Built Not Born Podcast · 13 October 2023
How to Plan and Set Goals in Business
A practical conversation about business planning, goal setting, prioritising tasks, time blocking and finding the right support to stay accountable.
Episode guide
About this episode
Planning is the main theme of this episode as Chris and Helen reflect on a week that pushed them to look again at where their businesses are heading. After spending the previous couple of years largely reacting to day-to-day demands, they decide to return to a more deliberate approach to setting direction and goals.
They revisit the idea of an annual 'flight path', a simple document they used in earlier years to define what they wanted to achieve by the end of the year. Chris explains why he prefers this kind of shorter-term planning to a rigid long-range business plan. The aim is not to predict everything perfectly, but to create enough direction to keep moving forward.
The conversation also looks at the value of outside support. Chris and Helen describe a session with Mike Allen from Business Doctors, which helped them refocus on questions such as who their target customers are, what problems they solve and how their marketing should be directed. They also discuss the importance of finding a coach or mentor who is a good fit, particularly after previous experiences that had made Chris sceptical about business coaching.
After that session, Chris and Helen take time away from normal work to plan together. They review business goals alongside personal goals and longer-term ambitions, and describe the process as mentally tiring but energising. A key theme is accountability, especially for a husband-and-wife team where work pressures and personal relationships naturally overlap.
The second half of the episode turns to daily planning. Helen talks about finding time blocking useful but difficult to follow when emails, customers and new tasks constantly compete for attention. She explains how written lists and colour-coded priorities help her keep track. Chris uses a similar system, creating a daily list and assigning priority levels so that genuinely urgent work is separated from tasks that can move to another day.
They also discuss the danger of creating an unrealistic to-do list and then feeling stressed when everything is not completed. Their approach is to identify the few tasks that really matter, allow lower-priority work to roll over where necessary and increase its priority if it has been left for too long.
The episode finishes with the usual lighter conversation, including a small-business customer service shout-out and another Team Chris versus Team Helen debate. Underneath the humour, the central message remains practical: planning works best when it creates clarity, realistic priorities and a sense of direction rather than another layer of pressure.
Key takeaways
What you'll learn
- Annual planning can give a business a clear direction without trying to predict every detail too far into the future.
- Personal goals and business goals can be considered together so the business supports the life its owners want to build.
- Time blocking, written task lists and priority levels can make a busy workload easier to manage.
- Not every task needs to be completed immediately. Lower-priority work can move forward as long as important tasks are identified and acted on.
- The right business coach or mentor can provide focus, perspective and accountability, especially when business owners have become too close to the day-to-day work.
Questions from this episode
Frequently asked questions
Why do Chris and Helen use annual business planning?
They use an annual 'flight path' to set a clear direction for the year without trying to predict the business too far into the future. It gives them something practical to aim towards while allowing plans to change.
How do they manage a busy daily workload?
Both use task lists and priorities. Helen also finds time blocking and colour coding useful, while Chris assigns priority levels so urgent work is separated from tasks that can move to another day.
What happens when a task is not completed that day?
They do not treat every unfinished task as a failure. Lower-priority work can roll over, but if something keeps being delayed for too long it needs to be moved up the priority list.
What did they learn from working with a business coach?
Their session with Mike Allen helped them refocus on target customers, the problems they solve, marketing direction and accountability. They also stress that the right fit matters when choosing a coach or mentor.
Do they include personal goals in business planning?
Yes. They discuss personal and longer-term goals alongside business goals so they can think about what they want the business to support in their wider life.