Plan for next year in 1 hour. Yes, most business owners sigh at the thought especially when that planning comes after the chaos of the holiday season. I’ve been there, surrounded by sticky notes, spreadsheets, and deadlines, thinking there must be a simpler way. In fact, I learned that a fast approach not only gets the job done, but removes decision fatigue and builds real momentum.
So I stopped overthinking and built a process that helps me map out my entire year’s offers in just one hour. Here’s a practical blueprint for online entrepreneurs who want focus, not overwhelm—in less than the time it takes to watch a movie.
When I say offers, I mean any way you get paid: services, packages, products, workshops, retainers, audits, VIP days, group programs, templates, paid trainings. This is for solo service providers, coaches, creators, and small agencies who want a year plan that’s clear enough to follow and flexible enough to adjust.
In 60 minutes, you’ll end up with a one-page offer calendar you can trust. It won’t be perfect, and that’s the point. Clarity first, polish later.
The 10-minute setup, pick your goals, capacity, and what you will sell
Before you place a single “launch week” on a calendar, you need boundaries. Otherwise, your plan will quietly assume you’re available 24/7, don’t get sick, and don’t want a life.
Here’s the quick setup I copy every year:
- Write down your revenue goal for next year.
- Decide how many weeks you’ll work.
- Decide your average hours per week.
- Pick three offer types (flagship, simple, scalable).
- Promise yourself you’ll adjust the plan, not your sleep.
Plan for next year by starting with three numbers, revenue goal, weeks you will work, and hours per week
Pick numbers you can live with, not numbers that impress you.
- Revenue goal: choose one number you actually want to take home, not a random “six figures” target.
- Weeks you will work: subtract vacations, holidays, school breaks, conference travel, and recovery weeks.
- Hours per week: be honest about delivery time, marketing, admin, and thinking time.
A simple example with round numbers:
- Revenue goal: $120,000
- Weeks worked: 40
- Hours per week: 25
That’s 1,000 working hours for the year. If you want $120,000 from 1,000 hours, you need about $120 per hour on average (before expenses). That doesn’t mean you price hourly. It just helps you see what’s possible.
Sanity check: if your plan only works with 60-hour weeks, the plan is the problem. Adjust your offers, your pricing, or your goal. Don’t “fix” it by deleting family time.
Choose an offer ladder, one flagship, one simple, one scalable
Three offers is usually enough. More than that, and you spend the year explaining instead of selling.
- Flagship (high-value): your main offer, deeper support, higher price. Think: 12-week coaching, done-for-you service package, monthly retainer, brand overhaul.
- Simple (easy yes): a smaller, faster win. Think: 90-minute strategy call, audit, VIP day, copy review, mini photo session.
- Scalable (less 1:1 time): something you can sell to many people without adding the same hours each time. This can be a workshop, group program, templates, or a short course. If digital products aren’t your thing, “scalable” can mean group delivery instead of one-to-one.
Examples across industries:
- A business coach: flagship 6-month coaching, simple clarity call, scalable group workshop.
- A designer: flagship website package, simple brand audit, scalable template pack (or group design day).
- A small agency: flagship retainer, simple strategy sprint, scalable monthly training for clients.
Once you choose your three, you’re ready to place them on a calendar.
My 30-minute one-page offer calendar, plan launches, themes, and promo windows fast
This is the part people overcomplicate. They try to plan every post, every email, every week. I don’t. I want a year view that answers one question: what am I mostly selling each month?
If you like having a marketing calendar framework, this marketing calendar template guide can spark seasonal ideas without forcing you into a huge plan.
Map your year with seasons and energy, then add 2 to 4 focus pushes
I start with seasons because humans buy in seasons. Energy changes, budgets change, schedules change.
On a blank 12-month page, label your year in plain terms:
- Q1: reset and rebuild (people want clarity and fresh starts)
- Spring: growth and momentum
- Summer: lighter schedules, shorter offers work better
- Fall: ramp up, serious projects, “back to routine”
- Year-end: wrap, renew, plan
Then choose 2 to 4 focus pushes. A focus push is a short window where you promote harder, book more calls, send more emails, or run a live event.
Keep the rest “steady,” meaning you still sell, but you’re not acting like every week is a grand opening.
Plan around real life:
- If you have kids, summer might be for simple offers and delivery.
- If your clients are accountants, tax season changes everything.
- If you travel in October, don’t schedule your biggest launch then.
Your calendar should feel like a path you can walk, not a treadmill.
Fill in each month with one primary offer and one support offer
My rule is boring and it works: one primary offer per month, plus one support offer that helps it.
Primary offer is what you want most sales for that month. Support offer can be:
- a smaller add-on
- a waitlist month
- a webinar or workshop
- a referral push
- a nurture month with no new thing, just content and conversations
Mini example (for a consultant):
- Primary offer: Flagship 8-week implementation package
- Support offer: paid audit that feeds the flagship
- Content theme: “Fix the bottleneck” (one message, many angles)
This approach keeps your marketing simple. When someone asks, “What are you focused on right now?” you have an answer.
And it reduces the scramble. If you want people to book consults, make booking easy. A scheduling tool helps, but the bigger win is consistency. If you’re comparing options, this roundup of scheduling apps for small business is a decent starting point.
Write a repeatable promo plan for every offer, warm up, open, close, follow up
I use the same basic promo shape all year. I change the story and examples, not the structure.
Here’s the simple timeline:
- 2 weeks warm-up: teach the problem, share proof, tell stories, invite replies
- 1 week open: clear offer details, who it’s for, price, start date, how to join
- 2 to 3 days close: direct reminders, handle objections, final call
- 1 week follow-up: reach out to “not yet” people, offer next steps, nurture
Channels can be simple:
- Email (my main one)
- Social posts (supporting, not exhausting)
- One live event (workshop, Q&A, guest training)
- Partners (podcast swaps, referrals, affiliate emails)
The key is to reuse assets. Keep one core sales page. Keep one outline for launch emails. Keep one webinar deck and update examples. Repetition builds speed. Don’t start from scratch each time as this uses more of that precious resouce: time. And no matter how much money you have, NO ONE can buy more time.
The final 20 minutes, pricing check, risks, and a plan you can actually follow
Now you have a year map. The last step is making sure it works on paper and won’t collapse the first time life gets messy.
Do a quick pricing and sales math check so the year works on paper
I do rough math, not perfect math.
For each offer, estimate:
- average price
- number of sales needed
- a conservative conversion assumption
If your best launch converts at 10 percent, plan the year assuming 5 percent. Give yourself a buffer.
If the math is tight, fix it with one move:
- raise the price
- add a payment plan (so buyers can say yes)
- add a small support offer to increase average order value
- reduce delivery load, so you’re not capped by time
If you run coaching or retainers, pricing can get fuzzy fast. Seeing how software platforms structure tiers can help you think in packages. This breakdown of pricing for solopreneurs is useful for sense-checking what “entry,” “mid,” and “premium” can look like.
Add guardrails, one “catch-up month,” one experiment, and what to track
Guardrails keep your plan from turning into chaos by March.
I add three things to my calendar:
Catch-up month: one month (or even half a month) with lighter selling. Use it for delivery, admin, case studies, sleep, and fixing what’s annoying. Many people choose July or December.
One experiment slot: a new workshop topic, a new audience, a new channel. Just one. Otherwise, shiny ideas hijack the year. My experiment in 2025 was the 12 Days of Christmas. I enjoyed it, got a lot of feedback and plan to do this every December. What will my experiment be in 2026? I don’t know yet, but I am already thinking of ideas.
Four simple metrics to track monthly:
- leads (new people entering your world)
- types of products most popular (by sales, downloads)
- conversion rate (calls to sales, or landing page to sales)
- profit per hour (money left after costs, divided by hours worked)
Review the metrics: 15 minutes at month-end, 45 minutes quarterly. That’s it.
In Summary….
My one-hour yearly offer planning flow is simple: 10 minutes for goals and capacity, 30 minutes to build a one-page offer calendar, and 20 minutes for pricing math and guardrails. The plan isn’t a cage. It’s a map you can redraw when life changes.
Block 60 minutes this week, open a blank 12-month calendar, and pick your first focus push. Then choose what you’ll sell in that window and write the warm-up start date. You’ll feel the difference fast, because clarity calms the noise.