Drinking Jameson Out of the Bottle 🥃

I didn't start the year strong — here's how to plan 2025 if you're a late starter, too.

Here's the truth — I didn't start the year strong.

I didn't have 2025 planned out in December, and I still don't. In fact, I would more say I started the year.. kinda, anti-strong?

This is me a couple of days after New Years.

My friend Kade plays in a band called Mammal, and they're pretty big. We've been mates for 20 years, and so I went to watch them play. The vibe? Full rock-star. The gig was fun, and Kade invited my friends and I backstage after the gig. We hung out, drank beers from the rider.. I'm pretty sure I swigged Jameson from a bottle at one point. Like I said, full rock star, so much fun.. and exactly the vibe I wanted to start the year.

Last year was tough; the toughest of my life. I wrote about it here, so I won't repeat it all again. My vibe this year is all about getting back on the business horse; but with a side of fun. God knows, I need it. And so really, for me, it was the PERFECT start to the year.

Of course, my rockstar experience only lasted for a night, and now it's back to real life as a mum of two balancing a business, two kiddies under five.

2025 comes with a twist, though, and a big reminder that everything is a season.

For the past five years, my partner has been stay-at-home Dad, but this year? He's craving purpose, has un-retired himself, and heads back to work starting Monday. It marks a big shift in our household, one of several in the past few weeks:

• On the first day of the year, we packed away my 2-year olds cot and nursing chair; the end of the "baby" era. All of the feels.

• In two weeks, my eldest heads to prep; the end of the "early childhood years". They said it would go fast, BUT HOW IS IT HERE ALREADY?

• And starting Monday, my role shifts from "primary breadwinner", to "primary parent", responsible for school pick ups and drop offs as well as Wednesdays off with my baby girl, and work thrown in the mix too. As a lifestyle business owner, this is what I wanted; and I'm excited as WELL as nervous to see how all of the pieces fit together. "I can do this", I tell myself.

And so, with EVERYTHING that last year and the start of this year has brought, I'm a little late off the "start 2025 strong" block — but feeling inspired, being kind to myself and can't wait to give 2025 a red hot crack.

Business and life moves in seasons, and I feel myself coming out of one of "maintenance" into one of slow growth.

Wondering how I intend to map out my 2025 game plan with a lifestyle business endgame* in mind?

Your wish is my command 🪄

*By "lifestyle business", I simply mean a business that priorities profit, time and lifestyle equally and doesn't optimise for revenue at any cost.

Side note: There's 103,384 people teaching you how to plan 2025. But, honestly I recommend being careful about WHO you learn from. Just make sure that THEIR endgame is the same of yours. Because, I can say from experience that there isn't really much more derailing than spending a year running in the wrong direction because you weren't intentional enough to ensure that you were chasing YOUR OWN dream.

Now, with that out of the way, here's how to do it:

👉 Endgame — Most 2025 planning starts with a revenue goal. I don't, because there is a step that comes before it. If your business exists to support your lifestyle, first decide what figure is required. Complete a personal budget; and ALSO decide on how much you want to invest into assets outside of your business to eventually make work optional.

👉 Revenue Enough Number— Once you know that number, you can intentionally define your revenue "enough number". This is the revenue the business should make to support itself, and also your lifestyle endgame. Having an enough number will help to prevent the relentless pursuit of more so common in the online world. This number includes the profit required to fulfil your endgame, your expenses (fixed and variable) and tax.

👉 Offer Suite — What is the breakdown of your offers to achieve your revenue goal, and how much revenue do you want to make from each?

👉 Yearly Map — Get a calendar of the year (I have a spreadsheet, but others buy big physical ones) and map out key dates. Start with personal life and holidays, and then plot out your campaign plan in the step below.

👉 Campaign Plan — What marketing campaigns will you run throughout the year to achieve your revenue goal for each offer? Plot them out, and roughly decide on the campaign theme and sales funnel for each. Determine how much traffic you need for each campaign to achieve your revenue goals for each campaign.

👉 Marketing Plan — Decide on your key marketing activities for the year. Ensure you have one consistent top of funnel traffic generation strategy and one trust building middle of funnel strategy. Map out a content frequency plan.

👉 Project Plan — In your project management software, map out the tasks for your first one to two months of activities.

👉 Install Habits — Who do you need to be in order to make your plans come to life? Choose three words that define who you need to be, and one to three habits that would signify that you embody it. Start a habit tracker and imperfectly begin becoming the person you need to be to make these plans a reality.

👉 Install Tracking— Finally, set up simple tracking and update it weekly. I track five things:
a) Key metrics: I use the Lifestyle Business School operating system tracker which tracks key metrics to see at a birds eye view if I am on track;
2) Scorecard: I track ALL key metrics using a scorecard;
3) Sales funnels: I track the performance of my sales funnels/campaigns;
4) Time: I record and track my time.
5) Wealth tracker: I track my progress toward my net worth goals.

By completing a similar planning exercise (even if you start a little later than Jan 1 like me!), you'll be off to an intentional start to 2025.

Next week, I will share my EXACT game plan using this methodology so stay tuned.