New Year, New Goals! Strategic Planning Tips to Grow Your Business in 2025
A new year is the perfect time to reflect on the past and set fresh goals for your business. At Kwedar & Co., we love kicking off each year with intention, gearing up for new challenges and finding ways to grow. Here are some of our favorite ways to get our Fort Worth PR team ready to take on the year ahead!
Recap Your Prior Year
If you’ve set goals in the past, you can look back and see what you’ve achieved, what you were close to achieving, and reflect on why you succeeded or fell short and whether it’s worth setting that goal again. Sometimes, a goal may not have been realistic, or external factors beyond your control prevented you from reaching it. That’s okay. Not every goal has to be met, but if you still want it, make it a priority and try again. The best part about goals is that they’re aspirations; if one no longer fits your vision, you can let it go. It’s also important to celebrate your wins, no matter how big or small.
Be strategic when planning.
One of the best things you can do is have your team review their calendars. Have them look at how many client meetings, onboarding calls, team calls, appointments, quarterly meetings, events, and vacations they had last year. Also, check your social media and website analytics, CMS system, project management systems, and billing, did you close out the majority of your projects? Were your numbers where you expected them to be? Did you notice any trends, whether upward or downward? Compare those numbers to the year before; did they correlate? Reflect on the changes you made and identify what contributed to growth, or what occurred during slumps.
Check your reviews for the year: how were clients/customers talking about you? Were the reviews positive or negative? What kind of experience did you provide them? Is that client someone you want to work with again? What led to that review, and how can you encourage more positive feedback?
Tool Tip
Then, as you set the stage for this year, it’s time to map out your corporate vision and game plan. A tool we have found useful and meaningful is the EOS Vision Tracker Organizer. (PS if you haven’t read Traction, this is your sign to check it out!)
Visions, Goals, and Gaining Traction
After your team has reflected on the past year, it’s time to set goals for the new year. This year, our team tried something a little different. Instead of jotting down numbers on a blank sheet of paper or holding another meeting that feels like work, we created 2025 bingo cards!
We create two version: one for the company and one as a personal card. For the company card, we divided the 25 boxes among the team and collaborated on what to include. Though the boxes were the same, our cards were different (just like real bingo). As we achieve goals, we’ll stamp the corresponding spaces. The first person to BINGO wins a prize!
The personal cards were designed to help us hold ourselves accountable. We made them fun and meaningful, incorporating personal growth and self-reflection, not just work-related responsibilities.
No matter what process you choose to set goals, envision where you want your company to go, commit to the goals to get you there, and create a process to help you gain traction. Make them trackable (using spreadsheets, agendas, or a project management system), fun, and attainable.
Tool Tip
We designed our bingo card on Canva! There are many templates out there that you can brand and customize to your liking. Print out and make it pretty!
Clean! Clean! Clean!
Once your team has set goals for the year, it’s important to do some housekeeping on your systems and programs. Archive the old and set up for the new. Clean up your Google Drive folders, making them easy to navigate. We suggest creating a system to align your projects across all clients/customers. Ensure old projects are cleaned up in your project management systems and that your team has finished everything that was a priority last year. If something wasn’t completed, make sure it’s marked as a high priority to finish first this year. Also, ensure all clients are paid up for the year so everyone starts fresh in the new year.
Tool Tip
We use ClickUp for project management. It’s flexible and robust, and it appeals to our creative and organized selves!
Team Calendars
If you’re the person in charge of your team, or if someone else on your team is, it’s important to go ahead and block out recurring meetings. For example, we have Monday morning calls for the whole team, leadership huddles, strategy/training days, monthly hackathons, quarterly leadership meetings, and an annual company-wide retreat. Make sure to include everyone who needs to be in those meetings! If it's a recurring meeting, double-check that it doesn’t fall on holidays or special events
Have your teammates review their year and block out time for appointments, vacations, birthdays, and work anniversaries so the team can celebrate together. As big events happen, mark them on the calendar so you can easily refer to them in the following year.
Also, mark dates on the calendar to review your progress on the goals you set for the year. If you don’t already, I highly suggest holding quarterly meetings. Set rocks, KPIs, and priorities, and break the goals down into actionable tasks for your team members. This will help put the goals into perspective and make everyone feel like they contributed to the growth of the year. Reward your team each quarter as milestones are met. It keeps everyone motivated and aligned, driving forward together.
Plan, Implement, Track, Account, and Repeat
To recap: With goals created based on your vision for the year, it’s important to set up a plan to achieve them. Clean up your systems, folders, outstanding projects, and invoices. Have your team implement the plan and set up a way to track progress. Hold each other accountable and repeat the process for the new year. Here’s to a wonderful kickstart to the year!
Need help setting meaningful PR, marketing, and communications goals this year? Let’s talk!
About The Author
Jessica Pickard is the Operations & Project Manager for Kwedar & Co. Jessica oversees operational and project excellence at KCo, ensuring seamless support for both client and business needs. Jessica has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from Murray State University. She is based in Kentucky.
