Every three months, I remind you to do your quarterly planning.
This quarter, I’m late.
It’s almost November, and I only sat down with my coach on Monday to look at mine. If I didn’t have a coach, I’d never do it.
I need that accountability!
Do you? I have a few clarity calls left for 2026
If you haven’t done yours either, you’re in good company.
The last few months have been a lot. I had a bereavement in the family, and as a result I’ve taken on two elderly dogs. My fur family is now very blended, with lots of different needs and opinions; life has been happening to me as it does.
Alongside that, I’ve been to the CFT conference and delivered the Getting Started in Private Practice course over the last five weeks, which I ended up almost rewriting because so much has changed with AI and some of the legal elements. It's been tiring, but I’m really proud of it. People have loved it. It’s better than it was.
On Monday I went into the coaching session expecting to talk about everything I hadn’t done.
Instead, she pointed out that I’d reached my financial target.
Which I had. Quietly. While everything else was going on.
And that’s the thing nobody really talks about in private practice.
You can hit the number and still feel stretched.
You can have a full diary and no breathing room.
You can be doing well on paper and running on fumes in real life.
When we looked properly, the gap wasn’t income. It was buffer. Money, time and energy set aside for the quarters when life doesn’t go to plan.
Because life doesn’t always go to plan. And a practice that only works when everything goes smoothly isn’t really a sustainable one.
That’s why I still plan the last quarter, even when it’s late. Especially when it’s late.
Why the last quarter is different
October to December isn’t like the rest of the year.
It starts busy. Clients are back from summer, enquiries pick up, and the diary fills.
Then December arrives. Clients pause for Christmas. Sessions get cancelled for parties, travel and family. Enquiries go quiet, because very few people start therapy in the week before Christmas.
At the same time, it’s the most expensive month of the year.
And just around the corner is January. The self-assessment deadline on the 31st. Possibly a payment on account. And then, usually, a rush of new enquiries from people who’ve decided this is the year they finally get some help.
If you don’t plan for that rhythm, it plans you.
You end up working flat out in November, feeling the pinch in December, panicking about the tax bill in January, and too tired to make the most of the new year enquiries when they come.
One hour now can change that.
Not a perfect plan. Not a colour-coded spreadsheet you’ll abandon by Friday.
Just enough of a pause to ask what’s working, what isn’t, and what you need in place before the year ends.
Paid members: the template and how I’m using it this quarter are below. For the last quarter of the year, there are a few places I want you to focus on and spend a bit longer thinking about
(Plus, could you help me out with an idea I’m having for the community next year? I’m very excited, but I need to know if you are too. Take the poll; I need to make a decision, eek, this is the first time I’m putting it out into the universe)