Main Street Business

#605 The 8-Step Strategic Plan Every Entrepreneur Needs for 2026

• Mark J Kohler and Mat Sorensen

Share episode

Most entrepreneurs set goals every year… and most of them fail to follow through. In this episode of the Main Street Business Podcast, Mark J. Kohler and Mat Sorensen break down their proven, real-world process for building a strategic plan that actually works in 2026 and beyond.

You’ll learn how to think long-term without burning out short-term, why writing your plan down is non-negotiable, and how to reverse-engineer a 10-year vision into realistic one-year action steps. Mark and Mat walk through their exact eight-step framework, covering SMART goals, realistic capacity checks, quarterly execution, accountability, and why sharing your plan with your spouse or board can make or break your success.

If you’re a business owner, investor, or entrepreneur who wants clarity, focus, and momentum this year, this episode gives you a practical blueprint you can implement immediately. Subscribe for more Main Street business strategy, leave a comment with your 2026 goal, and check out future episodes for execution and scaling tactics!

You’ll learn:

  • Why most entrepreneurs overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what’s possible in ten
  • How to create a clear 10-year vision and reverse-engineer it into realistic 5-, 3-, and 1-year goals
  • The importance of writing your strategic plan down and why pen-to-paper thinking changes execution
  • How to use SMART goals to avoid vague plans that never get finished
  • When taking a step back financially is the smartest move for long-term growth
  • How to break big objectives into bite-sized, actionable steps you can actually complete
  • Why quarterly planning and realistic scheduling matter more than motivation
  • How accountability, board meetings, and sharing your plan with your spouse can dramatically improve results
  • Why your strategic plan should be flexible, reviewed regularly, and adjusted without guilt

Get a comprehensive tax consultation with one of our Main Street tax lawyers that can build a tax strategy plan with an affordable consultation that will leave you speechless!! 

Here’s the link - https://kkoslawyers.com/services/comprehensive-bus-tax-consult/?utm_source=buzzsprout&utm_medium=description-link&utm_campaign=main-street-business-podcast&utm_content=msbp605-create-your-annual-strategic-plan

SPEAKER_00:

We underestimate what we can do in 10 years and overestimate what we can do in one year.

SPEAKER_01:

We need you to think big here. I'm like, oh, you're in debt up to your eyeballs. Your goals can still be 10 rentals in 10 years, but this year, we're gonna take one step back financially and get healthy. Did I fire that cousin of mine or the brother-in-law that sucks? Now the opposite of a smart goal would be I want to have a bunch of rentals in 10 years. What the hell's that mean? It is understated how important it is you share this plan with your spouse. Or if you've been married more than two minutes, you've done this wrong. Welcome to the Main Street Business Podcast. My name is Mark Kohler, and I'm here with the amazing Matt Sorensen. And happy new year. We are so excited to be here with you on our inaugural, inaugural, did I say that right? Podcast for 2026. And this is our annual strategic planning podcast where we get to remind ourselves and encourage you on how to do a strategic plan. Matt and I even have our strategic planning session scheduled to go away for a day and get ours nailed down as business partners. So we are excited to be here with you. This is an awesome freaking topic.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, in other words, we're in the midst of this right now ourselves with our own businesses. We have multiple businesses that we create separate strategic plans for. It's frankly our most favorite time of the year. Um we love talking about it, making plans. And we're going to talk about also after you've made the plans, what to be doing as well. Because it's not just about crafting some great plan. You actually got to execute on it and do it and have some accountability. So we'll hit that here in a second. But um, but I think this is probably for us, Mark, has been one of the most important things we've done in our business is every year we reset on what we want to do and we actually create a written document. We write stuff down and make a strategic plan.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And we were we want to take you through our steps that we use. Uh, I we probably can't quantify the number of articles, books, and speeches and podcasts and YouTube videos on this topic, but we know many of you, our listeners, uh know how Matt and I approach things and uh hopefully appreciate it, or you wouldn't be here. So we want to keep it simple and share our steps with you. I even went to AI Mark. I have created an AI of every article I've ever written, every book, every podcast, put it into a database that's restrictive to just me, and then I can ask myself, what did I say on this before? What are my steps? And so I I kind of saw that and I was like, oh, okay, yeah, I like that. No, I've gotten better. Because I can I consistently grow, improve, have life experience. So I'm excited to share with you our steps. So I'm gonna go with step number one, Matt. Let me is that all right? Can I just get it out? Let's go hard and fast. Step one, do this in writing. Uh, there is a, it's been proven scientifically that when we put pen to paper, pencil to paper, chalk to rock, whatever it is the Khan did, if you can write something down, your mind processes it in a different way. It has time to process what you're writing because we're in this digital age where things move so fast. We we think we thought through it, we think we thought about it, and our mind moves much faster than the way we talk and the way we write. So by going through the function of building your strategic plan in writing, allows you to process it in a more strategic, frankly, strategic way.

SPEAKER_00:

Shocker. Um I love that. Um, we definitely do that. Um, and it does make a big difference. And it's also fun to look back on, even the ones we've done in prior years. And then there's also the satisfaction of actually checking it off when you've done that item on the list, which is uh very satisfying for any of you that you know are into lists and checking stuff off a list. All right. Well, let's start with like the what now. Okay, that's the how. We're gonna write this down, but let's start and talk about the what here. And the first thing you've got to do is set a vision. Okay, we need to create a vision of what you're trying to accomplish. And this would be per business here of what you're trying to do. So the first thing I want to say is we underestimate what we can do in 10 years and overestimate what we can do in one year. Now you're gonna create your annual strategic plan here, but it we need you to think big here and set your vision of where you want to be in 10 years. So set what we call the ideal scene. What is the ideal scene of this business in 10 years? What does it look like? What's the revenue? What's the profit margin? What's the product mix or service mix? Who's working in it? Who's on my leadership team? What does my role in the company look like? All right. That's what you're building for, right? Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

And this could be as simple as what does your rental property portfolio look like? You may not say, well, I'm going to write down a strategic plan for each rental property. Yeah, maybe. But I would say this is your rental property portfolio. How many rentals do you want in 10 years? That is your business. Now it might have five LLCs or two LLCs or 10 LLCs in the long run. But step two is writing down your ideal scene. And I gotta say, uh, Matt and I dove into this experience through um a Lululemon training of all trainings. It was over 10 years ago. And they had such a creative way of helping their employees. They were very employee-driven. I love Lululemon. They're so profitable, they're amazing. But they said sit down in that quiet spot by a beach, a lake, a mountain, a park, a room in her house, wherever it is, take out a piece of paper, a pen, a yellow pad, and write down what it looks like. Literally close your eyes and envision this. And this ideal scene needs to be real. Like, what does it look like to you? That is step two. Uh, we could go into that more in depth, but I I like this process because it can really unlock uh what you can do in 10 years. I like what Matt said. We underestimate what we can do in 10 and overestimate a shorter period. So that's step two. Yep.

SPEAKER_00:

Now we got that vision set. So let's say we hit that 10 year, right? And we figured that out, what we want it to look like. And um, and I think you should also have what they call a BHAG, your big, hairy, audacious goal. Okay, have this big goal in mind of where you can get because in 10 years you can accomplish a lot. Then we work backwards. If we think 10 years, what does I what does it need to look like in five years? Then in three. Now I can get to my one-year goals of what do I got to do now so that I'm set up to be able to really do this stuff in three, and then do this in five, and then in 10, I can really hit this vision that I have. I love this. Now we can get granular.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and I love this part. If we use the example of rental property portfolio, it could be anything. I know personal planning is a different area here. We're just sticking to Main Street business. But if you say this is my rental property portfolio, you might say, okay, I want 10 rental properties that are cash flowing in 10 years. Okay. Well, what should I have in five years? Maybe five rentals. What should I have in three years? Maybe three rentals. Okay, what's my goal this year? One rental. Now that is very linear and that could work for you. But I've sat down with clients too and said, I want 10 rentals in 10 years. We better have one rental this year. I'm like, okay, ooh, you're in debt up to your eyeballs. Uh, your cash flow is not great. You've got this issue, this issue. I think your goals can still be 10 rentals in 10 years, but this year, we're gonna take one step back financially and get healthy. We're gonna get out of debt. We're gonna buy maybe three rentals in three years and nothing until then, until you're ready to make that acquisition. And that's okay. Be care, be, be easy on yourself, give yourself a lot of grace. And it's okay to have that big goal. You can always pivot. It's your ideal scene, but you want to work backwards and try to get a feel for what needs to happen this year. It could be linear to begin with, but also be realistic.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah. And I think um one of the things that's kind of universal is revenue, maybe, and profit margin. You know, I don't care if it's a rental property portfolio or you're providing a service or a product, but we definitely want to know those numbers. Think about that. Those are realistic things. What am I taking home in the business? What's the top line number of sales I got to have to hit that? Um, that's important because we're gonna come back here in like some action items. Um, but the other thing, Mark, and this is my last time we talked about this, I thought this is an interesting point, actually, you made. So I'm just gonna steal it from you if you weren't going to already, but is I think sometimes when you start the strategic plan, you need to take a step back and change some things. Right? You might got some stuff in your life that's holding you back. That maybe that's debt, maybe that's a partner in your life or people in your life that you're surrounding yourself with. I don't care what it is, but there might be some stuff holding you back, and that might be the stuff you got to tackle first. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, Matt, I'm glad you brought that up because um I've been.

SPEAKER_00:

Did AI mark have that down or no?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, no, I'd like it.

SPEAKER_00:

I've been I got my own AI mark going in here, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I well, I'm glad you brought it up because I've been meaning to talk to you. Um, you're kind of holding me back a little bit. And um record this part. We need to have an intervention here. Um, it's not working for me. Um, I want you no, I love it. And and I'm gonna say so step three is writing down that five, three, and one-year action items. We're still on this action item list. And I want to bring up the concept of I like the the big audacious goal uh uh acronym, but also SMART goals. We want to set something specific. If some of you have never heard of this SMART acronym, say it's specific. What do I want to accomplish in these 10, 5, 3 in one year? Is it measurable? Um, is it achievable? Am I being realistic? Is it relevant to what is possible in my life? Is that like making sense with all the other things going on? And and also I I need to make sure it is time bound. I now the opposite of a SMART goal would be I want to have a bunch of Reynolds in 10 years. What the hell does that mean? You know, like so be you being smart using this acronym can be very helpful. Step four, and I'm gonna re reframe uh say it another way of what Matt said was having a personal intervention is is this realistic? And I think that's the R part of that SMART goal setting process is it's okay if you have to take two steps back to take three steps forward. Um so that I think that's an important step because all of us have problems we need to work on people in our lives, debt, k issues, relationships. And this is where some personal development could be part of that step, too. Yeah. Yeah. Um what do you like after that?

SPEAKER_00:

What's your next step? I got a bigger I like this. Is this could maybe be a you know a two-step here, but I think the biggest thing that makes sense in your strategic plan is setting a clear objective of what you're trying to do and then action my action items to achieve that objective. Let me give an example. Your objective might be have more sales. I need to have sales of X dollars in this year. Okay. Maybe last year your sales were a million and you want to do 1.5 million this year. That's a 50% increase. That's a pretty big jump, but that's your goal. You're like, that's my objective here on this specific goal. Well, what are my action items to achieve that? Okay. Well, I might have an action item of better marketing, better salespeople. Well, then under better marketing, I might have, well, what is that? I need to start doing content. I need to do ads. I need to foster better relationships and get better referrals. Under under better sales, people, it might be like, I need to hire people better. I need to have better sales training for my salespeople. I need to be less involved in sales or more involved in sales. So there's a lot of little things you need to break up that are things you know you've got to do that are gonna get you to that action item, which could be just better salespeople, better marketing, that then hits that overall objective. So get very granular on what you're gonna do. The best thing about getting granular, and this goes back to the SMART goals that you're talking about, Mark, is I got stuff I can check off. Did I do training for my salespeople? And even myself, if I'm the number one salesperson, did I actually improve myself? Did I hire better people, maybe better people with better sales experience? Did I fire some people that are doing a poor job that have just been holding on to for whatever reason? Did I fire that cousin of mine or the, you know, the brother-in-law that sucks? Um, you know, back to the marketing. Did I start, you know, on content? Did I get my newsletter going? Did I make new relationships or referral opportunities, whatever it might be, those are things you can check off and start measuring against to know whether you're making progress?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I I want to um summarize it this way too. I love this this point you're making, is that step one, two, and three is about goal setting, setting vision, working backwards. What does this year's goal need to be to get me where I want to be in three, five, or ten? The step four, taking a hard look at our realistic sit realistically at our situation. And step five is now setting this year's action items. What needs to happen? And I I don't, unlike you said, it's not maybe two steps, but it's a part of this, is making them bite-sized, quarterly type objectives. We love the book traction and setting quarterly rocks and things like that. I think that plays a part in the step five of setting your action items and and also not trying to bite off more than you can chew. And and it's okay. It's not a race, it's a journey. And so many times people, our clients, we've dealt with this over and over again on calls with clients, is they're looking at their neighbor, their friend, their brother, their sister. I've looked at my own partner, Matt, and I've said, man, Matt's doing this. And I start to feel guilty or feel inferior or whatever. Don't do it. Everybody has a different situation, a different started at a different point on um the rate the journey, and it's don't consider it a race and make it enjoyable. Uh uh, you set these action items that you you want to do. It shouldn't be laborious. This should be exciting. If it's not exciting, we got to start back over with the goals.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and I think that that's exactly like next is once I went through those items, right? I'm I've got pen to paper, I set my vision, I know where I'm trying to go, I set some of these objectives and these action items I got to do. Now you got to schedule it and figure out how you're gonna tackle this. And that is rocks, that you know, that's what we reference that word, like Mark said in our organization. And just to put a little more like detail on that for you, is you also need to, because once you flesh out all your ideas, start looking at that and thinking, what do I need to do first? So, like, what's first quarter of 2026 need to happen? You know, um, what's most important or what just needs to happen first before I get to some of that stuff later in the year? Like, for example, you might want to ramp up your marketing, but do you have someone that does marketing for you? Like the first quarter might be consider marketing agencies or a contractor or an employee or something or a training you're gonna do. Like, what's step one? And that might be your first quarter. And then second quarter might be, you know, start implementation of some things and optimizing later through the year. So start thinking of how you're gonna sequence these action items through the year, and that helps you build out the strategic plan uh through the year.

SPEAKER_01:

I like that. I'm gonna put that as number five, creating your action items. Number six is scheduling them realistically. Again, I keep saying this word realistically because just like Matt said at the beginning, we overestimate what we can do in a year and underestimate what we can do in 10 years. And it's so true. I look at back where I was 10 years ago. Oh my gosh, it blows my mind what I've done. Right. But I also am hard on myself because I go, well, I should be able to do all this this year, and I start putting pressure on myself and people around me. It's just weird. It's just it's a funny thing. So, anyway, number six is scheduling realistically these action items. Man, I I want to get number seven on the table and maybe we move it further down after your comments, Matt, but I'm just gonna say it. I think number seven is sharing your plan. You need a board meeting, you need to create a board. Arguably, this could be finding a mentor that you're going to meet with regularly and share this with, even if you're paying them. But you need to share this plan. And I love the concept of the board meeting, as many of you know. Matt and I are huge proponents of that. And I think this is the perfect place to do it. Have your first quarter board meeting and tell them your plan. And it's scary. You now you're accountable to someone, and as you say it, you're like, yeah, this isn't realistic. Practice saying it. Prepare an agenda. And when you start to prepare that agenda and practice saying it, all of a sudden you're like, yeah, I gotta modify this. And it's okay. It's your freaking plan.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and I think going back to your realistic thing too, it's like once you start verbalizing this with others, and even Mark and I, when we start coming with our own ideas and our strategic planning and we're debating it back and forth, there is a little bit of like, is that more than we can bind off? Like, are you sure we're gonna do that? You know, like that point is like, and so you start having a real reality check to like, what can I actually get done? And so, but here's the other thing too, and and I'll say this is like after you have shared it, um, and I think just that, like Mark said, is like that getting ready for that process of sharing it is a reality check, and also with that person you're sharing it with. This could even be your spouse, or maybe you have a partner in the business, or some other entrepreneur you know, or mentor you have, whatever it is, um is no, now you're gonna start going to tackle it and you can change your plan. Okay, you can adjust it, you can ramp it up if you're like kicking ass and like things are, you know, you're on a rocket ship, adjust it. If you're not hitting your goals, you can start pushing stuff, adjust it, recalibrate. The strategic plan is not set in stone. No, okay. You should be looking at this every quarter and saying, what did I get done? And then also look at and say, what did I not get done that's really important? What do I have later on in the year that I might need to ramp up earlier? Um, and some are some of you are better about this, some of you are just more strategic thinkers, you're always thinking about this, it's always in your brain. Some of you aren't. And so uh, but just know this is fluid. You can change this, we can adjust things. Don't feel like, you know, this is set in stone and and you're just gonna fail on it or you're gonna achieve it.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I'm gonna call that number eight. Regularly revisit and adjust the plan and expect to adjust it. Say that right now expect to adjust it. Don't feel like you're a failure for adjusting it. In fact, you're being successful adjusting it because it means you're applying yourself, you're you're engaged in it, you understand the importance of it, you're taking pen to paper, quarterly at least, and that process alone should be a win. That's not a fail. Now, I want to go back to number seven too, on sharing it with a board. I think you need to share it with multiple people in a board setting, because I think you're gonna get a lot of incredible feedback. Call it a mastermind session, whatever the hell you want to call it. And you're gonna share this and work it and table it. Pay people to be there, buy them dinner, take them for a retreat somewhere for a day. But Matt said something very interesting in there: sharing it with your partner. Now, obviously, if this is a partnership business plan, you're gonna be doing that from the outset. But I think it is understated how important it you share this plan with your spouse. Your significant other has to know what you're trying to accomplish, or it can be undermining to that relationship. It can be very frustrating for a spouse to see you doubling down and working hard and not understanding why and what you're trying to accomplish. And then you go, Well, I've got this plan. Oh, you do pray tell what that plan is. Did you plan on sharing that with me? Yeah, that we've all been there. If you've been married more than two minutes, you've done this wrong, right? So I just can't say enough. Sharing it with your spouse and getting buy-in in the process, may I encourage you to say that and do that? And so, whatever plan Matt and I come up with on a business, I want to turn around and share it with my wife Patty right away and go, here's what Matt and I are planning. Hell, she may even have an insight where I go, hey Matt, I got I got a new, we I think we need to revisit this point. Patty had our significant others know more about us than ourselves sometimes.

SPEAKER_00:

So important. Yeah. Yeah. And I think to you're gonna, as many entrepreneurs know, it's sometimes a lonely journey. Um, and it there's gonna be struggles and challenges, and having that person in your life, if you're lucky enough to have one, is uh is just like your backstop. That's just what's gonna what's gonna help you get through the tough times. So uh definitely love that uh that love that idea. Okay, last point I had, and and I forgot to mention this is maybe this is a new point or a sub point. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

We'll plug it back into one of the eight or give it number nine.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, and this is this goes back to the this goes back to the tracking here and like scheduling it out, is you should be looking at this strategic plan at least monthly. Okay. And each month, if you've got your quarterly goals of what you're trying to achieve for that quarter, you need to assess it and say, am I on track or off track? Okay. This is like the rocks and traction type strat structure or EOS for those of you who are familiar with it, is look at this and say, Am I on track or off track? If I'm on track, good, let's just keep doing what we're doing. If I'm off track, what do I need to get back on track? Do I need to put more effort into this? Is this something that's really important? Am I have I just neglected it because it's not important anymore and I need to change it? So really have some accountability month to month on this. Don't just look at it at the end of the quarter and say, Did we do this? You know, especially for those you have a team or a bigger organization around you. You've got to have some accountability to it and then think who owns this item to? Who is the owner of that item? If you're a solopreneur, you're probably owning all of it. Um maybe you have some contractors that can own some things that need to get done. But um, for those of you with a bigger organization, make sure it's clear who owns that item and it was responsible to get it done within that quarter, and they're the ones reporting whether they're on or off track every month. Okay, last point there.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I love it. I'm gonna summarize with reading off the nine. I want to also give a plug for my amazing, I'm in the sixth year now of producing a calendar. This is the uh I just had this here looking at my 2024. I've got the 2026 Trifecta planner going to print here in the next week. And you can pre-order it at markjkohler.com. But this is a calendar planner where I literally have pages for every one of these steps. And when you get to each month, it's indicate here's my monthly goal. I'm just looking at February for 2026 right now as I'm editing this before it goes to print. What are my weekly action items? What are my monthly goals? You turn it over, and it has my February performance notes and my March strategic plan. So it's forcing me to get in to write down what am I going to try to do in March? And then I turn the page and I get into March's action items and goals. So if any of you want to purchase that, it's up on 30, 40 bucks, and it's got tax data in there, asset protection data, deadlines, all sorts of goodies. All of our events are in the calendar uh for you as well. I highly encourage you to get that. I think pen to paper is is highly underrated now in today's digital age, and want to encourage you to get that. Matt, final words, take us out. Oh, the the nine, should I read the nine? Yeah. Do it pen to paper, number one. Number two, write down your 10-year ideal scene. Number three, work backwards with your five, three, and one-year goals. Step four, pause, have a hard look at any things that need to change in a reality check of your wherewithal and capacity to complete this. Number five, create your action items now for the year in bite-sized pieces. Number six, schedule them realistically throughout the year. And number seven, share it with a board, a mastermind group, your spouse, all of those. And number eight, revisit it regularly, be willing to pivot, modify, and adjust it. That are your eight steps to building your 2026 strategic plan.

SPEAKER_00:

There you go, folks. That's the eight to be great and for strategic planning here for the Main Street Business Podcast. Uh, this is a fun activity and a good time to set out for things you're trying to accomplish for the year. We want you to be successful in this. Hopefully, that was helpful to you as you're trying to grow and scale your business. Thanks for tuning in to the Mainstream Business Podcast. We'll see you next week with another incredible episode. See you then.

Head Shot

Mark J. Kohler

Host