On the mind.

End of Year Planning for 2025

I’m running through our 2025 financial goals, and it’s funny to me how, as we continue to grow our business, the more I find myself simplifying how I look at projections.

The first year we started business, I had by far the most complicated spreadsheets to date. For years, I stuck to a similar rulebook of overly complex spreadsheets with too many tabs.

It’s not that I’m getting lazy, I’ve just realized that much of what I used to set for our team was unnecessary. As the years unfolded on the projections I use to set, we still made adjustments and maintained a growth and budget-friendly mindset. This year, I eliminated several documents I used to rely on, including: complex monthly projections, detailed expense sheets, margin calculations, and per-employee cost/output/capacity analyses.

That said, it’s still crucial for our team to financially align on what’s ahead for 2025. As I plan and present to the team, here’s a list of the documents I’ve prepared for this year’s planning:

1. Hiring Plan. This sheet lays out the expected hires we’ll need to hit our revenue goals. Aligning on the yearly hires is critical for budgeting and managing expenses—that way the team know’s their budget and when they can spend it on people. After all, we’re essentially a company of people and computers. This document includes the position title, location, expected salary costs, and the quarter in which we plan to hire.

2. Revenue Goals. We’re aiming for at least 25% revenue growth next year. Spread that out over 12-months and those are our sales targets.

3. Bonus Structures. Each year, we outline expected bonuses for the team if we meet our sales goals. We’re changing things up this year—still doing bonuses, just differently. This document is key to ensuring the whole team is aligned on pay incentives.

4. Marketing and Sales Budget. This year, our team is preparing this document for me to review and approve. It’s the most detailed plan on the list, covering what our marketing and sales teams expect to spend. It includes expenses for travel, lead generation, gifts, industry and trade memberships, conferences, and more.

5. Simple Monthly Expense Projections. This document outlines our expense projections so we know what to expect each month. It includes all expenses by our three physical locations, covering employee costs and raises, hardware costs, office space, miscellaneous items, and more.

Running a business isn’t that complicated or at least it doesn’t need to be—depending on the type of business, of course. Maybe it’s my experience that is allowing me to see things differently now, but I believe laying everything out simply, with clear goals, works best.

Keep it simple, people.

Small Writing Break

This is The Weekly No. 27! Can’t believe I’ve been writing for 27 weeks now. Just a heads-up, I’m taking a couple of weeks off from writing to focus on some end-of-year work and spend time with family. I’ll see you all back here in the second week of January 2025!

Weekly moments.

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Thanks for following along!

The Weekly is a newsletter that goes out each week written by Greg Bellinger, currently building and CEO of White Rabbit Group and The Labs.

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