name: annual-planning-process-runner description: > Runs the full annual planning process — last year's audit, revenue reverse engineering, offer suite review, quarterly milestones, and owner-dependency benchmark. First two weeks of December, annually. metadata: author: "Kathryn Brown, Practice Builders" version: "1.0.0" date: "2026-04-28" sop: "Annual Planning Process" category: "Practice Strategy" frequency: "Annually" estimated-time: "90 min" trigger: "First two weeks of December"

Annual Planning Process — Runner

You are executing the Annual Planning Process SOP for an independent consultant. Most solo consultants start January with vague intentions instead of an operating plan. This runner builds the plan from last year's actual data — not December optimism — so every goal connects to evidence, capacity, and revenue math that works.

Do not skip steps. Do not ask questions across multiple turns — collect everything upfront.

What you'll have when this is done: A complete annual plan with quarterly revenue milestones, validated engagement targets, Q1 operating priorities, and an owner-dependency benchmark to track against throughout the year.

Step 1: Collect All Inputs

Gather the following from the user in a single prompt. Accept whatever detail level they provide. Flag gaps but keep moving.

Quarterly Reflections (all four quarters):

• Key wins per quarter
• Key losses or misses per quarter
• Corrective actions taken and whether they stuck
• Revenue per quarter
• Client count per quarter

Current Year Financial Summary:

• Total annual revenue
• Revenue by client (or top 5-10 clients with amounts)
• Revenue by offer type (retainer, project, one-time)
• Revenue by quarter

Current Offer Suite:

• Each offer: name, deliverable, price, typical duration, frequency sold per quarter
• Which offers lead to which (client journey, if known)
• Any offers being considered for addition or removal

Current Ideal Client Profile:

• Who your best clients are (industry, size, characteristics)
• What they buy first and why
• What triggers them to engage

Practice Parameters:

• Total available hours per week
• Current billable utilization estimate
• Non-billable recurring hours (admin, BD, content)
• Planned time off or capacity changes for the coming year

Forward-Looking:

• Target revenue for next year
• Any new offers, channels, or verticals planned
• Known continuing clients and their expected revenue
• Close rate (actual or estimated — what percentage of qualified conversations become clients)
• Average engagement length (months)
• Any strategic goals beyond revenue (exit planning, team building, vertical expansion, etc.)

Step 2: Review Quarterly Reflections

Analyze the four quarterly reflections side by side. Produce:

Pattern Summary:

• Repeated patterns: What showed up in 2+ quarters (positive or negative)
• Corrective actions that stuck: Changes made that held through subsequent quarters
• Corrective actions that didn't stick: Changes attempted but abandoned or reverted
• Revenue trajectory: Quarter-over-quarter trend (accelerating, decelerating, flat, volatile)
• Client trajectory: Quarter-over-quarter client count trend

Key Insight: One paragraph naming the single most important finding. This finding should shape the annual plan more than any other data point.

Rule: If the user didn't complete quarterly reflections, work with whatever data they have — but note the gap. The plan's quality depends on the quality of the backward look.

Step 3: Run the Revenue Reverse Engineer (Condensed)

Using the target revenue, current pricing, close rate, and continuing client data, build the full revenue math.

3a. Revenue Waterfall

Use actual close rate if provided. If not, use 30% as the conservative default. Proposal rate default: 60%. Conversation rate varies by channel: referral ~40%, content inbound ~7%, cold outreach ~3%.

3b. Activity Translation

Also calculate:

• Billable hours required: Clients x estimated hours per client per month
• BD hours required: Weekly conversations x avg time per conversation + proposal writing + follow-up
• Admin hours: 15-20% of total
• Total committed hours per week

3c. Capacity Check

Verdict:

• Math works (under 85% total utilization): Target is achievable. Show the weekly rhythm.
• Tight (85-95%): Achievable but no buffer. Flag the risk.
• Doesn't work (over 95%): Show three levers:
• Raise prices: What average engagement value makes the math work?
• Improve close rate: What close rate reduces the load enough?
• Lower the target: What's the highest achievable target at current rates?

Critical check: If the required BD activity doesn't fit within available non-billable hours, name the trade-off explicitly. Never present a revenue target without the math showing what has to be true to hit it.

3d. Sensitivity Analysis

Step 4: Run the Annual Plan Builder (Condensed)

Using the quarterly data, validated revenue math from Step 3, and capacity constraints, build the full annual plan.

4a. Last Year's Audit

Revenue Composition:

Key takeaway: [One sentence]

Client Economics:

• Average revenue per client: \$[Amount]
• Revenue concentration (top 3 clients): [%]
• Client range: \$[Highest] to \$[Lowest]

Flag: If revenue concentration is above 40% in the top 3 clients, note the risk. If utilization is above 80%, note the ceiling.

Activity ROI:

Capacity Snapshot: Based on client count and engagement hours, estimate last year's utilization rate.

4b. Strategic Priorities

Rules for this section:

• Include at least one "stop doing" item. If nothing from last year should be eliminated, you're not being honest about what didn't work.
• "Start doing" items each need a specific mechanism and timeline.
• "Keep doing" items get protected time — name the time block.

4c. Quarterly Milestones

Rules for milestones:

• Revenue is not evenly split. Account for seasonal patterns and ramp-up time. Q1 is often lower (pipeline building), Q2-Q3 are execution, Q4 is optimization and planning.
• Every quarter has an explicit trade-off — what you are choosing NOT to work on so the key deliverable gets done. A plan that says yes to everything prioritizes nothing.
• Keep Q1 hyper-specific, Q2 specific, Q3-Q4 directional. Over-planning the second half creates a false sense of control.
• Each quarter builds on the previous one.

4d. Assumptions and Risk Register

Include revenue assumptions, capacity assumptions, and market assumptions. For each, rate risk and name the contingency.

Watch for: Revenue math requiring more than 15% growth in a category you didn't grow last year. Growth beyond 15% in a new direction requires a structural change (new offer, new channel, new vertical) — not just "more of the same." Name the structural change or reduce the target.

Step 5: Review the Offer Suite

Using the current offer data, assess suite fitness for the annual plan.

Suite Assessment:

Evaluate against:

• Clear progression: Does each tier logically lead to the next with a defined bridge?
• Pricing logic: Does the step-up create appropriate differentiation (3-5x between tiers)?
• Entry to core conversion: Does the entry offer naturally reveal the need for the core engagement?
• Revenue math alignment: Will this suite support the revenue targets from Step 3?
• Gaps: Is there a missing tier (no entry point, no ongoing, no core)?

Recommendations: 2-4 bullet points on offer changes needed to support the annual plan. Be specific — "raise the core offer price from \$X to \$Y to reduce the new-client requirement from N to M" not "consider adjusting pricing."

Rule: Don't kill working offers for theoretical elegance. If an informal arrangement generates good revenue, formalize it into the suite rather than eliminating it.

Step 6: Set Q1 Operating Priorities

From the annual plan, extract exactly three Q1 priorities. Each must:

• Connect directly to an annual target (state which one)
• Have a specific deliverable by end of Q1
• Have a measurable success indicator
• Name what you're choosing NOT to do to make room

Rule: No more than three. If everything is a priority, nothing is. Each priority should be executable starting tomorrow — if it requires two months of setup before you can start, it's a Q2 priority.

Step 7: Run Exit Readiness Assessment

Benchmark the practice's owner dependency and transferability. This creates the baseline to track throughout the year.

Owner Dependency Assessment:

Owner Dependency Score: [Count of "Yes" / Total areas] — higher score = higher dependency = higher risk.

Transferability Rating:

• High dependency (4+ areas): Practice stops if you do. This is the baseline risk. Annual plan should include at least one initiative to reduce dependency.
• Moderate dependency (2-3 areas): Some resilience. Target specific areas for the year.
• Low dependency (0-1 areas): Practice has structural value beyond the owner.

This year's target: Reduce dependency in [specific area] by [specific mechanism] — connect to one of the Q1 priorities if applicable.

Step 8: Assemble the Annual Plan

Combine all outputs into a single document:

# Annual Plan: [Year]
**Date created:** [Date] | **Last year revenue:** \$[Amount] | **Target revenue:** \$[Amount]

## Quarterly Reflection Summary
[Pattern summary from Step 2 — repeated patterns, what stuck, what didn't, key insight]

## Last Year Audit

### Revenue Composition
[Table from Step 4a]

### Client Economics
[Metrics from Step 4a]

### Activity ROI
[Table from Step 4a]

## Revenue Math

### Revenue Waterfall
[Table from Step 3a]

### Weekly Activity Requirements
[Table from Step 3b]

### Capacity Check
[Table and verdict from Step 3c]

### Sensitivity Analysis
[Table from Step 3d]

## Offer Suite Fitness
[Assessment table and recommendations from Step 5]

## Strategic Priorities
[Keep/Start/Stop/Reduce table from Step 4b]

## Quarterly Milestones
[Table from Step 4c]

## Q1 Operating Priorities
[Table from Step 6 — three priorities with deliverables and trade-offs]

## Assumptions and Risks
[Table from Step 4d]

## Owner Dependency Benchmark
[Assessment table, score, and this year's target from Step 7]

## SOPs to Trigger
- [ ] Quarterly Reflection Debrief — schedule for end of Q1
- [ ] Offer Suite Designer — if suite changes recommended in Step 5
- [ ] Revenue Goal Reverse Engineer — re-run at mid-year with actuals
- [ ] Ideal Client Profile Refiner — if ICP shifts are part of the plan
- [ ] Exit Readiness Assessment — re-run at year-end to measure progress

Quality Check

Before presenting the output, verify:

Identify the weakest section. Rewrite it. Verify the rewrite is present and improved before presenting.

Rules

From the SOP:

1. Never set revenue targets without reverse-engineering the engagement math. A number on a whiteboard isn't a plan. If you can't map the target to specific offer volumes at current close rates, it's a wish.
2. Never plan in isolation from quarterly data. Your Q4 energy says "big goals." Your quarterly reflections say what actually happened. Plan from data, not December optimism.

From the Annual Plan Builder skill:

1. Never present a revenue target without the reverse-engineered math showing what has to be true to hit it.
2. Always distinguish between continuing revenue (existing clients likely to renew) and new revenue required. The gap is the only number that matters for planning BD activity.
3. Force trade-offs in every quarter. A plan that says yes to everything is a plan that prioritizes nothing.
4. Flag when the plan requires growth rates that conflict with last year's actual performance.
5. Keep Q1 hyper-specific, Q2 specific, Q3-Q4 directional.
6. Never plan for 100% utilization. Cap at 75-80%.
7. Include at least one "stop doing" item.

From the Revenue Goal Reverse Engineer skill:

1. Always work backward from the target, not forward from activity.
2. Never assume a close rate above 40% unless the user provides data supporting it. Most solo consultants close 25-35%.
3. Include continuing client revenue. Ignoring retention inflates the new-client requirement.
4. Show weekly activity, not just annual. "24 new clients per year" is abstract. "2 qualified conversations per week" is schedulable.
5. When the math doesn't work, quantify all three levers — don't just say "raise your prices."
6. Never present the analysis without the capacity check.

From the Offer Suite Designer skill:

1. Never design more than 4 tiers. Complexity kills conversion.
2. Always include a bridge between tiers — an offer without a next step is a dead end.
3. Price based on outcome value, not hours.
4. Don't kill working offers for theoretical elegance.
5. Every offer needs a name.

Output format:

1. This is an annual operating document. Keep it scannable — short paragraphs, tables for structured data, bold for emphasis.
2. Escape dollar signs as \$ for Notion compatibility.
3. Present as a single unified document, not separate skill outputs.
4. If data is incomplete, work with what's available and note assumptions. Never fabricate data.

Copyright (c) 2026 Kathryn Brown, Practice Builders Licensed under the Practice Builders Skill License v1.0 See https://practicebuilders.ai/license for terms.

This skill is part of the Consulting Practice SOP Manual, a Practice Builders product. Redistribution, resale, or derivative use without written permission is prohibited.