It’s October – can you believe it?

For some of you, that might pumpkin spice lattes, hayrides, bonfires, and holiday family gatherings.

But for small business owners, creatives, bloggers, and businesses, this is the start of quarter 4 and busy season!

And while busy season is a reason to anticipate and celebrate, not having a clear-cut plan for marketing and content creation can hold you back from higher sales and more business opportunities.

If you haven’t planned ahead for your business in terms of content, sales, and overall marketing goals, now’s your chance to execute a plan for the next 6 months and beyond!

Let’s uncover these 3 simple ways you can plan out the next 6 months (or more!) of your business in as little as a day!

 

Create goals

A business without a plan is just a happy thought.

Without goals, there’s no clear direction where you want your business to end up. You might think to yourself  ” I want to make $1,000 each week”, but without a plan to do this, it’s just a nice thought.

What I like to do at the beginning of each year is draft a new business journal containing my ideas for content, products, and goals for the year. 3-4 times a year, I look back and review my goals & content ideas to see what I’ve reached and what I still need to work on. This helps me stay on track to keep moving forward in my business.

The worst thing you can do for yourself is to set goals and look back on them at the end of the year to find that you achieved nothing.

Talk about a business buzzkill.

And this doesn’t need to be done at the beginning of the year, you can start any day of the year – in fact, the sooner the better!

You can’t afford to put this off another day, so start brainstorming ideas for your business and write them down now. Better yet, inspire yourself with a new journal or planner to help you stay on track.

Tip: Use the Goal Getter Workbook to outline your goals and keep yourself accountable week by week.

 

Make a calendar

All of these business goals won’t mean anything if you don’t create a clear-cut plan to make them into reality.

Once you have your new planner, you can start outlining your content in one easy-to-store place for simple reference.

Being able to visually lay out your content and seasonal goals will help make them become a living reality & will be your own paper proof to keep you accountable!

What I like to do when drafting out my calendar is highlight my main objectives for each month, then focus on what product or service I wish to promote and highlight that given month.

Then it’s a breeze to come up with content for my blog, videos for my YouTube channel, and emails for my subscribers based on my content plan – I never have to guess what to work on next as I have it already drafted in one place!

If you want to be extra visual, then take it a step further and create a monthly wall calendar or desk calendar to view as a daily reminder.

You can literally not plan enough to achieve your goals!

Tip: Use this Marketing system & content calendar to organize your tasks and keep your business on track!

 

Outline your content

More about this content outlining – it’s a lifesaver in business organization!

So once you’ve created a plan and starting working on your calendar, you need to be crystal clear as to your objectives when it comes to content.

Are you running a sale and need some fresh blog posts to promote it?

How about you are revealing a new service and need to create a killer opt-in to get new leads in the door.

Or you simply wish to keep the ball rolling with what you have in new & fresh ways to promote yourself.

Whatever the scenario, having a clear outline of what your content should be aimed towards is essential.

For example, each month in my business I feature a product that I highlight in all of my new content. I promote this product in the form of new tutorials, extra product samples on social media, and emails to my subscribers of all the product features.

This in turn gets fresh eyes to my product and rakes in more sales for the month – not to mention, it keeps the ball rolling in terms of content creation and keeping up with my blogging in an organized direction (instead of just winging it).

This content outlining is not only great for organization purposes, but a HUGE time-saver in general.

Cut your marketing time in half with our Fast Track Marketing system!

Inside Fast Track Marketing, you’ll get all the tools, tips, and resources for keeping your business organized every day of the year.

Just think of all the time wasted when you don’t have a plan and are trying to come up with new things to share and create on the spot.

Planning out 6 months or a year of content might seem daunting, but once it’s done and laid-out, you’ll be glad you took the time and effort!

Not only will you feel refreshed knowing that you now have a clear direction in how you want to grow your business, you’ll be able to work more efficiently when it comes down to it.

How will you use these ways in your business to gain traction and plan out your next few months?