146: Simple planning strategies to create more time, ease and income in your online business

In this episode of Online Business Uncovered, I’m sharing a simple, sustainable approach to business planning to help you create more time freedom, clarity and recurring income in your online business this year and beyond.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, burnt out or stuck juggling too many offers, this episode will help you step back, reflect intentionally and design a focused plan that supports both your income goals and your energy.

I walk you through how I review my business without judgment, redefine what success truly means and build a profitable, sustainable business model for 2026.

I’ll show you how to simplify your online offers, leverage what’s already working and create real momentum without adding more to your plate.

In this episode, I cover:

• Simple business planning strategies for online entrepreneurs
• How to reflect on the past year and set intentional business goals
• Redefining success to reduce burnout and business overwhelm
• Designing a focused plan for time freedom and passive income
• Building digital products, online courses, or memberships with clarity
• How to plan your year for sustainable growth and consistent income

Whether you’re creating digital products, launching an online course, building a membership or streamlining your offer stack then this episode will help you move from overwhelm to clarity with a plan that actually fits your life.

I also share how my free Digital Creators Community Hub supports online business owners with practical tools, community resources and masterclasses to help you build a scalable, intentional online business (without overwhelm!).

If you’re ready to take back control of your business, simplify your strategy and unlock more ease, income and freedom then this episode is for you!

Transcript

Karen [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to Online Business Uncovered. This is episode 146 and in today's episode I'm going to walk you through how to create a really simple plan so that you can achieve more time, ease and income in your business this year. So let's jump right in and let's get started. Hello and welcome to Online Business Uncovered. This is the show that helps you turn your expertise into digital products, passive income and time freedom. I am your host, Karen and I really do appreciate you hitting that play button to listen to today's episode. This episode is sponsored by the Digital Creators Community Hub, which is my free community designed to help you kickstart your journey into digital products. Inside the Hub, you'll get access to practical tools, resources and replays of live masterclasses which have all been created to support you in turning your expertise into a profitable online course membership or digital offer.

Karen [00:01:08]:
If you're ready to take the first steps towards creating freedom in your business, then this is the perfect place to start. 

Head on over to www.sellyourbrillianceonline.com/community because there's no better time to get started than today. So head on over there. Join the Hub for free and I can't wait to for you to get started. Foreign. 

And today I want to share something with you about something that I've just experienced because it's really shaped how I've been reflecting on last year, but also thinking about the year ahead and my own business and the goals that I want to achieve. And now just before Christmas, I was out in the US for a three day business breakthrough event in Arizona. And honestly, it was one of those experiences that just gives you the time to really zoom out.

Karen [00:02:18]:
I think when you step away from the day to day of the doing and you put yourself in a room with other ambitious entrepreneurs that are really looking to create and own what they're doing, I think something really powerful happens. You stop reacting and you start reflecting. Where am I? What am I doing? How have I been performing? Where do I want to go? What is it that I'm actually really wanting to create? And for me, BBD Live wasn't about just learning another strategy or adding more to my plate because I've got enough, I don't need anything else. For me, it was about getting the perspective I needed in order to really kind of shape the future of my business. And I think being out there, it made me realize how easy it is to stay busy in your business. Being at the event, it made me realize how easy it is to stay busy in your business, but actually disconnected from, from where you're actually going and how important it is to actually take a pause, especially at the end of the year or even at the start of the year, and ask yourself some really honest questions. So, for example, you know, did this year support the light. Questions like, did last year support the life that you're trying to build? Did your business actually give you more freedom or did it quietly take more than what you expected? And so what I want today's episode to be about is kind of really sort of reflecting on that and creating a really simple plan where you can take back control so that you take your business to where you want it to go.

Karen [00:04:32]:
Because remember, your business is a vehicle and that vehicle can go anywhere that you want it to go. But you need to know that end destination. Otherwise you're just going to keep going around in circles and you're not actually going to achieve the things that you actually want to achieve. So we're at the start of the year, and I think it is a really great time to do an honest review of last year and to also think about planning the year ahead in a way that feels intentional, sustainable, and more aligned to you. You don't want it to feel rushed, you don't want it to feel pressured, and you do not want to make your decisions based on what everybody else is doing. So if last year you spent time feeling tired, burnt out, or unsure about what your next step is, then hopefully by the end of today's episode, you'll have some more clarity and you'll be able to take some steps towards getting you on track. Now, obviously we're at the beginning of the year and I know everybody, you know, talks about goals set in and all of this stuff. And, you know, it is really important.

Karen [00:05:52]:
You know, we need to know what our goals, goals are. But I think more importantly, we need to reflect on the. On last year. Because by knowing how you did last year, the ups, the downs, the things that went really well, the things that didn't go well, maybe mistakes that were made, you can actually put together a plan to avoid that this year, or if you did some great stuff and you got great results, then to scale that this year. But unless you spend some time reflecting, going through what happened and really taking note, you're not going to know how to drive this year forward. So I think it's really important that you review the year that you've just had without any judgment. So I don't want you to sort of feel like you failed or anything like that, because you haven't. I.

Karen [00:06:55]:
I'm listening to Marie Forleo's Everything Is Figureoutable at the moment on audiobook on aud, and she said something in there that I thought was really powerful. And it was just a simple quote where she says, I win or I learn, but I never fail. I win or I learn, but I never fail. And I found that, like that. We know in business that cliches are thrown around all the time, but I found that to be really quiet. That really hit me because people. And it is so true, whenever we do something, whenever we try something, we either win at it or we learn something, but we never fail. The only time you really do fail is if you give up.

Karen [00:07:46]:
So when you're reflecting on the year that you've just had, I want you to bear in mind that quote because it's too easy to go to that place of, I didn't do as good as I thought, therefore I failed. And we need to get out of that mindset that we fail because we never fail. We learn lessons. So gently review the year you've just had and then look ahead and plan the year in front of you in a way that supports your energy, your life, and the freedom you're building your business for. Where you're not overworking. You don't have that overwhelm. You just have clarity. So I just want to dive into reviewing last year.

Karen [00:08:35]:
Before we plan anything, we need to look back, but not in a Instagram highlight, real way. You know, where everything is picture perfect. We need to do it honestly. So the first question that I would encourage you to ask yourself is, firstly, what works? And I don't just mean revenue or big milestones. What I mean is really think about the things that felt lighter, activities that maybe started to click, or conversations that started to click, and also acknowledge, where did you feel more confident or more aligned? Was there a piece of work that you were doing? Was there a particular client you were working with? Or did something happen where you thought, you know what? Yep, that that was it. That was a moment that really kind of worked for me. Maybe it was because you showed up more consistently. Maybe you finally trusted your own expertise, or maybe you launched something even if it didn't go perfect, like, it perfect doesn't exist.

Karen [00:09:48]:
You know, you launch something, they're things that count as wins because you've done something where you've taken yourself out of your safe space and you've done something to impact your business. Now, the second question That I would encourage you to ask yourself, is what drained your energy? What felt heavy? What did you keep pushing through even though it didn't feel right? And what took more from you then gave back to you? Now, this isn't about failure again, we win or we learn, but we never fail. So please take that on board. This is about feedback. And the feedback that you're going to give yourself is pure gold. But you have to be willing to listen to it. And then finally, I want you to ask yourself, what did last year teach you? What did it teach you about your audience? What did it teach you about what worked best? And was there something that you learn where you realize that you no longer wanted to build or carry it on in the future? So is there a particular service that you delivered or a way of doing something that felt so heavy that you thought, you know what? I'm done with this. I'm not going to do this going forward? I believe every year teaches us something.

Karen [00:11:27]:
Even if your year was messy and you don't feel like it was the year that you had hope for, I think sometimes we need to have those years because, you know, they teach us a lot. Okay, so part two. So once you've then gone through and reflected on your year, then you want to be looking at how you're going to redefine success for the year ahead. Okay. Because going through the review, you may realize that actually what you thought was going to be successful wasn't, but there may have been other things that were. And so there might be that gap between how you perceive success and what success actually is for you. So we need to go through that process of redefining what success is before we create our plan. So I want you to just ask yourself, what does success look like for you now? So in 2026, at the start of the year, what does success look like not five years ago, not compared to somebody on Instagram right now.

Karen [00:12:48]:
Where you are in your business at the level you are. And how do you want your business to feel this year? Do you want more space, more consistency, more time back and more ease? And also, what do you want less of? Do you want less scrambling around, trying to do everything last minute, less panic posted, maybe less complicated tech, less feeling like your business runs you instead of the other way around? Get really clear on what you want less of? We're not planning another year of burnout. We want to avoid that at all costs. We're actually going to be planning a year that works for you and the life that you're creating for yourself. Now, once you've done that and you've gone through redefining what you now feel is success, then we can start planning for the year ahead. But we want to keep it simple. So the first thing I want you to do is choose one main focus for this year. Now, it's not a course, a membership, a podcast, a YouTube channel, or a rebrand all at once.

Karen [00:14:10]:
Okay? Us entrepreneurs have this innate ability to overpack what it is that we can do at any given time. I have had so many, countless conversations with other entrepreneurs who are just stuck in overwhelm because they're just trying to do so much all of the time. We need to scale that back. We just need to focus on one thing. So I encourage you to ask yourself, what's the one thing that will move your business forward and protect your energy at the same time? Now, for some of you, it might be creating one digital product that you can sell and repeat. For others, it might just be going through your offer stack and simplifying what you've already created. And then for others, it might be building one clear system that brings in consistent sales. One focus is going to create momentum.

Karen [00:15:11]:
Everything else will become noise. So really figure this out and really lean into that one core thing and then double down on it. Because when we focus on one thing and we put all our energy into it, that's when we start to get that success and we build momentum and we start to achieve results that we're looking to achieve. So we need to get into that habit of just focusing on one thing. Once you've done that one thing, then you can kind of go on to the next thing. But if we focus on one thing at a time, then we are going to actually create the success we want with that one thing. So then what we need to then think about is what already works for us. And then we want to build around what is already working.

Karen [00:16:05]:
And what I mean by that is you do not need to start from scratch every time. You do not need to reinvent the wheel if you have things in your business that are already working for you. So what I want you to do is look at content that is already working for you, that's resonating with your audience, and that's getting you traction. I want you to look at your offers that you're already offering people. If people are buying those, continue selling them. And then I want you to look at your skills and the knowledge that you already have. And instead of maybe thinking about what you don't have, and what you don't know and the tech that you don't know, and all of this stuff really kind of lean into your own ability and your, your, your skills, your expertise and the things that you offer people, because that is gold. Okay? You are the expert in your field.

Karen [00:16:58]:
Lean into that. Because freedom in business doesn't come from doing more, it comes from simplicity and repetition. So we need to make sure that whatever we're doing, we are focusing on one thing, we're getting good at that one thing, and we're building a system to support that one thing so we get the results that we want. And then once you've done that, it's about planning. So you don't need to be on all year because that's going to lead to burnout. Just break it down in quarters. So what do you want to do in quarter one? Get clear, lay your foundations. What do you want to do in quarter two? This may be that you want to build or refine something.

Karen [00:17:45]:
What do you want to do in quarter three? It might be that you want to start to sell and scale. And then what you want to do in quarter four, it might be that this is your time to slow down and review. You are allowed to build a business at briefs. You do not need to be on all the time. We are not meant to be on all the time. We can't do that. That is one way ticket to burnout. So look at each quarter and define what it is that you want to create in each quarter, what your goals are for each quarter, and just break it down that way and the year will start to feel more manageable.

Karen [00:18:27]:
Now, if you're listening to this and you're thinking, I know I want more freedom, but I'm unsure what to focus on and how to plan it properly, then that's exactly why I created the Digital Creators Hub. So whether it's planning your first passive income or simplifying your business model, or turning your expertise into something that works for you on repeat, you don't have to figure this out alone. It's a lot, which is why my hub exists. So head on over to www.sellyourbullingsonline.com community and go and join the Hub. Because I have tools, resources, training that's going to help you get started. Now, I want you to remember, this year doesn't get to define you, it gets to inform you. Okay? So I want you to take what worked from last year, and then I want you to let go of what didn't and then step into this year with clarity, intention, and most importantly, trust in yourself that you can achieve the goals that you set. Because ultimately, when it comes to your business, you're building freedom in a smart way.

Karen [00:19:55]:
Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope it gave you some clarity and sparked some new ideas. Now, if you found this helpful, then I'd love for you to share it with a friend or a fellow entrepreneur who's also building that online business. Because this episode might be exactly what they need to listen to today. And if this episode has you thinking, you know what? 

Okay, I'm ready to get started with turning my expertise into repeatable income. Then come and join my free community, the Digital Creators Community Hub. Because inside you'll get access to free tools, resources, monthly masterclass replays, and you will be the very first one to hear about my upcoming workshops. Head on over to www.sellyourbrillianceonline.com/community.

Karen [00:20:49]:
I will be back next week with another episode, but until then, have a wonderful week.