Using Your Calendar for Profitability
Did you know it can also affect your profitability? It’s true.
I’m a huge proponent of planning ahead. I build out my business plan 1-2 years ahead and then tweak it as needed, quarter by quarter. My EA and I meet periodically to plan out the upcoming quarters. I meet with my leadership team in November to plan out our main marketing campaigns for the coming year.
Once I meet with my team members to work through these plans, they ensure that everything gets on the calendar several months ahead of time. This might seem like a bit much, but it really does make a difference!
I’ve found this practice to be valuable in every area of my business. It allows me to communicate the short and long term plans to each department, and it equips them to prioritize and plan ahead. And the best part? I know what each department is working on without having to micromanage!
If you’re ready for your team to help you build and refine your calendar throughout the year, check out our Calendaring Workshop – it’s designed to train and equip your team with everything they need!
The Best Laid Plans of Your Admin Team
You may have heard the saying, “if it’s not on the calendar, it’s not happening.” There really is a lot of truth to this! If your business and admin activities are not on the calendar, it’s likely that they just won’t happen – and that can significantly affect the productivity and profitability of your company.
As a busy business owner, there are a lot of moving parts that you oversee. As you grow, you will gain leadership team members to help you keep track of the details, but it’s still up to you to manage the high-level plan for the year.
Think about it: if meetings with your CPA and various attorneys are not scheduled, your ability to plan and keep your business compliant will be challenged. This can definitely affect your profitability!
If your Quarterly Reviews are not on the calendar, you will miss out on opportunities to develop your team and hold them accountable. If your Team Builders are not on the calendar, your culture can begin to degrade – and you may not learn about it until you have fires to put out.
And the list goes on.
Your Admin team may have the best intentions in mind, but if these things are not on the calendar, chances are they won’t happen. If they do, they’ll likely be implemented at the last minute and details can fall through. Don’t let this happen to you!
Calendaring Your Marketing Plans
Marketing is a complex thing, and your Marketing Team is likely to be a mix of creatives, strategic thinkers, and “doers.” This often results in a wide range of scheduling preferences!
Your “doers” will probably be ready to go whenever a task is ready for them, but your strategic thinkers and creatives are likely to work on a very different timeline. After all, it’s difficult to know when creative or strategic inspiration will hit!
However, there’s also a lot of “behind the scenes” work that goes on within your Marketing Team. Research, graphic and video creation, scheduling, tech-related tasks, optimization, and analyzing metrics all take time – and these are often tasks that aren’t accounted for in the initial marketing plan.
Because of the difference in personality and work styles – and because of the huge range of tasks that are consistently involved in marketing – calendaring out your marketing plans is essential. Otherwise, your team will be in a mad rush to get things done…or they may not happen at all.
To mitigate the chances of this happening, I include my Marketing Coordinator in my annual Strategic Planning meeting. She then calendars the marketing campaigns and then works backward to put all the details into our project management tool.
This lets everyone know what’s expected and helps each member of the team (regardless of their work style) stay on track. In turn, this allows our Marketing and Sales Teams to work more profitably and help grow the business!
Closing the Loops
Your calendar is an essential tool for your team, but it’s also vital for you as the Owner.
It not only helps you stay on track with the meetings and tasks that need your focus, but it helps you keep a finger on the pulse of your business without having to micromanage or worry about the details.
This helps you in two primary ways:
- First, it allows you to know exactly what you do – and don’t – need to be involved in. As long as your team has the systems in place to do their jobs, a well-built calendar allows you to focus on the activities that will grow your business. In turn, this allows you to work more profitably!
- Second, it keeps your mental attention focused. When you can see what’s going on in every area of your business, you won’t have to constantly split your focus to try to keep all the plates spinning. This allows you to work productively throughout the day, but it also means you won’t have to give up your personal time or endure sleepless nights stressing about whether an appointment was scheduled or a marketing campaign is on track.
Your calendar might look like “just” a way to stay on track with your daily appointments, but in reality, it’s one of the most powerful business tools you can have!