Meet my friend, quarterly planning.
Before you think that sounds too corporate for a small business owner, let me ask you this:
– Do you feel like you’re spinning in circles?
– Drowning in the business instead of working on it?
– Scattered and disconnected – even when you’re showing up every day?
That’s exactly why I recommend doing quarterly planning retreats in your small business.
And before you panic: no, you don’t need to book a hotel or block off 40 hours right away.
Up until the quarterly planning retreat that I did at the end of Q1 in 2025, my quarterly planning was just a simple, quiet, 2–3 hour block I kept near the end of each quarter, usually on the last Friday of March, June, September, and December.
If you are unfamiliar, the year can be divided up into four separate quarters: Quarter 1 is January, February, and March, Quarter 2 is April, May, and June, Quarter 3 is July, August, September, and Quarter 4 is October, November and December.
While annual planning for your small business is good, quarterly planning is even better. Why? Small businesses change so quickly. It can be hard to know what’s going to happen in the year ahead and plan appropriately. Quarterly planning is just 90 days of planning and it empowers us to drill down on what’s working NOW and pivot from what’s not working.
Plus, annual goal setting can be challenging for just about anyone – but especially for entrepreneurs. The year brings so many unexpected changes it can feel like the plans you made on January 1st have gone out the window by April. Or is it just me who feels l like that?
Setting goals and intentions in your small business for just a quarter at a time? For just 3 months? THE BEST!
It helps you have clarity and structure to your plans. And, it helps you set better, more accurate goals. One thing I’ve seen over the last 20+ years working alongside business owners: the most successful ones plan their quarters.
What my usual quarterly planning looked like before:
– Reviewing the previous quarter’s goals
– Setting the upcoming quarter’s goals
– Mapping the next 90 days (content and strategy)
– Looking at what worked (and what didn’t)
– Journaling and praying
Each section took about 10-15 minutes with the exception of mapping the next 90 days which obviously takes a bit longer.
But do you see how simple this is? It is. Quarterly planning is not for others who are more successful than you. It’s for you.
Nothing fancy. But incredibly grounding.
Why I Took My First “Big Girl” Quarterly Planning Retreat
Let’s hop in a time travel car and drive back 3 years ago. As a Director of Operations, I often recommended that, once a business hit a certain size, the CEO/founder went away for a quarterly planning retreat. And yes, I recommended they book a hotel room and leave the premises – even if the premises was their home office! I knew there was something incredibly powerful that happens in our brain when it’s in a new environment.
Toward the end of February 2025, on a COE Friday, I was inputting numbers into my KPI Dashboard when it struck me:
What the actual heck? I just hit the point at which I would tell a founder: “It’s time for an off-site quarterly planning retreat.”
It was a surreal moment realizing Walk Like Warriors, at about 15 months old, had hit this significant milestone.
Enter: a full 2-day solo business quarterly planning retreat. I booked a hotel for two nights, packed my bags, and hit the road. (Side note – it’s so much easier to think of your business like a real, true business when you’re setting aside 10% of every dollar that comes in for expenses and watching that account growth month-to-month. It made it easy for me to say YES to an off-site retreat because of how much money I set aside. I want you, too, to treat your business like this for longterm success.)
So I packed up and away I went!
But here’s the thing: there’s no way I can fit everything I learned into just this one post, so this kicks off a 6-part blog series for business owners who want clarity, strategy, and a business that runs with purpose.
This series will walk you through:
- Why I took a 40-hour retreat and how I structured it (you’re here now)
- What I packed – from the cozy to the practical
- The journaling prompts I loved (and the ones I ditched)
- What I’ll do differently next time
- A full retreat checklist and action plan for your own planning day
- How I brought God into the process and listened for His direction
Whether you run a scaling-fast six-figure business or you’re just getting started, I’ll give you simple adjustments that make this doable at any level.
And no, you don’t even need to go away! Remember, I’ve been quarterly planning for awhile now – always from Starbucks or my little home office. You do not need to go away to make this work.
This blog series will help you understand how to have a productive quarterly planning retreat for your small business – one that will lead to more focus, better strategy, and greater profitability.
First things first:
My Exact 2-Day Quarterly Retreat Schedule
Here’s what I mapped out before I left home – and yes, I planned this part ahead so I wouldn’t waste time once I got there wondering: “What do I do first?”
I wanted – no needed – to get the most out of every hour I had.
Sunday (Arrival + Strategic Focus Block)
3:00 PM – Check in
3:30 PM – Unpack, stock fridge, set up workspace, pray
5:00 – 9:00 PM – Journal, settle in, set intentions, review goals/plans, and metrics (I wanted to start this time by doing a lot of thinking – not a lot of busy work)
Monday (Full Deep Work Day)
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
– Journal and reflect (what worked, what didn’t, what I learned)
– Review Q1 goals
– Set Q2 goals
– Break those into input goal
– Build out a 90-day marketing plan
– Plan content themes for the next 90 days
– Schedule final interview for new team member
12:00 PM – 4:30 PM
– Lunch
– Review last quarter’s content performance
– Identify patterns (top and bottom performers)
– Adjust content strategy accordingly
– Finalize 14 weeks of mapped content
– Review remaining interview questions
– Dinner (off site) with my kids
4:30 PM – 10:00 PM
– Fresh air and walk
– Finalize content plan
– Review goals and metrics
– Review KPI Dashboard
– Journal, pray, brain-dump content ideas
– Prep for tomorrow’s membership call
– Eat popcorn and M&Ms 🙂
Tuesday (Wrap Up + Reset)
7:00 AM – 11:00 AM
– Create a new freebie/lead magnet for Q2
– Write the full welcome email sequence for this freebie
– Update Instagram profile based on audits I paid for
– Plan new pinned posts and Reels
– Brainstorm “secret project” for the membership
– Prep for coaching calls
– Pack up and check out
– Final prayer and journaling session
So… How Did It Feel?
In one word? Amazing.
I left the hotel parking lot Tuesday morning with clarity and peace. I didn’t even realize how much mental weight I was carrying until it lifted.
There were decisions I needed to make in my small business that no coach or course could help me with – only time, stillness, journaling, and prayer could get me there.
I loved the hotel room I had booked (more on this in an upcoming blog post) because of how much space there was and the fact that I could set it up with different zones for different types of work I needed to do.
As someone with a hyperactive brain, I loved the stillness and peace that flooded me as I sat for long periods of time – totally uninterrupted and undistracted. In some ways, it was like a silent retreat! As an extrovert, if I read this on someone else’s blog, I would run away – fast. But let me tell you, this was so incredibly powerful to be able to get really deep into my thought process on the future of the business.
So there you have it – my quarterly retreat schedule, day-by-day for my first ever offsite quarterly planning retreat for my small business.
If you’ve been craving margin, direction, or just space to think, I highly recommend carving out this kind of time.
And here’s the deal – the vast majority of female business owners reading this are not going to have the resources right this second to do a 40-hour offsite quarterly planning retreat.
So if you can’t get away at this point in your life, you can block your calendar for 4-8 hours, pack a lunch, and go sit somewhere beautiful and calm.
Some recommendations:
– The lobby of a swanky hotel in your area
– Your favorite coffee shop
– A study room at your local library
– A megachurch in your area that opens its lobby during business hours
– Your local park or arboretum
Success goes to the implementors. So I don’t want you to get caught up in the perfect time or place. Just block the time and do it! Like I said, even though I’ve had my own business for years, this was the first time I ever did an offsite. Before that, I always blocked 4 hours on the last Friday of each quarter and did my quarterly planning retreat at home, at a coffee shop, or in my screened-in patio out back.
There are endless ways that you can make this work for you – no matter your circumstances. Don’t get caught in overthinking or perfectionism. Choose a day and block the time. The future posts in this series will walk you through, step-by-step, what to do with this time “away.”
Trust me in this: it will be so worth it.
Up Next:
In my next post, let’s get realllll practical!
I’m showing you what I packed – from meals & snacks to cozy things to office supplies to my printouts – and how it helped me stay focused and productive during my quarterly planning retreat. This series will also include some bonus goodies for you – things to print out and use during your next retreat! The team and I have put a lot of time and attention here because we want you to fundamentally change your business with clarity, strategy, and focus.
Quarterly retreats are a necessity.
And if you aren’t following me on Instagram yet, join me there! I coach for FREE Monday to Friday in IG Stories. Click here to follow
