Act Now to Set Up Your End-of-the-Year Plan
The holiday season is just around the corner, which for many creative leaders either means a year-end rush of holiday fairs, or a complete slow down in new revenue or client outreach. That, coupled with the increased demands from friends and family, can make the holiday season feel like a seriously slow period. While this is a great time for researching “Cranberry Bliss Bar” recipes in your favorite AI tool, it is not always a great time for soliciting new business.
But here’s the thing: this is exactly when strategic action pays off. When everyone else slows down their activity, your thoughtful outreach can make all the difference in the new year.
Whether you’re focused on deepening client relationships, refreshing your digital presence, or positioning yourself for breakthrough 2026 growth, the next few weeks are the time for you to stand out. And with AI as your planning partner, you can do it faster and smarter than ever.
Here’s your end-of-the-year plan to set up an epic 2026.
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Get Crystal Clear on What 2026 Will Look Like
AI is a powerful tool for end-of-the-year planning, but skip the generic “ask AI for advice” angle. Instead, ask AI a specific question that matters to your business.
Action Item: Use this framework: “I’m a [your role] serving [your ideal client]. My top services in 2025 were [A, B, C] and my top revenue sources (or clients) were [X, Y, Z]. My goal for 2026 is [specific goal]. What are 3-5 unconventional strategies I could test in the next 60 days that would move the needle and set up next year strong? I want practical, actionable ideas—not generic business advice.”
Then take one idea and implement it before the year ends.
💡Sample Prompt: “I’m a nonprofit arts director serving rural communities. My top services in 2025 were grant workshops and strategic planning. My goal for 2026 is to increase earned revenue by 30%. What are 3-5 unconventional strategies I could test in the next 60 days?”
Tool: ChatGPT is great for strategic planning. Its built-in memory features will “remember” your goals and business values, so this task can be clarifying for you and help strengthen future AI outputs which will now align with your 2026 plan.
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Align Revenue with Your 2026 Vision
Take time to review your finances before the holiday rush. If you don’t already track revenue by service type, now’s the time to start. Do your top-performing products and services in 2025 align with your goals for 2026?
Action Item: Pull your revenue data and ask AI to categorize it by service type, then show you the trend. (Paste a summary into Claude or ChatGPT: “Here’s my 2025 revenue categorized by service. What patterns do you see? What revenue sources are trending up or down?”) Then decide: does your current revenue match your vision? If not, adjust your marketing budget and tactics accordingly for early 2026.
💡 Tip: This is the start of your 2026 strategic planning. If your 2026 goal is to increase membership dollars, do your marketing activities reflect that. Use this revenue review as a reality check. Ask yourself why you haven’t already met that goal. What do you need to do *differently* to get there?
Tool: If you use the Microsoft suite of tools, this prompt works great using the Excel/Copilot duo. You can run the prompt alongside your open spreadsheet for instant analysis.
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Holiday Outreach
Sending holiday cards can be a chore, but it is an effective way to wrap up the year on a positive note. Plus it helps you stay top of mind with your clients. Before physically mailing out your holiday cards, add one extra step to maximize the impact of your holiday outreach.
Action Item: Use AI to draft a warm, personalized email asking current and prospective clients to confirm their mailing address—even when you know the address. (AI can help you strike the tone that feels genuine to your business, and it takes the awkwardness out of asking.)
This small effort can ignite new conversations and re-open relationships that have gone dormant. Then really send those holiday cards and follow up with the “let’s reconnect” requests in January. Two caveats: One) You actually have to send out the cards, and two) you have to follow up on those “let’s get together” requests.
🎯 Tip: If two forms of outreach feels like too much, then skip the cards and make your email outreach count. “Hey Bob, just a quick note to wave hello during the holiday season…”
Tool: While all AI language tools can handle this task, I prefer Claude AI for natural language processing—in other words, it sounds the most human.
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Get Ready for New Year’s Resolution Marketing
New Year’s resolutions present a golden opportunity to market your products or services. More than 60% of people set New Year’s resolutions, so now is the time to position your business as the IDEAL way to help people reach their goals.
Action Item: Draft your New Year’s resolution offer, then use AI to create 3-5 variations of the messaging—one for each segment of your audience (new clients vs. past clients vs. prospects). Ask AI to make each version speak directly to their specific resolution. Then test which message gets better engagement. Offer early-bird discounts or promotions for people who book services before year-end.
🎯 Sample Message: Ready to level up your art business in 2026? We have all the grant announcements that matter AND we’re offering a January grant writing class that will start your year off on the right foot.
Tool: Claude or ChatGPT both work here. I’d lean Claude for tone consistency across variations, but if you want quick iteration, ChatGPT’s slightly faster. Ask it to create a comparison table so you can see all variations side-by-side.
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Produce a Trends Analysis
End the year by producing a Trends Analysis. Consumer behavior shifts, industry changes, and emerging challenges all have your clients wondering how these shifts will affect them in the coming year. And people love reading trends reports (or attending trends webinars). By producing a report detailing what clients should look out for, you will position yourself as an industry leader who can help them navigate what’s next.
Action Item: Host a trends webinar and invite clients to share their insights. Use AI to: (1) synthesize the webinar notes and identify the top 3-5 themes, (2) draft a trends analysis that connects those themes to your specific industry, and (3) turn it into a blog post or LinkedIn article. Send it as a press release to your local business journal. You’ve just positioned yourself as an expert AND a media source.
Sample Webinar Questions: 📈 “What’s one trend you’re watching in 2026?” “How is your industry shifting?” “What’s keeping you up at night?” These open-ended questions generate the insights you’ll feed to AI.
💡 Tip: Although cultural tourism is no longer my primary focus, my Cultural Tourism Statistics article remains my biggest generator of search traffic.
Tool: While many AI tools can hallucinate (inserting incorrect “placeholder”), Perplexity is great at research and sourcing its content. Start with Perplexity for fact- or research-based outputs.
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Produce a Year-in-Review Report
Nothing says credibility like a report highlighting all the ways you helped clients. Webinars hosted? Clients served? Press features? Speaking engagements? Community impact? Quotes from clients or constituents that love working with you?
All of that can go in your year-end report. (Sometimes called an Impact Report.) This sets up future annual reporting, builds trust, and gives you speaking and promotional content for 2026.
Action Item: Gather your accomplishments (check your calendar, email, recent blog posts, client feedback). Then paste that raw info into AI and ask: “Here’s a list of what my business accomplished this year [paste list]. Turn this into a 300-400 word year-in-review that highlights impact, not just activity. Make it humble but proud.” Then repurpose it as a blog post, email to your list, and talking point for your next speaking gig.
💼 Tip: If you produce monthly or quarterly board reports or grant funding reports, upload those to your AI tool to evaluate. AI gets clunky when you give it too much info to parse at once. Start with your most recent report, ask it to categorize, then upload one report at a time and ask it to update as you go.
Tool: ChatGPT is solid here. Note: AI can’t always search your website (it’s hit and miss on access and on outputs). It’s best to gather the info first, then feed it to AI to synthesize.
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The Bottom Line
By implementing these steps as part of your end-of-the-year plan, you’ll be ready to start 2026 with a strong foundation. From revenue clarity to strategic positioning, thoughtful action now will set you up for your best year yet.
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