As a friend reminded me this morning, there are only 31 days left in 2022 (😱).
What do you want your 2023 to look like in terms of projects, clients, and projected revenue?
Here’s how I approach answering that question and plotting out my projects and projections for the coming year.
Projecting Projects and Profit
In addition to the habit of doing an annual review (https://kaidavis.com/gearing-up-for-an-annual-review/), I think it’s helpful to sit down and plan out what you want next year’s projects, projections, and profits to look like.
That screenshot is from a (free) spreadsheet that Jason Zook (of Wandering Aimfully) put out a few years ago. It’s great for planning your projects and financial projections for the coming year. (I’ve kept a version of this spreadsheet going every year for the last ~five years, and it’s handy.)
- View here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hUp_8DwT4FM3QuqlFuCKtPtdvzVaaUn4RuQbnb5SgqY/edit
- Make a copy here: You can make your copy with this magic link.
How to fill out this spreadsheet
I typically approach filling this sheet out by:
- Filling out the ‘Projects’ column with the names of:
- Ongoing/recurring clients (e.g., Client #1, Client #2)
- Productized services (e.g., Marketing Opportunity Report, SEO + Growth Video Teardown).
- Products or projects (e.g., Quick Start Roadmapping)
- Then I plot out my ‘known’ income for the year. I fill in those cells on the spreadsheet for each of the following.
- Is there money I’m expecting from regular/recurring/retainer clients?
- Is there recurring revenue from products, projects, services, or affiliate/JV arrangements?
- Do I have already scheduled/paid for 2023 projects?
- Then I start to think about the future and unknown income:
- What new things am I thinking about launching in the coming year? (e.g., a new course, a new product, a new service)
- What reasonable revenue do I want each of those to generate?
- When am I going to work on those projects?
- How much time will researching, building, marketing, and launching take?
Altogether, answering those questions (and filling out the spreadsheet) helps me understand what the coming year may look like, where my revenue is coming from, and where I need to allocate (and protect) time to build things.
In my experience, this activity helps get a sense of the coming year and make adjustments. After all, filling this out can help you see if you have the following:
- A big hole in your revenue
- A busy few months (booked solid until March!)
- Some opportune time to work on building that new thing
Note: This is all an educated guess about the future!
No plan survives first contact with the enemy (and all that jazz).
When you fill this spreadsheet out, you’re making an educated guess about the year ahead. Whatever your educated guess is about the future, it’s still a guess. Stuff happens, plans shift, and projects fall through.
That’s life.
I’ve found that updating this projects and projections spreadsheet over time helps me understand how the year is going and what’s coming up. Every few weeks, I update the following:
- Income and revenue earned (so I know what happened in the past)
- Projected info and projects (so I know what’s likely coming down the pipeline)
That way, I have accurate information about what has already happened and what’s happening next.
- View the projects and projections worksheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hUp_8DwT4FM3QuqlFuCKtPtdvzVaaUn4RuQbnb5SgqY/edit
- Make a copy here: You can make your copy with this magic link.
Excelsior!
Kai
