Why Your Business Needs a 12-Month Plan: A Founder’s Guide to Setting a Plan for 2025

Small business founders often tell me they’re juggling too many priorities, with no clear path to grow other than working harder and doing more of what they’ve already been doing.

You’re constantly putting out fires—focusing on fixing inefficiencies, filling talent gaps, and trying to smooth out lumpy revenues.

If you’re finishing up the year feeling exhausted and flat, then a new plan is needed, one that sees a shift from reactive to strategic.

Start with a 12-month business plan, one that is specific, actionable, and centred around your profit and turnover goals first. Do it now, before the start of the new year, so start January ready to go and don’t lose a single second of time.

I’m going to walk you through why this 12-month plan is so essential, and how to write it and use it to drive results in the new year.

Start with the End in Mind: Your Profit and Turnover Goals

Imagine jumping in a taxi, but don’t know where you want it to go. That’s what running a business without a clear financial target is like. The first step to creating your 12-month plan is defining where you want to be by the end of the year.

Start by answering these questions:

• What turnover do you want to achieve in the next 12 months?

• What level of profit makes sense for your business goals?

For example, if your goal is to hit £1M in turnover and maintain a 20% profit margin, you now have a concrete benchmark. This clarity helps you reverse-engineer the activities, resources, and investments needed to get there.

Tip: Keep your goals ambitious but realistic. If your turnover last year was £750K, aiming for £2M may be unrealistic unless you have a significant new product or market.

SMART Goals: The Backbone of Your 12-Month Plan

The key to making your plan actionable is by breaking it into SMART goals—goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. You’re probably familiar with SMART goals, but here’s how to approach each element:

• Specific: Be precise. Replace “get more clients” with “secure 25 new clients by Q3.”

• Measurable: Use numbers to track progress. For example, “Increase monthly recurring revenue (MRR) by 15%.”

• Attainable: Ensure your goals stretch you, but don’t break you.

• Relevant: Focus on goals that align with your business strategy. If lead generation is a bottleneck, prioritize marketing over operational tweaks.

• Time-bound: Set deadlines. Goals like “Launch our new service offering by June 30th” keep you accountable.

Example SMART Goal:
“Generate 50 qualified leads per month starting in January by increasing ad spend on Google Ads to £3,000 per month.”

SMART goals prevent your plan from becoming a vague wish list and keep everyone in your business aligned on priorities.

Align Priorities to Your Goals: Focus on the Critical Few

Once you’ve set your financial targets and defined your SMART goals, the next step is prioritisation. Many businesses fail not because they lack ambition, but because they try to do everything at once. Instead, focus on the 3-5 most important priorities that will deliver the biggest impact.

For example:

• If growing your pipeline is a priority, focus on strategies like improving your lead magnets or launching a referral program.

• If operational inefficiencies are eating into profits, prioritise streamlining processes or automating repetitive tasks.

Pro Tip: Use the Eisenhower Matrix to sort tasks into four categories: urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, and neither urgent nor important. Delegate or eliminate anything in the latter two.

Allocate Resources Wisely: Budget, Tools, and Talent

Your 12-month plan is only as good as the resources you allocate to make it happen. Here’s what to consider:

1. Budget:
   Ensure your financial projections include the costs of achieving your goals. For example, if one of your goals is lead generation, how much will you invest in advertising or content marketing? A good rule of thumb is to allocate at least 8-15% of your expected revenue to marketing activities.

2. Tools and Technology:
   Invest in tools that support efficiency. CRM systems, project management platforms, and marketing automation tools can all free up time and streamline workflows.

3. Talent:
   Assess whether you have the right people in the right roles. Do you need to hire additional talent, upskill your current team, or bring in outside expertise? Misaligned talent often stalls growth, so tackling this proactively is key.

Track, Adjust, Repeat: Making the Plan Work for You

A 12-month plan isn’t something you set once and forget. To make it work, you need regular check-ins. Monthly and quarterly reviews are what I prescribe to my clients, and being open to adjustments as circumstances change.

• Track Progress Monthly:
  Use KPIs to measure how you’re doing against your goals. Examples include lead volume, conversion rates, and cash flow. Tools like Google Data Studio or dashboards in your CRM can help visualise performance.

• Quarterly Adjustments:
  Revisit your plan every quarter. Are you on track to hit your profit and turnover targets? If not, what adjustments can you make? This might involve reallocating budget, rethinking timelines, or shifting priorities.

Mindset Shift: Don’t fear revising the plan. Businesses that succeed are adaptable and balance focus with flexibility.

Final Thoughts: Your Blueprint for Growth

A 12-month plan isn’t just about hitting financial goals—it’s about giving you control of your business, and designing an operating system that isn’t reliant on you. With clear turnover and profit targets, SMART goals, and a focused approach to resources and priorities, you can stop reacting to problems and start proactively steering your business toward success.

Ready to create your growth blueprint for 2025?

Let’s talk about your goals, challenges, and opportunities. Click this link to schedule a free discovery call .