theory of Change to ground your business and the role it plays in how you communicate your mission and prioritize the work your business does. Your business strategy is only as good as the actions you take, and your 90-day plan allows you to be agile and flexible while keeping you aligned with your long-term vision and values. By executing your 90-day plan effectively, you can achieve your business goals and make a meaningful difference in the world.
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If you’re struggling to practically build out a 90-day plan or map out your business strategy, let’s talk. Book a free 30-minute strategy session to determine your best next step.
