This past year business owners were left with the ultimate opportunity to become more nimble & creative than ever before. Heading into 2021, we’re focused on controlling our controllables as we head into the upcoming year, to ensure we protect our growth goals & opportunities on the horizon.

CareerPlug has partnered with Cultivate Advisors in this 60-minute virtual workshop, led by Cultivate Advisors’ CEO Casey Clark, to unpack your vision for the upcoming year and how to plan, keeping your long term vision in mind.

The topics discussed in this webinar include:

• Framework to set up your 2021 plan
• Data based decisions
• Connecting your long term vision to macro/micro goals
• Uncovering leading indicators

What’s so different about planning for 2021?

“It’s a very simplistic answer: the unknown,” says Casey Clark. Businesses are going into Q4 with more questions than any other year in recent memory: 

• Will you need to pivot or weather a different storm? 
• Will there be a second or third wave of COVID-19? 
• Will there be economic turbulence from the election? 
• Will past data even be accurate to plan from?

Clark says that starting with the right mindset will be key to creating 2021 business plans with realistic, actionable goals. “Is your mind so far out in the future – looking forward and just excited about where you’re headed – that you’re not actually truly looking at the risks in front of you over the next six to nine months that could absolutely still come and affect your business?”

7 keys to approaching mindset

In his presentation, Clark also elaborates on his strategy for developing the right mindset he believes business owners will need to have when creating their 2021 plans:

1. Take space for your planning.
2. Give your team space for planning.
3. Plan out multiple scenarios – allowing you to be more agile.
4. Be firm on macro; be open to the path with micro.
5. Simplify your key performance indicators (5 max).
6. Increase your cash threshold in the bank (capital is an option).
7. Review with advisor and stretch scenarios.

Planning Framework

When it comes to planning methodology, Clark suggests an incremental approach, creating milestones on your calendar with actionable goals. 

“I’m going to make this probably more simple than you’ve heard in the past. I think a lot of people think you’ve got to build this big business plan. It’s actually not how I feel at all. I find those kinds of big plans aren’t used,” Clark says.

Instead, he advises, “You need to have a business plan that you can go back to and continue to update and edit and use in the working environment on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.” Here’s the framework he uses:

Watch the free webinar video recording to hear Clark explain his planning framework in detail.