Planning for 2027? Start With What 2026 Taught You
What did 2026 actually teach you about your business?
Not the goals you set last January. Not the number you hoped to hit. What really happened: what worked, what stalled, and what kept you up at night.
Most business owners skip this step. December gets busy, the holidays hit, and January shows up with a fresh calendar and a pile of good intentions. So the new plan ends up looking a lot like the old one.
Look back before you look ahead
A good plan for next year starts with a clear-eyed review of this one. Block out an hour and answer three questions:
- What went well, and why?
- What didn't happen that you said would?
- What took more of your time and energy than it should have?
Write the answers down. Patterns show up fast. Maybe your best months came from one type of customer. Maybe the project you kept pushing off is still sitting there. Maybe you were the bottleneck more often than you'd like to admit.
That's not failure. That's information.
Fewer goals, more focus
The most common planning mistake is trying to do everything at once. Ten priorities is really zero priorities.
Pick three to five things that would make the biggest difference in 2027. Then ask what has to happen in the first 90 days to get each one moving. A year is too long to manage. A quarter is not.
Turn the plan into weekly action
A plan only works if it shows up on your calendar. For each 90-day priority, decide:
- Who owns it
- What "done" looks like
- When you'll check progress
If you have a leadership team, build the plan with them, not for them. People commit to what they help create.
Get out of the building to plan
It's hard to think about the business while you're standing in the middle of it. Phones ring. People need answers. The urgent always wins.
That's why we run GrowthCLUB. It's a full day away from the office to reset, refocus and build your 90-day plan, alongside other business owners and leaders doing the same work.
Our next GrowthCLUB is Thursday, January 14, 2027, from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM at Knowledge Park, Penn State Behrend. You'll leave with clear priorities for the year and a written plan for your first quarter.
2027 doesn't have to look like 2026. But it will, unless you plan for something different.