PCA Articles

DEFINING YOUR PRIMARY AIM IN ANNUAL PLANNING

DEFINING YOUR PRIMARY AIM IN ANNUAL PLANNING

As August comes to a close, it might seem early to think about planning season, but the time for 2025 Annual Planning is just around the corner. At Nolan Consulting Group, our mission is to support and hold our clients accountable for dedicating intentional planning time. To achieve this, we use our Cascading Process Cycle (CPC), a system that clearly outlines the steps we recommend for shaping your annual business strategy to drive improvement and achieve your vision at all organizational levels.

A crucial element of this process is defining your primary aim—a clear vision of your ultimate purpose and future goals. We believe this should be the starting point in your planning process, as it sets the tone for both your personal and professional aspirations.

Now is the ideal time to focus on your Primary Aim; it’s the first step in the process!

WHAT IS A PRIMARY AIM?

The Primary Aim is a written vision that captures the perfect blend of your ideal work and life environment, representing the balanced life you aspire to achieve. It serves as a roadmap to what you truly desire, allowing you to clearly outline the steps needed to reach that goal. When something is committed to paper, it becomes tangible and real!

HOW TO WRITE YOUR PRIMARY AIM

Below is an exercise we use with our clients to help them start crafting their primary aim, especially if they haven’t yet created one. This process is deeply personal, and for many, the thought of doing something like this can feel uncomfortable or unfamiliar. Whether it’s the fear of committing to something on paper or the uncertainty of what the future holds, it’s perfectly okay to feel that way.

This exercise is designed to help you tap into the core of what makes you happy, what “a really good day” would look like… it’s not asking you to predict the future and then expecting you to live up to that expectation with fear of failure. Elements of your Primary Aim are likely to come to fruition and some things might change – we all know life is about adapting, we’ve all experienced that pretty recently first hand.

We encourage you to take your time on this, think about the questions below – let them fully process and dream a little – before jumping into the story.

REVISITING A PRIMARY AIM

If you’ve already gone through the process of writing your Primary Aim in the past, now is the perfect time to revisit it. We actually do encourage our clients to look at this on an annual basis to keep it relevant.

  • What’s on track?
  • What updates do we need to make?
  • Anything we need to add?

Remember, we expect some updates to be made on an annual basis, this is life after all! Personal and business circumstances will evolve, we can’t control everything. Take this time to create an updated version of your Primary Aim, still focusing on a date 5 years out. The ball just keeps moving forward.

WHY YOUR PRIMARY AIM MATTERS TO THE BIGGER PICTURE

Once it’s written, share your Primary Aim with others close to you and remember to keep it nearby, it’s now a powerful tool for how you are choosing to focus your future and it can truly impact the direction of our business:

Providing Clarity of Purpose

Without a defined primary aim, it’s easy to drift aimlessly through the business year. A primary aim provides clarity, helping you stay focused on what truly matters. It ensures that your business decisions are aligned with your personal values and long-term aspirations.

Personally Motivates and Drives you Forward

Running a business is challenging, and there will be times when you face setbacks and obstacles. Your primary aim serves as a powerful motivator during tough times. This is why we want you to keep it close by, it reminds you of why you started in the first place and helps you push through challenges with renewed energy and determination.

Crafts the Business Strategic Alignment

Annual planning involves setting goals, creating budgets, and outlining strategies. When these are aligned with your primary aim, they become more meaningful and achievable. It ensures that every aspect of your business is working towards the same ultimate goal, leading to better decision-making and resource allocation. This is about building value and we can use this Primary Aim as a guiding lens for making decisions.

Measures Success Across the Big Picture

Financial metrics and key performance indicators are important, but they don’t tell the full story all the time. A primary aim allows you to measure success in a more holistic way. Are you living the life you envisioned when you started your business? Are you making the impact you intended? Do you feel fulfilled as a whole person? These are the kinds of questions your primary aim helps you answer.

CRAFTING YOUR PRIMARY AIM: THE EXERCISE

It’s time to get intentional! Picture a day 5 years from now…. What is happening in your life? What does the day look like when your business is serving you? Write a narrative of that day (pick the date). Consider answering the questions below, and then write your narrative. Incorporate all elements in your life; all your roles and relationships. Write it in the present tense, as if it is that day in the future.

This should be personal, but incorporates the business, when the business is serving your life the way you desire.

  • What do I want to be doing on a day-to-day basis?
  • What would I like to be able to say I truly know in my life, about my life?
  • How would I like to be with other people in my life- my family, friends, my business associates, my customers, my employees, my community?
  • How would I like people to think of me?
  • What specifically would I like to learn during my life- spiritually, physically, financially, technically, intellectually? About my relationships?

My Primary Aim Narrative: A Day in the Life

INSERT FUTURE DATE (ex: September 3, 2029)

It’s a beautiful Monday morning….GO!

MAKING IT HAPPEN

In the fast-paced world of small business, it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture and get lost in the noise of the day to day. Defining and regularly revisiting your primary aim can help you stay focused, motivated, and aligned with your true purpose. As you embark on your next annual business planning session, take the time to reflect on your primary aim first. It could be the key to unlocking your business’s full potential.

Want to hear more from Nolan Consulting Group? Check out our podcast Out of the Hourglass, a weekly channel developed to speak directly to topics across business planning and the trades industry. We aim to help business owners visualize their goals, develop their teams and build sustainable growth.