Beginning the quarter with a planning week for a productive art business

The beginning of a quarter is when I stop and look at what I am actually doing.

• What worked?

• What did I keep doing because it was already on the schedule?

• What do I want the next three months to look like?

Those are different questions, and I need time to answer them.

Planning gets its own week if you want to have a sustainable art business.

This week, normal business is paused so I can do my quarterly review and planning.

I am not recording a MicroLab or trying to fit the review around my usual content work.

Planning an art business outranks any marketing efforts.

My yearly plan comes before my quarterly plan, then monthly, then weekly. If the bigger plan needs attention, the smaller one has to make room. Otherwise, I can spend an entire quarter getting things done without asking whether they still belong on the list.

Being a business owner means showing up for work you do not always want to do.

But I still need to know why I am doing it.

When I start to plan my Q4 I start with questions, and reviewing analytics

I journal by hand, use my planner, and keep my whiteboard where I can see it.

I need to be able to look at the work, write things down, and move through one question at a time.

Before I add more tasks, I look back at the goal.

• What was I trying to do?

• What happened?

• What do I actually have evidence for?

As The Art Business Scientist, this is the part I want to spend time on: observe, gather evidence, and compare patterns before choosing an experiment.

• A number tells me something happened.

• A conversation can help me understand what someone was thinking.

I want to look at both before I decide what to change.

I focus on one aspect of my business at a time while I am planning

The first day of this planning week is for discussion.I want to work through the big questions before I start filling the next three months with tasks.

Then each day has a main focus. That gives me time to work through one part of the business instead of jumping between everything all day.

Personal goals get time too.

The routine has to fit the person doing the work.

By the end of the week, I want to read the plan back and check what is still missing.

• What is the first step?

• What needs an answer before I can take it?

• When will I look at the result?

At the end, I have a 3 month plan that aligns with my business and my customers.

I want the next quarter to have a reason behind the work. That means deciding what stays, what pauses, and what is worth testing. I do not need to turn every idea into a commitment.

I need to choose what I can actually follow through on.

If you are looking at your own next quarter, I would start with the question I keep coming back to: What is your goal?

Then look at whether the work on your calendar is helping you get there.