Have you been thinking about next year? Are you feeling ready to make 2018 the BEST YEAR EVER?!! In this blog post, we are going to talk about how you can start planning out 2018 to truly take your practice to the next level.
Block Out a Day for Planning
If you are truly going to do this and make it work for you I want you to block out a day. It can be a weekend or a day you don’t normally see clients. The reason for an entire day is because I want you to feel free to be creative. Make sure to have a ton of sticky notes, poster board, or a HUGE calendar that you can draw all over. Creativity is messy!
What’s Your Dream?
If you can dream you can start this project. If you knew that next year had not limits or endless possibilities what would it look like? Spend a fair amount of time before you get to the planning day and just journal out what this upcoming year could look like if the sky the limit.
Here are a few examples to inspire you:
- 80 full session clients are consistently coming into the office weekly
- $300k revenue by the end of the year
- Build and market a group class for my office by end of the first quarter.
Next, I want you to think about what you love and what you never want to do again. What did you absolutely love doing last year? What was something that you dread doing and that was completely annoying?What felt difficult? What do you want to change?
Looking Back at Money
Before we can even begin to hit those magical goals we need to look back at this past year and see what was made, how you spent money, and how you can make money. I really like pulling out a spreadsheet and putting in the numbers so I can see what is really going on with money.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What was the biggest money maker?
- What made the least amount of money?
- What put you in the red?
- What brought in the biggest leads?
- What was our recourse for this project?
- What has grown the most this past year?
- How is your email list growing and the click-through rate?
- How much did you make this year?
- How much did you spend this year?
Calander Planning TIME
First I want you to write out the potential ways you will get to your goals. Decide right how you will make money in 2018. Yes, you will see clients, and is there anything else you will be doing in 2018 to bring in revenue. Make a list of all the ways you plan to make money in the next year. As you write out everything I want you to be very specific. Instead of starting a group, maybe write out what type of group and the number of clients you will have in the group along with the length of time the group will run for.
Next, we are going to polt out when things will go over the year on the calendar. From the above list of all the different ways, you will make money I want you to plot out when you need to create, market, execute each item. If we stick with the group idea maybe if looks like this:
- Jan. 4-15 write out program for new group and develop 6-week course with handouts
- In the class material that needs to be created = Handouts, slides, etc.
- Marketing material that needs to be created = registration and payment site, blog post, newsletter, social media post created and timed out
- Jan. 15-21 – Market and open up registration – goal of 10 clients to sign up at XXX cost for the 6-week program
- Make sure all marketing material is running smoothly
- Call and follow up with potential signups
- Jan. 22- Feb 26 group runs
- Feb. 19 – March- 10 develop next project
Once you have plotted everything out on the big calendar double check for downtime time. Having a rest between all the marketing helps to keep your audience more engaged. You do not want to over saturate your clients and customers with everything that you can offer.
Keep me posted on how this goes!!! I just LOVE planning and excited to see what you come up with. Leave a comment below of what you noticed when planning out 2018!
Adrien Paczosa is a Business Strategist for Private Practice Owners and Dietitians and helps them grow and scale their practices to six and seven figures. She is the founder of Fearless Practitioners, the division of her business that offers business training and coaching to private practitioners, dietitians and wellness professionals.
Adrien is a Registered and Licensed Dietitian, owner of iLiveWell Nutrition, her private practice with two locations in Austin, Texas and the surrounding counties.
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