Plan before January
Spring hiring, pricing, and capacity decisions start in the fall. Build a plan before the busy season leaves you reacting to it.
2027 planning season
Your 2027 plan, built with your team.
A private planning session for your owners and managers. A budget by department and month. A plan your team understands—and a review rhythm that keeps it useful after January.
Private to your company. Not a public event or a group workshop.
Make the decisions before the year makes them for you.
Your team, your numbers
Owners, the GM, and department managers build the plan together. A private session gives you room to discuss your own numbers and people openly.
Keep the plan in use
Budget-to-actual reviews and manager targets make the plan part of running the business—not a binder you stop opening in March.
The working session
A sample planning agenda
Use this as a starting point for your company's session. We scope the format and priorities with you based on your business, available information, and leadership team.
Set the direction
Start with what the owners want from the business and the few goals that matter most for 2027. Align your leadership team before opening the spreadsheet.
Work backward from profit
Identify the net profit and owner pay you want, then work back to the revenue and margins needed to support them.
Build departmental budgets
Plan revenue, gross margin, and overhead by month for each trade and department. Separate service and installation so their different economics stay visible.
Test the capacity
Translate the budget into workdays, staffing, and billable hours. Identify when hiring is needed rather than assuming the existing team can absorb every target.
Set performance targets
Connect call volume, conversion, average ticket, memberships, and efficiency to each department's plan. Give managers measures they can influence.
Check the selling price
Calculate the rate needed to cover the real cost of doing the work and support your target margin. Compare it with how you price today.
Assign the action plan
Name an owner and a date for each priority. Agree on how progress, budget variances, and changing assumptions will be reviewed.
Build something your managers can run.
The planning work connects the financial model to practical decisions. Core outputs include:
- Annual budget by department and month
- Selling-price and break-even calculations
- Staffing and hiring priorities
- KPI targets for each manager
- Written actions with owners and dates
Then coach to the plan.
Discuss ongoing monthly reviews as part of your planning engagement. Review budget versus actual by department, explain the variances, and check KPIs against the targets your managers helped set.
Each review asks what moved, what is stuck, and what needs to change in the next month. If the assumptions change, reforecast instead of defending a plan that no longer fits.
Explore budget & business planningStart with the business you actually have.
Already have a budget?
Bring it, along with the actual results. We can test the assumptions, identify the gaps, and turn the useful work into targets your managers own.
Books need work?
You do not need perfect books to begin the conversation. Operations and accounting coaching can run alongside planning so the numbers become more useful as you work.
A different fiscal year?
Aim to plan 60–90 days before your fiscal year begins. If it is already underway, plan the remaining months rather than waiting for another January.
Part of a multi-brand group?
Plan at the brand level and roll the budgets up using the group's reporting standards. Explore support for enterprise teams.