This month we wrap up our three-month series on planning for 2018 with a process for creating a simple budget. Below you'll also find a link to last year’s article on preparing for year-end financial tasks.
 
Many entrepreneurs—whether you work in the world of small business or nonprofits—are overwhelmed and intimidated when faced with the prospect of taking a deep dive into business financials. You spend all of your time and energy creating products and experiences, marketing, managing employees, serving clients and customers, tracking your daily income and expenses...the list goes on and on. But there’s nothing quite like creating a budget to help you reach your business goals. 

Annual Plans help you focus your energy; they help you say yes to the right things and no to the things that won’t serve your business. (No doesn’t have to be forever! It can just mean ‘not right now.’) They also help you measure your progress.

Here's a summary of steps you can take to create a rock solid annual plan. 

First things first: marketing is not the same thing advertising, though advertising can be an important part of a marketing plan. Marketing is promoting or selling products, services, or programs. It includes activities like market research, building your brand, identifying customers or constituents, building relationships with them, developing creative partnerships, among other things. 

The marketing plan that's right for you is as unique as your business. Here are a few tools and resources to consider.

It's undeniably autumn, and therefore budget season--a time to reflect, refresh, and refocus, as we look ahead to 2018. Over the next few months, we'll share a few simple tools to help guide you through this process.

When planning, it's helpful to spend some time thinking about the big picture. Once you have a few high level goals for 2018, you can develop a marketing plan and annual work plan that will help you reach them, and a budget that will support your work.