Making Good: Small Business Marketing Podcast

The Planning Queen on 2026: This is the Framework That Changes Everything | 317

• Lauren Tilden

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Lauren Tilden:

Welcome back to Making Good, the podcast here to help you do better marketing so you can make a bigger impact. I'm your host, Lauren Tilden, and this is episode 317. Today's episode is about helping you stop winging it, and start strategically planning for your best year ever in business. If you want 2026 to be more focused, less chaotic, and a lot more successful. This one is for you. And spoiler alert, there is a very big announcement in the beginning of this episode from someone that you know and love here on the podcast. So be sure to have a listen to hear that. My guest for today is Charelle Griffith business growth strategist, award-winning chartered marketer and the annual planning queen. You may know and love her from making good book Club, but her main gig is helping small but mighty business owners build thriving businesses that align with the lives they want to live. In this episode, we discussed the five step planning framework that Charelle uses with her clients and herself. What to do of 2025 wasn't your best year. This is very comforting and how to make a plan that is flexible and effective. There's so much more here. I have learned so much from Charelle over the years as a book club, co-host, and a friend of the show. And I know that you're going to take away so much from this one. Seriously, get your notepad out. She is truly a genius when it comes to helping small business owners plan intentionally and sustainably. Before we get started, I have a favor to ask. I would love your help spreading the word about this podcast. One of the best ways we can do that is if you take a screenshot of your podcast player while you're listening and tag me on your Instagram stories. I'm at Lauren Tilden. You can tag Charelle as well at Charelle Griffith. We would be so, so grateful for your support. Okay, here is my conversation all about planning for 2026 with Charelle Griffith. Charelle, welcome back to Making Good.

Charrelle Griffith:

Hello. Thank you for having me back in a different guise today. Very exciting.

Lauren Tilden:

Yes, yes, yes. You all know Charelle from Making Good Book Club. So this is a slightly different context. Obviously, Charelle, you know, a lot of things that aren't just books. So we're gonna get to dig into some of your expertise around planning primarily today. before we do that, we have a big announcement. Would you like to share it?

Charrelle Griffith:

So after four years, we calculated I will officially be leaving, making Good Book Club at the end of the year. It's definitely a very hard decision. I'm also shutting down my own book club, PropelHers Book Club. So, um, I've definitely not lost my lover books, but. In a genuine attempt to double down. I was telling Lauren just before I've decided to stop all things like book club related and focus more on my business, which feels hard, but I'm very optimistic that it's the right choice for me.

Lauren Tilden:

Yeah, and we've read a lot of books that are around like focus and know, narrowing in on. The one thing that is the biggest needle mover for you, we've read Essentialism, which to me is the, the one that most comes to mind. So it's very in line with like, probably, I don't think we've ever read any guidance that says the more stuff you work on, the better success you'll have. Like it's. It's very much walking the walk of some of the big things we've learned from making Good Book Club. So I totally understand and respect this. I'm so grateful that you've been my co-host for four years of book club episodes. There's listener. If you have not listened to all of these, like, don't know what number we're on, like close to 40 books we've covered where. If you don't wanna read the book, like we cover in depth what is in the book and pull out our takeaways. So, um, I'll make sure we have a good link in the show notes from this episode so you can go dig into all the amazing book clubs that Charelle has, has helped me put together. But just a huge thank you for, for all that you. Contributed to the podcast and the book club. I'm so grateful. Totally understand that this is the next right step, and I'm excited to see what happens. And we'll continue to have you on the show. So

Charrelle Griffith:

I'll be back.

Lauren Tilden:

be a stranger.

Charrelle Griffith:

I would.

Lauren Tilden:

you'll be back. So our last book club together is the December 20, 25 edition. So tune in that one should come out December 15th. So that'll be our last one. It's gonna be a great one. So tune in with us, we are not here to talk about book club. We are here to talk about what I consider your superpower. Maybe you agree. I certainly think that some of your clients would agree with us. One of them called you the queen of planning. so we're talking all about planning, but before we get into some of the really the specifics. How did this sort of specialty come to be? How did you become the queen of planning?

Charrelle Griffith:

So I actually feel as if naturally, I've always been someone that was a like long-term thinker and I'm sure you would agree that I'm someone that genuinely seems to have like long-term vision, always thinking ahead. But actually I had to in my actual employee days. Do a lot of forward planning, so people that don't know my background was in the live entertainment and the performing arts industry, and some of that was in like the subsidized sector. Now, if you are in that world, you have to make three year business plans with. You have to tell people what pieces of work you're gonna be creating, where you expect it to be touring it and like provisional budgets to go with it and all that stuff. So I think if you come from that environment where that becomes the standard, that just became a very normal thing. And then in my actual lots of like marketing jobs, like. I, I have a very, very, I really wish I had a photo of it. It was one of my offices and I had, I had like an Excel spreadsheet of a gunshot that was for the whole upcoming year that was on my wall right next to my desk

Lauren Tilden:

you said you had an Excel spreadsheet of a what

Charrelle Griffith:

So like a Gant chart, so

Lauren Tilden:

Oh, GaN

Charrelle Griffith:

Oh yeah. A Gant chart. Yeah. So literally you'd have every single week for the whole upcoming, like 52 weeks. But I'd printed it out and then I'd like color bits in because I was looking after so many productions that was touring around the country. And so for every single production, it'd have a different week. I was like, meant to do the direct mail, sending out flyers, putting up posters, doing radio ads, all these different types of marketing. And I. That's what I used to have to do. So I think me looking at a whole year in advance never felt very daunting. I was very used to it, having to budget for it, forecast it, all that type of stuff. And obviously it's very different doing that when you are a small business. But I think that background just never left me. So I think it was something that was like ingrained in me naturally in terms of personality was brought out from when I had to be an employee. And then I've just then spent time refining it. Over the last, I think like the first one I did annual plan with like my, in my own business was 2017, and then the first one I did with another business owner I think was 2019. So I've been doing this for a fair bit of time now.

Lauren Tilden:

And this episode is coming out at the perfect time. It's gonna be the end of 2025. Perfect. Time to be starting to think about 2026. So I know that annual planning is something obviously you've been doing for a long time for your own business. Um, something that you support clients with through, um, like a VIP

Charrelle Griffith:

Day. Yeah.

Lauren Tilden:

day, strategy day. Take us a little bit into the process, like how do you guide people through creating an annual plan? Because like you said, like that can be very daunting for

Charrelle Griffith:

Yeah.

Lauren Tilden:

a small business owner to be sitting here in November, 2025 thinking about, you know, something that takes'em

Charrelle Griffith:

All through the end.

Lauren Tilden:

of 2026. So.

Charrelle Griffith:

was your pressure.

Lauren Tilden:

here?

Charrelle Griffith:

So my, firstly, I wanna say like it. In terms of like what your approach is gonna be. The biggest thing to I think is like you don't have to do absolutely everything. My thing I always say to small business owners is literally like anything you do is gonna be better than nothing because if you have no plan, then you've got like absolutely nothing. So it's like, actually I think one of the reasons a lot of people, especially. If they worked in corporate before, don't wanna approach it if they just have these ideas of, it's gotta be 50 reams of paper, it's gonna be like this massive 17 tab spreadsheet and all that. And it's like, no, like we're gonna really strip it down. And so I do take people as Lauren said, I do this one-on-one. I actually started doing in-person little groups, like I do little like masterminding days now.

Lauren Tilden:

fun,

Charrelle Griffith:

At the time I'm recording this, I'm just about to do my third one. So. I have got a five step process that I follow people through, whether they didn't do one-on-one or whether they did a group or I'm doing it for my own business. So the first thing is reviewing and reflect. You have to look backwards. And this I actually think is particularly important as a small business owner because. Let's be real. Not all of us are always on top of exactly what's happening in our business. Like you are juggling too many things. So you might not have actually been like properly looking at all your numbers, understanding what's happening.'cause you're just like head down doing the work. So the first thing I always do is be like, no, you need to stop. Like the review is looking at the actual data, the metrics, the numbers. Actually understanding like what has sales been like, what? Like what, how's your marketing been performing? How many clients have you heard? Like breaking down what your sales per. If you have like multiple lines, for example, what that is, all that type of stuff, but then also reflecting on your experience. Because it's not just about numbers as a small business, like you could say like, I had a record breaking quarter. I had a record breaking you. But then you're like, I've literally been working day and night, like I've been running myself into the ground. I'm absolutely exhausted. So. Just purely being like all the numbers are really great, isn't the best thing to do. So I've got like a very robust like annual reflection question guide thing that I made that I take people through. So just really making sure you are thinking about your experience, so you're like, this is what's happened in the business this year. I own somewhere. The business is right now and I have a proper understanding because to plan you need to have your point A and then be like, and also how do I feel the last year's gone. So we do that. Then we move into goals, the fun bit. So what do you wanna do over the next year? Like what really excites you? What feels like progress? What? Sometimes this can be things that are naturally moving on from what's happened in the business in the year befores. Sometimes it's wild cards, sometimes it's like you want to add something totally new in. But getting this written down. Obviously make all my clients have at least one financial goal. Like you can't get away with not having one thing that's financial, but getting something concrete. As I said, we're gonna have a nice, clear end of the year deadline and something that's gonna be. Connected to your ultimate vision, like it's moving your business forward to further along. Then we have approach where we are looking at how are you gonna get there? There's multiple ways to get to a goal, and in the approach, this is where actually you look at things like your office suite, like what your pricing like, what your marketing is like, your sales operation, delivery, finance, all the nitty gritty bits of the business. That's what takes up most of the day when I'm working with people. But this is the bit that really enables you to work out the, like how, and this is where you get to take control of being like, what do I feel is best? So it's not like I just have to do something because someone else has told me, but what feels right. Then number four is timeline. So we try and bring. All the things like obviously all the ideas you've put into approach actually start to map that out and see how does that work? The timeline is probably, I think the most important thing as a small business owner because what I really focus on is making sure we're considering all the different. Like hats that you are wearing in a business, or if you've got, like you have got other people, you add them onto your plan and try and really establish nice and early if there's points of the year where you're like, this is too much going on. Like one of the big things about having the timeline is just to see it. If you have it, the approach, you might have everything written down, but they're not together. And it's only when people see them next to each other, they. Oh, like I'm just purposely making my life a lot worse than it needs to be because I decided to make 75 things happen all in August. Well done.

Lauren Tilden:

Mm-hmm.

Charrelle Griffith:

What I'm also saying, I'm gonna take a two week holiday. Oh,

Lauren Tilden:

Yes. Resonates. Yeah. Everyone is shocked to hear that I over commit. I'm sure.

Charrelle Griffith:

it's not even, like I just say, you're overcommit, but you sometimes it's not about overcommitting in technically the year, but it's just overcommitting in certain periods of time.

Lauren Tilden:

Right.

Charrelle Griffith:

That that actually is much more common. That's what I find. It's not that I think a lot of people try and do too much in the year, but it's just that the fact I class is like crunch points where I'm just like, you put too many things on the table at one time. And then last but not least is just like monitoring. And usually this will come with some form of accountability. Like what are you going to measure to do your progress? What are you gonna be, because no plan is wouldn't set done. Like you have to be making sure you are paying attention to once you start taking, following the plan, like what results are you getting? Is this what you expected? How's that performing? All that good stuff. So there we go.

Lauren Tilden:

Hmm.

Charrelle Griffith:

wasn't as whistle top store as it should have been. Sorry,

Lauren Tilden:

That was amazing. I took notes and I feel like, it's a very clear framework. you know, you, I've read a lot of different, like, approaches to annual planning and I feel like normally it comes across as more of like a laundry list of things to do rather than such a clear framework. It just makes a lot of sense

Charrelle Griffith:

Yay.

Lauren Tilden:

very intuitive.

Charrelle Griffith:

Yeah.

Lauren Tilden:

I in a little bit to. One of the things that you said that makes a ton of sense to me is you start with reviews. So you're starting with thinking about the year that we've just had about you know, both the numbers and your experience of the year. One thing that comes up for me and I think will be very relevant to folks listening, it's been a hard

Charrelle Griffith:

Mm-hmm.

Lauren Tilden:

of small business owners. I think the idea of like spending a lot of time really soaking into the numbers of 2025. Like that doesn't sound good

Charrelle Griffith:

Okay. Yeah.

Lauren Tilden:

Like that doesn't sound fun and uplifting when you've had a hard year and like not maybe seeing the numbers that you want. And I'm not saying this is true for everyone, but just like from my observations and comes conversations with folks, for a lot of people, 2025 has been very hard. So I just want to say

Charrelle Griffith:

Yeah.

Lauren Tilden:

who that's gonna resonate with, what is your take on that? Like. When I think of annual planning, normally it's like exciting, right? Like you're dreaming up the year to come, but we're kicking off here with something that could be hard for a lot of people. Like the, the review

Charrelle Griffith:

Yeah,

Lauren Tilden:

just had what, what, say you on this?

Charrelle Griffith:

I also would totally agree. There's definitely been, I know a lot of businesses that have had a hard year, and it's actually one of the biggest mistakes, I think too. When you've had a bad year, just want to jump into the planet and it makes absolute sense. I think the biggest thing I say to people is being like. You need to understand what is going on right now. So if in like a bigger context, if you were doing annual planning, like for big businesses, like we would be going into things like, like a s SWAT for example, where you are looking at like what is happening or you're doing a pestle, like you're looking at the external environment. Like I'm like, so much of what happens to businesses right now is not necessarily in everyone's control, but the reason why you need. To understand what the numbers are looking like in your business is because that is your reality. Because if you are then just like, I'm just gonna forget 25 happened. What? You're gonna start with your numbers from the end of 24, like that's not gonna actually enable you to build the best plan going forward. Like if you are like, actually my conversion's gone down. Like I used to send an email out and I, you know, I used to get 5% and now I'm getting two. Like, if that's your new reality, that needs to be. Planned for, if it used to be that you felt like, oh, I, you know, I felt as if my repeat business was like 75% of people that worked with me would come back next year and now it's gone down to 50. Again, you need to be, know those numbers rather than making it up. So I think, I think if I really felt very, very negative about the numbers, there's two approaches I could have to this. One is being like, do that separately. So actually try and do that as a task. So actually when I do group the group planning days, they have to do their review, like 95% of their review by themself before they come on the day. So I have, like I said, so it could be you do that, so you can have this moment where you're like, ah, like,

Lauren Tilden:

Mm-hmm.

Charrelle Griffith:

Actually when you come to plan, you can still. Uh, more excitement'cause it's not like you've just finished doing that. The other thing I really urge you to do is look at like, what ha what have I been, have I been doing? Like, what have the high, I say some of the questions are like, what are your high points and what are your low points? Like, what are the lessons you wanna be bringing forward? And I think that's where, even if the numbers haven't been great, this is about look what have you learned? And using that because that is what's going to make your next plan stronger. That that's the only thing I can really emphasize is the reality of whether things are good or bad. It's just how the world is operating, how your business is performing right now, that truth is what you need going into the next year.

Lauren Tilden:

Yeah, there's always something you can learn.

Charrelle Griffith:

Yeah.

Lauren Tilden:

I, I hear that. And I feel like. To your point of what has your experience been over the year? Thinking through that, even if the numbers haven't been awesome, I'm guessing there's some things you're proud of

Charrelle Griffith:

Yeah.

Lauren Tilden:

you know, being sure that you're surfacing those things as well. Like there's not just one element to how your business did

Charrelle Griffith:

Yeah.

Lauren Tilden:

I'm sure you made an impact in some way or were able to, like in my case. shared, like I've had a lot of time away from my business this year. It's not gonna be my best year in business. But I am really proud of some of the like, time I was able to spend with family and things like that. So,

Charrelle Griffith:

And, and also I'd argue that's where, when I say about reviewing Flex, it's important because you'd be like, this isn't my best year in business, but you've got a legit reason for it as well. Like sometimes like that was how I felt like, you know, I've been very honest. I was like really grieving in the end of 2024 and that knocks me for socks. So sometimes it's like, yeah, it's your business Might. It might not have been the year you expected it to be, but there's reasons, and I think that's the thing. I think like actually taking the time to understand the reasons is what will help you going into the next year.

Lauren Tilden:

Yeah, totally. Moving on to the next step, which is goal setting. One thing that is my experience and probably so many listeners, and actually I think you share this too, to some extent, is like. There being so many things you want to do and you know, so you're thinking of all your goals and it's like this laundry list of, you know, 500 things. How do you narrow it down to the, the right

Charrelle Griffith:

I mean, if I had the golden wand for, that would be magical. That's like literally every single person I work with.'cause we are just like, we just got loads of ideas. There's loads of things you wanna do. I always do really challenge people to be like, what is like the things that you. Are the most important. So usually, as I said, like usually I'll always meet someone like have a financial goal. Very often it might be something like. Something new. Quite often people want to be like, if they like, want to be adding in a new type of offer or sometimes, obviously,'cause I do a lot of people with their marketing, they might be like, I wanna start a podcast. I wanna start YouTube channel. Like they might have goals that are around that. People that, sometimes stuff is to do actual their lifestyle. They set stuff, impact goals like how many customers or clients you wanna serve. Like obviously there's, there's so many things you can want. I try and say in an ideal world, you would want between three and five. I feel like if you can get it down to that, you can then plan based on that. How does the thought of only three or five sound to you?

Lauren Tilden:

It

Charrelle Griffith:

Good. I,

Lauren Tilden:

yeah, I try to have like just a couple and usually like one main one. But it's hard.

Charrelle Griffith:

No, it is hard. But that's why I think like, I think three, if you can get three, I'm like, give yourself a gold star and live your best life. But I always give people, I always say like, if we've got a few more, then. Like that's, it's not if it's what you want as well. Sometimes I'm like, you just have to be really honest being like they, if the more goals you have, the more work you're gonna probably have to put in. And some of them then what I, as I said, when you stop doing the approach, that's when you start to realize, but are these conflicting with each other and it's too much? And sometimes what does happen is people will have more goals in the beginning and actually as we work through the planning, then one of them may drop off, for example, and it can go into a next year, le

Lauren Tilden:

like,

Charrelle Griffith:

next year list just.

Lauren Tilden:

Next year. you recommend that people do planning like this for their business in isolation, or are they doing it? Are you advising like plan, plan your life goals with this as well?

Charrelle Griffith:

So I. Normally don't, I don't say you have to do your whole life goals around it. So just for a bit of context it's probably like a lot easier.'cause obviously mainly in New America, so your, a lot of people's business year is much more aligned with the calendar year. In the UK it's often not. Our financial year is weird. So for lots of people it's like April to March so they can be. Much more like difference. Regardless, what I just say is the life goals that are related to your business. So if you have goals that are around, you know, you want to travel more, you know you wanna spend time with your family more, like if you are like I. You have an understanding of the lifestyle you wanna be able to have, and you're like, my things is like, what is the, like finances and what's the flexibility you need to make sure your businesses enable you to have in order to be able to roll that out so that in that case, yes, but yeah, you don't need to be declaring that you're gonna start doing like yoga every week or what, like yeah, that's not vital.

Lauren Tilden:

that makes sense. Thinking about timeline, I know that you practice, or at least at one point, did I believe you still do, do the 12 week

Charrelle Griffith:

I did.

Lauren Tilden:

Um, tell us about your timeline process a little bit. Like how granular are you getting when you're planning out a timeline for a year? Are you saying like, this week in November, 2026, I'll be working on X, Y, Z,

Charrelle Griffith:

Do you know what's funny? You say that because this year my event is on November the 2026. November the 26th, and I knew that when I did my plan at the beginning of the year, because it's the Wednesday before. In my head it's before Black Friday, which obviously just before your Thanksgiving as well. So I knew that, like I knew that's what day it was gonna happen on. So sometimes, yes, and I think obviously for some people, if they do events, if you're gonna be taking part in promotions like Black Friday's, a really good example. If you know you are going to do something for Black Friday. You know when that's gonna happen. If you know

Lauren Tilden:

Yep.

Charrelle Griffith:

you are a business where like Christmas or Halloween or any type of seasonal activity you might do, but as a whole, you don't need to. So I, depending on the client I work with, will either do a monthly or a weekly one. So some people, because of. Like we said, sometimes because of the actual activities that happen in their business, they will be like, there's block out, there's like key times in the year that I really need to get. And some people know that. Like some people are like, I know when I do my launches for programs and they are like, I'd run a program and it's gonna run for like eight weeks and I want it to avoid when my holidays, whatever. So we will do it week by week. Other people are much more general. And we're just like, we just do month by month, which means you can just plot things in and as a, like, you still have that year view. And that's the thing that's important is the year of view. Like I, people always laugh at me'cause I'm like, I'll have like my wall planner and it's ordered out. And I'm like, yeah, because I think that's when you can see it. For many people, and I think I'm like less visual than most people if we're honest. Um,

Lauren Tilden:

Hmm.

Charrelle Griffith:

people, like actually seeing it is what makes that difference. Um, and particularly like a big thing about my approach with timeline is being like life first, business second. And so I'm like, I'm trying to block out life important things. So I'm saying to you like. When are your birthdays? When's your family's birthdays? When do you think you want to go on holiday? Like are there other important things that we need to ensure we are leaving sufficient time for and or at least acknowledging exactly when they happen now, so that as we start to put business stuff in, we can, as I said, we can look out for those clashes.

Lauren Tilden:

So good. Now talk to us about 12 week, year. What does that, how does that play into your timeline? What is that approach? Who would it be a fit for?

Charrelle Griffith:

so I'm really glad you, um, remembered that about me doing the 12 week year.'cause I reckon, I dunno how many years, it's been a good few years now. So for me, the reason why it works really, really well is, so basically the principle is you work for 12 weeks and you take the. Week 13 off. So that automatically means I get you should have four weeks off for the year. And I am a big advocate that more small business owners need to take time off. So I'm like blocking your holiday out in advance. Go for it. But the reason why it really works for me is usually my birthday and the, the end of June one is my birthday week, and then the end of December, week 13 is when it's Christmas or New Year. So I always rigidly strict those two. The other two, the March one and the September one. I will block out provisionally when I do the plan and then I see what else is happening. So sometimes it shifts because like this year, I think, like I already knew I was gonna be going on holiday in. Or in April. So like I did move the March one, also the, because of where the financial year in the UK is, sometimes I take the week after the march off so that I, I can finish the financial year and then I go on holiday and I'm like, yes. And then I come back to work. So I like it as a structure to be like, you've got something to go from and it's forcing you to have four weeks off. And then I'm like, move it around. But in terms of actually like the principles in the book as well, it's just very much around. That'cause I do also still emphasize like combining annual planning with quarterly planning, and particularly if you've done your annual planning on a monthly basis. Is this like a quarter or 90 days or 12 week? Lots of people refer to it in different ways. It's the same basically amount of time is. It's a shorter period of time so you can plan in more detail. And also because you have more information. So if you are doing this now, like if we're going into Q3 or you're going into Q4, like you're halfway through the year, some things will have changed. So being able to do a quarterly plan on top of that enables you to make sure that like you, your business is moving forward and you are doing the best activities. So yeah, I'm a big, big fan of the 12 week year. I highly always recommend it. Um, and not. As I said, I always do say to people, whether you do three months quarterly planning, 12 week, whatever you wanna call it, that combined with annual planning I class as like the power planning combo.

Lauren Tilden:

Yes, and we did the 12 week year, which is a book that goes through the mentality. Or like the

Charrelle Griffith:

Yeah.

Lauren Tilden:

on making Good Book Club. So we'll link to that in the show notes. and I think it's not something that I follow. I would like to, it might just be a little too rigid for just the way that I work, but personally, but I, I'm still interested in trying to make it happen. Um, but the, the big concept that I really took away is like. weeks just isn't that long, but you actually can do

Charrelle Griffith:

a lot.

Lauren Tilden:

and setting a goal for 12 weeks from now, like it's a short enough timeline that you kind of know you need to get

Charrelle Griffith:

Yeah.

Lauren Tilden:

Whereas if you set a goal for one year from now, it's very easy to just not do anything about it for a

Charrelle Griffith:

Yeah,

Lauren Tilden:

have so much time to work on it.

Charrelle Griffith:

and, and like I think like, you know how you said like, oh, if you've got multiple goals, like I always say with some people, like some of those goals are easy to break down into then like your quarterlys, they make sense. Like you're like, I know how much finances, I know how many sales I my clients or customers and trying to make in this period. Sometimes one of your annual goals can be done in a quarter. Sometimes literally people are like, I want to like launch my podcast. I'm like, well, you can do that in Q1. We don't need this to drag out all year. So actually sometimes it does also work out like that, that you're like, you can take your big annual goal and break it down so it just fits in one quarter. Or sometimes you're looking at how does it spread out across all of them. And sometimes whether your year goes really well or goes really bad, that can mean. You have to make adjustments and the, the goals might get easier or harder as the year goes along. Yeah.

Lauren Tilden:

Okay. Thank you for kind of that transition question.'cause that is something I wanted to talk to you about is changing the

Charrelle Griffith:

Yeah.

Lauren Tilden:

you know, let's say it's November, it's December, maybe early January when someone's listening to this and they're going through and creating their annual plan, You do the best with the information you

Charrelle Griffith:

Yes.

Lauren Tilden:

you can't predict the future. So inevitably things come up, like circumstances change. What is your take and what is your approach on changing the plan? Like when does that happen? How do you do it?

Charrelle Griffith:

So firstly I wanna make is super clear. I've never known anyone to create an annual plan and they followed every single thing on their plan perfectly and got every single result exactly's on the plan the whole year round. Like that is not the way, like I know there's a lot of resistance to planning'cause people are like, once I read it down, that's it. And what's the point?'cause it's not gonna stay like that. And I'm like, it's not true at all. But what it's given you. It's something to start working towards rather than having a blank piece of paper, like actually you're like, okay, this is what I think is going to happen. And like Lavin said, we do it with the best information you have at that time. And depending on your business, it might be some bits and more detail than others. So really good example is obviously for a lot of people, the further away into the year it gets, the less is known, however. Some timely stuff actually. Like I find quite often, for example, it might be like the September and October are the most vague bits of people's plans, but because of what happens in November and December, people are actually quite organized and they know what's gonna happen then. So it's like you might find certain, even a certain like just chunk of time in your planning like, oh, I don't really have anything here. This bit's not as strong. It's like, that's fine. And when it comes, yeah. When it comes to changing my whole thing is to like really have it as like it's a working document. It definitely shouldn't be. This is set in stone. You, PDF, it like you print it off and then you're like, I can't ever change it. Like, like I said, like I have a timeline that's on Excel that I'm like, I go into it, I will change it, I will adjust things. Um, and that's. That is also part of like why you do monitoring? Because actually, so usually I would be like, as in like you wanna do like monthly monitoring, so it's like if you are doing something then you're like, well, something like I'm not on track, then that can mean you're like, well, what do I need to do to get back on track? And you change your plan accordingly.

Lauren Tilden:

Yeah, good. Let's talk about your clients or yourself, like when you're thinking about the people who have had the most success with annual planning. So they've made a plan, they've achieved their goals. They've like really. It pay off for them. What do you feel like they have in common? Like what stands out about the folks who succeed with this kind of planning?

Charrelle Griffith:

So the first thing is actually being brutally honest about what you actually want. So I, a lot of the reasons why I think actually working with someone for planning is beneficial is because it pushes you to actually be honest about your goals. Like so many times I have to push people back and be like, is this actually what you really want? Like, are you doing this is because someone else has said this? Or you think this is good, or you feel like that's achievable versus like, what do you want? Like what if you actually got to the end of the year and you achieved it? You'd be like, yes. And as I said, for me, like very much being like, how. Is your business goals aligned with your life? Those people that actually are honest about those two things in terms of like actually what they want from their business and making sure it's aligned with their life, then actually have the motivation. Because business is not easy. I'm never one to sugarcoat it and be like, oh, it's gonna be, it's not. So actually having a really strong motivation is important, and that's stopped by actually having a decent enough goal in the first place. Um, secondly, as I just mentioned about like as actually properly doing your checking in makes a difference. Like you have to be someone that. Is monitoring your progress. As I said, I know that we're in business, we are doing lots of things and so you aren't gonna be on top of your numbers all the time. But like even just being like once a month, having a little look, how are things going? It makes a big difference. And then last often is like actually having the accountability, especially if you are the only person in your business. This is particularly important if you have goals that are pushing yourself out, your comfort zone. Because if you do not have a team, so there's not someone to answer to, and you do not have anyone else holding you accountable, basically you've written down a goal that you're like, this would be nice to achieve. No one's ever gonna know If I didn't, no one's even gonna know if I didn't attempt it. The only person I'm letting down is myself. And when then you've got like an inbox that's full supply is shouted at you, clients, like all that stuff, you're just gonna be like, okay, like there's always gonna be more urgent stuff than important. That's one of the hardest things in business. There's always lots of urgent things and so like accountability can help you to be like, no, this is what's important. This is what I declared at the beginning of the year was important so. I've got someone here to make sure that I don't let this just drift away.

Lauren Tilden:

Yeah. Are there any big mistakes that you see people making when it comes to annual planning or you know, just, not talking about New Year's resolutions. Like there, this is very far from a New Year's resolution, but the stats on New

Charrelle Griffith:

Yeah.

Lauren Tilden:

are pretty bad. Like people spend all this time and effort in the first couple weeks of January, and I think it's like January

Charrelle Griffith:

Seven.

Lauren Tilden:

or

Charrelle Griffith:

Seven. I thought it was 17th. I thought it was a little bit longer than that.

Lauren Tilden:

I'll give them 17 days. It's called like quitter's

Charrelle Griffith:

Mm.

Lauren Tilden:

because by that date some huge majority of people have already given up. So we're not talking about that. This process is a much more like and you know, the monitoring step five is, is a huge part. So, yes, we're not talking about New Year's resolutions, but that said, I feel like there is a lot of momentum and energy at the beginning of the year and it isn't always easy to like keep that going, to stay in touch with things. So how do you actually stick to it? Like how, what is, I guess maybe this question is just like, what does that monitoring look like for you practically? How do you make sure that you make this plan and you're kind of like continuing to check in on it, let it be that living breathing document. And letting it continue to guide you, not just in January, but November.

Charrelle Griffith:

Yeah, so I think it has to be backed up by something else. So. As I said, like sometimes people, that means they do quarterly planning on top of it. Which means then at least as a complete and utter minimum, once every three months, they're pulling it back out. They're looking at how things are performed. They're like, do all these like, is my progress on track? Am I behind track? Am I ahead of track? And the thing I always make people also check is. What do we think? Like why? Like there's a big difference when you're like, oh, I'm behind on my sales and I haven't been doing any sales. Like I've not directed, I've not done any sales emails, I've not had any sales calls. I've not done any sales dms. Like, yeah, that's why you're behind yourself. Like there is a reason understanding like, okay, why so? Yeah, layering on top, either like doing quarterly planning, which will force you to do that. Or a more ideal way would be to do like the monthly CEO session, um, so that you can actually just stick to it, put it in your actual diary. So like when I work with people one-on-one and I do their plan. Okay, sorry.

Lauren Tilden:

the Americans listening.

Charrelle Griffith:

You know, now sometimes I can't because you, ever since you told me that I then can't remember which way round is the, um, I think to myself, is it Kindra? Is it Diary? Which way Round is the, is the English way, which one is the American? You've totally confused my head out

Lauren Tilden:

like for us, diary is

Charrelle Griffith:

a journal.

Lauren Tilden:

journal. Yeah. So like don't just put it in your diary, put it in your calendar.

Charrelle Griffith:

it in your calendar. Put it in your calendar. Um, yeah, so you want to like have that in as a commitment and so that it's there. It's something that you're like, I am doing with, again, this can be something where. If you do, this is where like if people do have accountability partners, if they're working with a business mentor or coach, any of those things, you've got a mastermind that can help you to reinforce being like, this is a time I do it. Like I'm seeing it. Increasingly, this is how, you know, it's really important is I've seen a trend of more people like doing these like co CEO calls together and stuff because it's like this is forcing me to be like to do it. And like that's like, I'll be honest, like I know with some of my clients like that. They have not been doing this stuff until two days before they get their monthly call with me. And then they're like,

Lauren Tilden:

Yeah. Yeah, well, better that than never.

Charrelle Griffith:

yeah.

Lauren Tilden:

Um,

Charrelle Griffith:

I, and I, I say this with like honesty'cause I'm like, I don't think like, you know, loving said, like, I'm probably one of the people that she knows that doesn't need like a lot of account external accountability. But there's a really good book called The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin. And it talks about like upholder. Obliger. Oh gosh, I'm gonna push myself here, aren't I? Uphold rebel questioner?

Lauren Tilden:

There you go.

Charrelle Griffith:

Um, and these people would have different like mentality like behaviors to external accountability and inner accountability and the reality. So I am an upholder, which I never realized. I just need inner accountability and I'll just get on and do with it. Like if you are not that and you need external accountability, there is no shame in getting the external accountability. Like I I, but I think so many people feel like I should be able to, and that's the difference. You have to remember in a bigger business, the accountability is naturally there because you'd have, the assistant would be asking you for something or there'd be a team member that's like, oh, like you are doing something that's parallel. So you'd have to deliver. Like actually for many of us, that accountability just used to be there naturally. And so sometimes if you decide to go business solo, you have to manufacture it.

Lauren Tilden:

Yeah. Okay. Great segue because I know, and you've mentioned this is something that you offer your clients. You know, we've gone through a process that conceptually people could do

Charrelle Griffith:

Mm-hmm.

Lauren Tilden:

but you also have alternatives to that. So what would it look like and who is the right fit to kind of do this sort of annual planning with the support of someone like you?

Charrelle Griffith:

Okay, so I, so my thing I say is the three things you need. To in a for maximum impact, I truly believe is to dedicate a day to doing your annual planning. If is something widely more like valuable in having that time together than having it bit by bit. Like, I think there's something about when you come back, you do a little bit and then you come back another day and you come back another day. And I know for many people they're like, I've taken a whole day outta my business. And even people that booked to work with me like, this is so hard. But then I'm like, yeah, but also then you are properly able to be like, this is my focus today. Like you put your out of office on, like take yourself somewhere and be like, this is what I'm gonna do. So I'm like, have a day. You wanna have, I truly believe having a person, even if you have someone else that runs their business, that's not your business. Like if you do have a business bestie, this can be an activity like you can do together. But having someone that knows a bit about business as a minimum and will challenge you. That challenging you bit is the bit that's important. That's why obviously if you work with someone like me, like I'm all about tough love and I will challenge you till all day, all night. But as long as you've got someone else that you're like, actually I don't think they're just gonna say every single goal. I say, they're gonna be like, yeah, that's fine. And when I say I'm gonna post once on social media and make you know, a hundred thousand sales, they don't go, okay. Like you just want someone that's gonna be like sense checking you be looked like devil's advocate and gonna push you and then you need like a proven framework. I'm definitely not against, uh, DIYI. I'm very open about the first time I did my annual plan for my business. I was working with someone I was in a peer mastermind with. Um, she invited me around to her house. There's like photos I've posted on social every year'cause I've got this brown paper on her like kitchen wall.'cause she let me put brown paper on a wall. And we used Amy Porterfield. Framework because like that's, we knew Amy she'd done a post. We downloaded it and we did it. I, I have got like, um, I've got a whole checklist. I will give you the link. I have a blog post where people have been on my blog post and they send me after they say, this is what I went through today. Like, I'm like, there's no, I don't feel the need to gate keep. Framework because I still know working with me is gonna be more powerful, but if all I want is every single business owner to do an annual plan and I can only work with a few anyway, so like, but I know that process of sitting down and going through and having just someone else to challenge you and to push you, like that's what you need. So DIY versus working with someone, I would argue that the, if you've had a good year. You're probably not looking for much change. You can probably DIY it. If you've had either a bad year or a good year, but you are looking for some series like growth or you were like, I wanna pivot, or you're like, I wanna like add in some complete new offerings. Or you're like, or generally you're like, actually I've been doing this stuff and I've got a lot of ideas about where I could go and I need to actually work out which ones to focus on. Then I'm like, do it with, then like come and get support. So yeah, I think if you're just, if you're just, my business has been doing okay and I'm just looking for a little bit extra, like you can probably DIY it, but as soon as you start to add more variables in or you're looking for like growth or scale, then I'm like, work with someone like me.

Lauren Tilden:

Yeah, and I'll just put a plug of like, you know, Charelle knows the audience of this

Charrelle Griffith:

Yeah.

Lauren Tilden:

very well, having been a presence for four years, every month doing a book club episode. She knows the types of businesses you all have. Like if you're looking for someone to guide you through this and be a sounding board of like, kind of just understanding. You know, when you put things on your list, like knowing what that means, she's also a marketing expert, so if you're looking for someone to take you through a process like this, I couldn't recommend anyone more.

Charrelle Griffith:

Well,

Lauren Tilden:

we'll absolutely put those next steps of like how to get signed up with you for this on the show notes

Charrelle Griffith:

And also,

Lauren Tilden:

the resources that

Charrelle Griffith:

Yeah. So I'll give you a reflection guide and the checklist. So yeah, if you do it by yourself, then you can check it. Yeah.

Lauren Tilden:

Amazing. Anything else you wanna say about annual planning or planning in general?

Charrelle Griffith:

I want to really emphasize that. I know some people definitely do feel as if one is for big businesses, not for small businesses, but I wanna remind you this, as a small business, your time, your energy and your money is way more precious than a big business ever is. I say this all the time, how many people are in a meeting? That's absolutely pointless in corporate. They don't care about people's time. How many, like I sometimes it makes me shudder when I think how much I used to spend on my Amex in my employee days. Like they used to waste money, like waste money. Like

Lauren Tilden:

Mm-hmm.

Charrelle Griffith:

you care more about your time, your energy and money. And what planning does is it helps you to do it as, um. In the best way possible. So that's one thing. And the secondly, which we didn't talk about at all actually quite amazingly, is seasonality. So the reason why I truly like, I'm like you could quarterly plan, and I think if you are listening to this and you've never done any planning and all you this made you do is actually just start doing quarterly plans. That's absolutely. Step in the right direction and is loads better. Like if you've only ever planned a week ahead or a month ahead. Moving to quarterly is amazing, but the big, big power behind annual planning for me personally is about seasonality and about really. I think we have got to a point where, so there's so much talk around like trying to have these like. Perfect. Same months, every single month in your business. And that's not reality. And I'd actually argue on this podcast, it's even probably less of a reality. There will be people that are making things that are creating things that will be more appealing at certain times of the year than other times of the year. And what annual planning does is it enables you. Be like, what am I trying to achieve across the year? Like what is my financial target or my sales target, or my profit target across the year and how does that actually break up? Like I have a little, um, thing where people, when people work with me, I like will put in like they can. Turn their sales figures into like percentages and it maps out like where their highs and their lows are to be like, where actually is your seasonality? And then is that something that is because of what you've been doing in your business? Like is it you did launch then and that's why you've got a peak? Or like you did a promotion then and that's why? Or is this stuff externally that's going on that's not going to change. And so actually for many people trying to grow. Understanding your seasonality is vital because you have to be able to work out how can I maximize my peaks and how can I like minimize the lows? And if you don't try and do that on an annual basis, you're just never gonna do it.'cause you're always just gonna be like, oh, it's low period. I'm gonna panic. I'm just gonna like try and do a discount or a sale or whatever. And then when it's, sometimes when people's peak, they get it's too high, they can't actually deal with the demand. Like they haven't been able to actually increase, create more capacity. And so. Annual planning will help. So much of that, like that's like one of the things I definitely feel like nothing else will do that. If you've got, if you are, you've had loads that are keep being low or you have peaks where you're like, actually this would've been the time where I could have made more money, but I gotta the point where I was like, I physically couldn't do more work, or there's no capacity left in the business. Like annual planning is the only thing you can do that's gonna help you to like sort that out and make it better.

Lauren Tilden:

So good. snaps, snap snaps. Okay, so at this point we are going to transition to the questions I get to ask everyone who comes on the

Charrelle Griffith:

Oh gosh. Scary bitch. She didn't tell me about this. I know.

Lauren Tilden:

know you forgot you, you've been asked these questions before, but you, you forgot them. The first is, how do you approach doing good through your small business?

Charrelle Griffith:

I genuinely would say I'm someone that is a. Very, very much a giver through my content. Like I'm very, very open, like I said, like I don't gate keep stuff. Like if you are actually someone that went on my blogs and actually followed the stuff that's out there, like you could do loads to grow your business. I've definitely never been someone that felt as if I had to hide all my secrets behind a gate. I was gonna say gatekeeper, that's not the word. Paywall or whatever.

Lauren Tilden:

Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that is absolutely true. And actually, interestingly enough, just a full circle moment is like

Charrelle Griffith:

I first met.

Lauren Tilden:

Charelle on Clubhouse and I was just about to start. A book club on my podcast. I was like, hmm. I searched Profit First. So I searched Profit First. One of the first things I found was an amazing piece of content that Charelle had written about that book and like how to implement it, how to use it, and I was like, wait, I know her. Like I met her on Clubhouse and that's like how I, you know, invited you is like realizing no, you're like really a books person. And a really great. SEO optimized piece of content.

Charrelle Griffith:

yeah.

Lauren Tilden:

Okay, so the second question I usually ask people is for a book recommendation. I'm gonna leave this a little more open-ended for you because you know, we have talked about 40 ish books together already. either a book recommendation or. book or two that we've done on the podcast or that you've read that just really stands out to you and that you kind of come back to over and over again.

Charrelle Griffith:

Oh, that's quite'cause I'm like, oh, which ones have we done where I'd be like, I mean, profit First, uh, is a very, very good book to read and very glad that that's one I highly rank for because I definitely, as you know, I'm very passionate about the numbers and the finances, so I'm like, that's a really good one. I hate having to choose this. Because I'm like, would you want a business book? Do you want a marketing book? Do you want a mindset book? Like, yeah, like you can't let me choose one.

Lauren Tilden:

Mm.

Charrelle Griffith:

Can my tip just be actually implement what you read. I don't care what you read, implement it. Because every single book, I don't think I've ever read a book that has nothing useful in it. But the problem is, do you actually take the actions from what you've read?

Lauren Tilden:

Mm-hmm. All right. Profit first.

Charrelle Griffith:

Okay.

Lauren Tilden:

Profit first. Only, only worth reading if you're gonna implement. There's literally no usefulness to it if you're not gonna actually implement it. Um, but it's a really good one. Any

Charrelle Griffith:

I had an idea, but I didn't. I was trying to think if we've done it or not. Did we ever do your money or your life?

Lauren Tilden:

No.

Charrelle Griffith:

There we go. There's, there's one for you. Your money or Your Life. It's not a business book. It's a money book that I totally changed my thinking about. Just like how we spend our money, like how we use it, our like basically you re-look at like your life value versus financial value. I can't believe I've never told you about that book actually.

Lauren Tilden:

I've never even heard of

Charrelle Griffith:

Ooh. So people that, um, if you've ever heard of the fire movement, most people,

Lauren Tilden:

Mm-hmm.

Charrelle Griffith:

that's the book that inspired lots of people that do the fire movement.

Lauren Tilden:

Okay.

Charrelle Griffith:

It's probably'cause it's not businessy that I probably never mentioned it. So there you go. Yay.

Lauren Tilden:

Love it. Thank you. And what is one small business that you admire?

Charrelle Griffith:

What do you guess? A small.

Lauren Tilden:

I mean, there's not a cutoff, like not Amazon.

Charrelle Griffith:

Because I, I'd be like, you're gonna tell me if I'd be like, I just love Anta for Thomas. I was like, she's the best thing that happened to me online. Yeah,

Lauren Tilden:

yeah. Okay. That's, that's

Charrelle Griffith:

yeah. She wrote great books. She's written great books. I thoroughly am like being in money bootcamps, like one of the best things that happened to me my entire life. So I'm forever grateful.

Lauren Tilden:

Okay.

Charrelle Griffith:

Yeah.

Lauren Tilden:

Amazing. Alright, Charelle, tell us where folks can find you

Charrelle Griffith:

Okay.

Lauren Tilden:

where they can get signed up with your annual planning offer, get all your great content, all the things.

Charrelle Griffith:

Literally, you can find all the amazing blog posts, both the books and all the business ones all over on Charelle griffith.com and I have all of my services. So yeah, that's where you can sign up for my vision to strategy, CEO days. And. If you wanna DIY, you can find all the blog posts where you can DIY, yourself, um, and then if you are on social, you can come and find me on LinkedIn and or Instagram, both for Charelle Griffith. No underscores, no craziness or anything like that, but Lauren will surely put all the notes in there. All of the links in the show notes.

Lauren Tilden:

I I surely will.

Charrelle Griffith:

Am I also not allowed? Say surely now.

Lauren Tilden:

no, no. I love it. I love it. Um, no TikTok.

Charrelle Griffith:

Oh, I'm still on TikTok, but I just feel, I mean, is your audience that much of a TikTok follower?

Lauren Tilden:

I don't know,

Charrelle Griffith:

Okay. I mean, yeah, I'm still on TikTok. I still post five days a week at the moment, like I still love it. I know.

Lauren Tilden:

Okay.

Charrelle Griffith:

love TikTok.

Lauren Tilden:

Okay. All right. TikTok too. We'll put all of that in the show notes. Charl, thank you so much. This is a really, really practical episode. I'm really excited to share it with folks. I took notes,

Charrelle Griffith:

Good.

Lauren Tilden:

they have taken

Charrelle Griffith:

Um.

Lauren Tilden:

notes. And yeah, again, we'll link to where you can go further with Charelle and all for Office offers, but thank you so much for sharing your expertise and your knowledge. So generously you always do, you do in your content you have done here today, so. Super grateful. Thank you so

Charrelle Griffith:

You are very welcome and I hope everyone go make your plan, like do your plan and like if you do, let me know. That's what actually brings me joy, is just, I really wanna change this mentality and be like, I just wanna see lots of small business owners planning and having great years.

Lauren Tilden:

Love it. Yes. Tell Charelle if you do it, tag her on Instagram or DM her.

Charrelle Griffith:

Thank.

Lauren Tilden:

Thank you so much. We'll talk to you soon. Wasn't that so good?. I took so many notes and I hope that you did too. Charelle's five step process is exactly the kind of grounded, practical strategy we all need Heading into a new year. Be sure to go connect with Charelle, especially if you're thinking about getting some outside support for your annual planning. Whether you are DIYing it or you want. Expert guidance. Charelle has so many valuable tools and offers that can help. You can find links to her website, her annual planning checklist, and everything else mentioned in this episode@makinggoodpodcast.com slash three 17. Or just check the show notes in your podcast player. If you enjoyed this episode, I would love for you to leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast player. It just takes a couple seconds and it would absolutely make my day. Thank you for being here and for focusing on making a difference with your small business. Talk to you next time.