8 Pre-Planning Questions For Entrepreneurial Success In 2025

What you’ll learn in this Multiplier Mindset blog post:

1. Why planning for next year must start now.
2. The eight key questions to ask yourself when you begin planning.
3. Why establishing success criteria for relationships is essential for success.

This time of year, I’m already thinking about the year ahead.

Here’s why:

If you wait until the end of the year or the beginning of the next to start planning, you’ve already lost so much time and momentum in the year you’re planning for.

By starting now, you give yourself the time and space to think, get clear, and create an action plan. Then, you can hit the ground running as soon as the ball drops.

Here, I’ll share the eight pre-planning questions I posed in a recent Strategic Coach Virtual PowerUp session. I invite you to answer them yourself to prepare for a successful 2025. Now’s the time!

1. On a scale of 1 to 10, how has 2024 been for you so far?
   Think about why you gave yourself this score. What were the challenges you faced? The wins? Reflect on the lessons you learned through it all.
2. What progress did you make in 2024?
   To set yourself up for a successful future, you must give your progress the appreciation and recognition it deserves. Your progress is a measurable constant (the past) that will inspire you to continue moving forward. Celebrate how far you’ve come!
3. What worked and what didn’t work in 2024, personally and professionally?
   By taking inventory of what worked and didn’t work, you can put a plan in place to double down on what’s working while course-correcting what isn’t.
4. Where would you most like to make improvements next year?
   Ask any entrepreneur what they’d like to improve in their business, and they’d probably come up with a very long list. But you can’t do everything all the time, all at once. Pick ONE area where you’d most like to make improvements and start there.
5. Imagine yourself one year from now. What would have to be true, both personally and professionally, for you to be happy with your progress?
   When you get clear on what success looks like, you give yourself a better chance of seeing that vision through. At the very least, you’ll get closer to that goal than if you had never set one!
6. Looking back over this past year, what have been your best and worst relationships, partnerships, or teamwork? Why?
   Relationships can be our biggest asset—or our most time-, money-, and energy-draining liability. Think of the relationships that brought you energy or left you depleted.
7. What are the common characteristics, values, and/or mindsets of your most successful relationships? Narrow them down to five success criteria you can use for relationship building in the future.
   For this question, many entrepreneurs like to get specific and break it down further into relationship categories. For example, the success criteria for a personal relationship may be different than the success criteria for a business partnership or a relationship with a team member.
8. Think of who your most important relationships will be with in the coming year. How would each of those people score on those five success criteria?
   Think of people you know as well as those you’d like to collaborate with. If there’s someone you’re seeking for a specific role, what attributes would they have? Your planning and success depend on the relationships you maintain and cultivate. You can’t make big moves alone; you need the right people in the right roles doing the right things.

Your answers to these questions will help you clarify your future vision and identify the team you need to achieve it. From here, you can confidently plan your best year yet.