Best Planners for Small Business Owners
- Posted by Alaia Williams
- On January 12, 2015
- daily planner, day designer, day planner reviews, essential daily planner, mi goals, passion planner, passion planner review, planners, planners for business owners, planners for entrepreneurs, weekly planner, weekly planner download, weekly planner printable, weekly planner reviews
Hey there! Welcome – glad you found this post. The information here is still good – BUT the current version of this post is better! Check out the new post here: alaiawilliams.com/bestplanners
I firmly believe the best system for you is – get this – the best system FOR YOU. I don’t believe in one-size-fits-all solutions – and planners are no exception. If you’re going to invest in a planner (and they do seem like small investments these days, don’t they?) you’ll want to pick one that gives you everything you need – or as close to it as possible.
What follows is a list of some of the best planners I’ve found for business owners and freelancers and what I think makes them stand out. I own a couple of the planners below (and created one of them), so I’ve also included my notes about what worked for me.
The Next 12 Months: Weekly Planner
This is my planner – you can buy it right here on my website. This brand new planner is great for solopreneurs, small business owners and bloggers – particularly those who do their own marketing. This planner has space for everything you need to get down to business – and no fluff. It helps you focus on your priorities and outreach.
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- Weekly Planning Page
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- Marketing Tracker
The planner is undated so you can pick it up any time and start using it. There’s space for monthly and weekly planning. You can also track your marketing efforts and log your stats – this will give you fantastic insights into what’s working, not working and how you’ve grown. There are blank pages at the back that you can use for notes, blog post ideas, keeping track of prospects or whatever else you want to log.
Grab a digital or printed copy of The Next 12 Months now. You’ll find an overview video here as well.
Day Designer by Whitney English
I used this fabulous planner from August of 2014 until January 2015, until I hacked my own. I’d heard a little bit of buzz about Day Designer on Facebook and found out about the planner in time to get the edition that started in August.
What worked for me – the daily view. If you’re like me and break your days down into details, or like to plan hour by hour, you’ll appreciate this view. I will say, it spoiled me. I can’t go back to a week view now. On the same page, across from the daily view is a to-do list. This is where I kept track of all the emergent tasks of the day. Up top, you’ll find spots to list your three priorities of the day along with other things (that I didn’t use) like money tracking, dinner plans, etc. There are also monthly calendars so you can do a little long term planning too.
What didn’t work for me? The size. Fortunately, I work at home, so the planner stayed put most of the time. But when I did travel or co-work outside my home, I had to carry a bigger bag than usual just to keep the planner close at hand. Some people remove chunks of pages to make the book smaller. Fearing I wouldn’t be able to put it back together, I chose not to do that. There’s now a mini version of the planner. I haven’t seen it, but would definitely consider it in the future.
This planner is tough to come by, but Whitney does have a wait list. Some people are selling the planner on eBay, but be warned – most are selling at 2-3 times the cost of buying direct from the source. Whitney does make her week view and undated date pages available for free on the Day Designer website – so if you like the format, definitely take a look. You can print the pages and stick them in your own binder or planner.
Passion Planner
This little book is definitely causing a sensation. Like many people, I first heard about the Passion Planner because of their wildly popular Kickstarter campaign. I enjoyed the founder’s story and though I already had my Day Designer, I was open to something new (and more portable) and supporting a young female entrepreneur, so I supported the campaign.
What worked for me? Little, as it turns out. What I ended up loving most was the way this journal feels. It seems like great quality. And it is definitely portable.
What didn’t work? The size of the planner pages. The spaces for scheduling were too small for me and I like having a daily to-do list. Unfortunately, as soon as it arrived, I knew it wasn’t for me.
Day Designer and Passion Planner Compact side-by-side
Though this planner isn’t my cup of tea, I think its a great book that clearly had a lot of thought put into it. Like the Day Designer, up front, you’ll find some pages that help you plan your goals. The Passion Planner has monthly and year-end reflection questions. There also plain and grid paper pages for notes. You can also snag a PDF copy of the Passion Planner’s weekly view for free. So, if you like the layout of this planner and want to print your own copy, hurrah – you can!
Passion Planner Compact and Passion Planner PDF side-by-side
Want my Compact Passion Planner? As part of my year of giving, I’ll be gifting this planner to one of my newsletter subscribers. Planner will be shipped in time to get it to the winner by the top of February! Get on the list.
It feels so good in my hands, I hate to give it up – but I know it will have a better home with someone else!
Mi Goals
During my search for something more portable, I came across Mi Goals on etsy. This compact 128 page planner features a weekly view, goal tracker and places to track your good habits. Looking for simple and straightforward? You’ll find it here. Oh – and super portable!
If you like a weekly view and need a good system for writing down your goals and keeping them handy, definitely check out this planner. While I haven’t used this one personally, I’ve given as a gift and it has been well received!
Essential Daily Planner
This one JUST hit the market and I’m really excited about it. This planner was crafted by Charlie Gilkey of Productive Flourishing. I’ve been a fan of Charlie’s for years and I remember way back in 2009 when I first noticed his PDF planning sheets. I reached out to him, we chatted by phone and I’ve used his planners pretty regularly since then. Charlie offers these great PDFs each month (or you can buy the entire year at once at a great price). He offers a few daily and weekly views along with project planners, productivity heat maps and blog post planners.
Being more familiar with Charlie’s work than anyone else on this list, even though I haven’t gotten my hands on his planner, I know it rocks, based on his similar work. He’s got it set up to focus on the essentials without any fluff and the planner comes in a portable 5 x 8 size. I had to let him know that I was bummed this came out the day after I put my DIY planner together!
In this planner, you’ll find an annual view, quarterly, monthly and weekly views and a mini version of his project planner. Definitely one to consider if you’re really focused on your objectives for the year and like a week view when you’re planning.
Bonus mention: Marketing Mentor’s 2015 Marketing Plan
Not a typical planner, this is great if you need a specific plan and guidance around marketing. I owned the physical version of this plan for a couple of years in a row and this year, I snagged the PDF. If you need a boost and a plan for your marketing this year, definitely check it out.
In the end, if you can’t find a planner that works for you, you can always make one! In the past, I actually used to print out Charlie Gilkey’s planner pages and make my own little book. I recently raided the aisles at Staples and “planner hacked” my way to something I think will work for me. Considering your own hack? Check out my DIY planner post.
