Annual Planning Mistakes to Avoid

Last week, we told you what to do to make sure your annual planning went off without a hitch! This week, we’re telling you what NOT to do. Read on to ensure you aren’t making one of these common mistakes when tackling your annual planning!

You try to plan your budget and your annual planning in one meeting.

Don’t let the term planning meeting make you think you need to do ALL of your planning in one meeting. Financial planning should be done separately from annual planning, so that neither aspect of your planning compromises the other. Instead of starting with a spreadsheet of numbers, start with a vision of what you want your team to achieve in the next year.

You limit the meeting to just the marketing team.

Working in a silo only isolates your team members (leaving some out, and putting the weight on others), so why not harness the power of your entire team? Plus, the more input you have from all members of your staff, the easier it will be to put the final plan into action.

You hold the meeting in the middle of a regular work day/week.

Phones are ringing, emails are dinging, the next meeting is starting in 30 min…you can see why this is a no-no. We recommend taking a team retreat to do the bulk of your annual planning. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate weekend trip – take over the back room at your favorite lunch spot to ensure you can focus on the task at hand.

You use the same template as last year.

The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result. Don’t just change the date on last year’s plan – that’s lazy. Before the meeting, take a little time to think about how you really want this year to be different than last year, and change up the format of the planning process, your planning meeting, and yes, the template where you will enter the goals for this year.

You have too many BIG goals, and not enough small ones.

Big goals will likely take all year to achieve, leaving you with nothing to celebrate in the interim. Make sure to include some smaller, more readily achievable goals in your plan. This way, you can celebrate the little wins on the way to the big win!

What mistakes have you made in your annual planning?