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Your Complete Guide to Annual Planning (Part 1): The Kickoff
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Your Complete Guide to Annual Planning (Part 1): The Kickoff

Our five part series on Annual Budgeting for Tech Startups

Aug 17, 2023
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Your Complete Guide to Annual Planning (Part 1): The Kickoff
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Are you a founder who’s been asked by your board to pull together something called an “annual operating plan”?

Are you attempting to turn that theoretical hockey stick graph from your Series A pitch deck into a real plan of action?

Did you recently realize that “Budget” is not just a rental car company?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you’re in the right place. Today we’ll cover what the annual planning process is, why it’s important, and some best practices for getting it (close) to right.

Think it through

As annual planning season approaches for those of us on December year end schedules (T’s & P’s to all the try-hards on, like, February year ends, or whatever) Mostly metrics is launching a FIVE part series on the budgeting process.

Part I: The Kickoff (this post)

  • Who’s involved in annual planning?

  • Bottoms up vs tops Down forecasting

  • Guiding questions and guardrails

Part II: Building sales capacity

  • Modeling out rep ramp time

  • Pod ratios: Business Development Reps, System Engineers, and Sales Managers

  • Quota deployment and over assignment (shhhh!)

Your Complete Guide to Annual Planning (Part 2): Building Sales Capacity

Your Complete Guide to Annual Planning (Part 2): Building Sales Capacity

CJ Gustafson
·
August 24, 2023
Read full story

Part III: Designing a marketing budget

  • Modeling Pipeline Coverage and understanding the marketing funnel

  • Working with your CMO to develop a “GL pick list”

  • Programs vs People split

Your Complete Guide to Annual Planning (Part 3): Marketing Budget

Your Complete Guide to Annual Planning (Part 3): Marketing Budget

CJ Gustafson
·
August 31, 2023
Read full story

Part IV: Costing out the P&L

  • Modeling headcount as an input, and a driver

  • Forecasting non-people costs

  • Developing a mutually exclusive list of expense types

Your Complete Guide to Annual Planning (Part 4): Costing out the P&L

Your Complete Guide to Annual Planning (Part 4): Costing out the P&L

CJ Gustafson
·
September 7, 2023
Read full story

Part V: Bringing it all together

  • Modeling P&L by cost type vs P&L by department

  • Checking your outputs: CAC Payback, ARR per head, cash runway

  • Five year plan tie in

Your Complete Guide to Annual Planning (Part 5): Bringing it all together

Your Complete Guide to Annual Planning (Part 5): Bringing it all together

CJ Gustafson
·
September 14, 2023
Read full story

The guide comes from thousands of hours on the job, designing annual plans for multi billion dollar tech companies. And it’s strongly influenced by the hundreds of hours spent with my entrepreneur friends who are building their first budgets.

A quick reminder from Walter.

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