192: Plan Your Fall With a CEO Vision, Not Operator Panic

Every fall, early childhood business owners experience one of two things. The first is a September filled with decisions that should have been made in July, strategies that should have been documented in August, and goals that exist only as good intentions. The second is a September that feels like execution: a team that knows the plan, a service menu that was intentionally designed, and a financial target that is tracked rather than hoped for. The difference is not talent or experience. It is whether you spent July and August as a CEO planning your fall, or as an operator waiting for it to arrive. This episode builds your fall plan.

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RESOURCES 

• Back 2 School Challenge - Free 6-Week CEO Profit Booster Challenge for preschool, childcare, play cafe, and enrichment business owners. A simple daily action plan to help you increase enrollment, control the chaos, and start operating like the CEO your business needs.
• Team Culture Blueprint – Go from constant turnover and team drama to a connected, committed team without adding more to your plate or your payroll — in just 30 days.​​
• Clarity Collective​ – Operating an early childhood business can often be chaotic and overwhelming. By following our Peake Creative, step-by-step simplified business strategies, you will gain more clarity, time freedom, and confidence to lead a profitable early childhood business.

We help early childhood business owners ditch the chaos and lead with confidence. With actionable strategies and time-saving tools, you can grow your revenue, inspire your team, and create a thriving business—without sacrificing the life you love. Ready to make it happen?
Visit kelleypeake.com and take the first step toward your dream business today! 

Transcript

Every fall, early childhood business owners experience one of two things. The first is a September filled with decisions that should have been made in July or earlier, strategies that should have been documented in August, and goals that exist only as good intentions. Now, the second is a September that feels like execution-that is, a team that knows the plan, a service menu that was intentionally designed, and a financial target that is tracked rather than hoped for. Now the difference: it's not talent, it's not experience, it's whether you spent July and August as a CEO planning your fall, or as a director or manager waiting for it to arrive now, this episode, my friend, it is going to help you build your fall plan. I'm Kelley Peake. I've spent the past 26 years growing multiple million-dollar early childhood businesses. I'm here to help you navigate both the messy and magical seasons of your early childhood business with simple, actionable strategies. It is my goal to make your life a little easier working with our most prized possessions in life. If you're ready to control the chaos, ditch the exhausting overwhelm, and keep the joy, then be sure to join us at kelleypeake.com. Well, hey there, CEO. Welcome back to the Early Childhood Business Made Easy podcast. I'm Kelley Peake, your host, and I love to help you find more of that time, freedom, and profit you so deserve. Now, picture two versions of the same morning. Let's say it's September 10, and school's been in session for about two weeks. Now, the first version, you're at your desk. It's seven in the morning. You are fielding a message from a team member who is not sure what the fall enrichment schedule looks like because you really never officially communicated it. You have three families who want to know about extended care options, but they're not really finalized yet. And you realize you have not updated your fall newsletter, and it was supposed to go out early this week. And somewhere in the back of your mind is the awareness that your Q3 financial target. Well, it exists only as a number that you mentioned to yourself a few months ago, not as anything that you have tracked or measured. Now, in the second version, you're at your desk at seven in the morning. You're viewing the week ahead in a calendar that reflects a plan that you just built in July. Your team, well, they received the full schedule in August. That extended care package, well, it was communicated before the enrollment even opened. And your newsletter, it went out on Wednesday because it was on a contact calendar that you built in July. And your Q3 financial dashboard, well, it is open on your second screen because you track it every Monday morning. Now this is the same business, the same season, but completely different September. Now the only difference between these two experiences is whether you showed up in July and in August as a CEO with a plan, or as a director or a manager hoping things would fall into place. Now after 30 years of operating early childhood businesses, I know for sure that things do not fall into place in September. They land exactly where you put them in July, and operators who have the most controlled, the most confident fall seasons-well, they're not the most experienced ones or the ones with the biggest teams-they are the ones who use the summer planning window intentionally. So today I'm giving you a three-part framework for building your fall CEO vision plan right now. Now in the time you still have, this is the time to think clearly before September arrives. So we're going to cover number one, the mindset shift that makes the plan possible. Number two, a four-domain fall vision planning process, and number three, how to translate that vision into a focused 90-day execution plan you can actually follow. Now, the free resource for this week's podcast episode is the quarterly business audit checklist. You can find it at kelleypeake.com, where all the information about the Early Childhood Business Made Easy podcast is. Now, download it before you listen to the rest of this episode and keep it nearby because we're going to be referencing it throughout again episode number 192. Now I want to say it again directly: the back to school challenge.

It is live right now and it is the most supported environment that I have ever created in this exact planning work. If you want to build your fall CEO vision plan with a community, expert guidance, and real accountability, join us at kelleypeake.com. Go find where our back to school challenge is. This episode-it's a preview. The challenge-that's the full experience. Now is the time for you to start planning. Now CEOs plan their fall in July and August. Directors and managers they experience their fall in September and October. It's the same season, but it looks and feels completely different depending on which one you were when you had time to design it. The planning work well it can feel urgent rather than optional, so strategic planning is not a luxury you do when things slow down. It is the thing that's going to make things slow down. Let me repeat myself: strategic planning. That is not a luxury you do when things are slow. That is the thing that you're going to do that's going to help things slow down. Now, most directors and managers will they tell themselves that they're going to plan when the busy season calms down, fall planning it gets pushed to October because September is too hectic. October planning gets pushed to November because enrollment is unsettled, and November planning well it gets pushed to December because the holidays they are arriving, and then somewhere in February you realize that another year has passed and the business it's still reacting to circumstances rather than leading them. I know, my friend, because I have been there in my early years. The CEOs who feel most in control of their September, those are the ones who were most deliberate in July, not because July is a slow month for early childhood businesses. If you're operating camps, it is absolutely not, but because the distance between a clear plan and the first day of school. Well, that can create enough space to think strategically, make real decisions, and communicate those decisions to your team before the season demands everything from all of you simultaneously. Now, planning is not something you do instead of leading. Planning is how leaders lead. Managers execute the tasks in front of them. Leaders decide what tasks should exist in the first place. Now, the research on strategic planning and business performance is consistent and it's compelling. A study published in the Journal of Business Venturing found that small business owners and operators who engaged in formal strategic planning, even at a basic level, will they outperform their non-planning peers on both revenue growth and owner and manager satisfaction by statistically significant margins? Then there's the Harvard Business School research on goal setting. Well, that found that people who wrote their goals down and created specific plans for achieving them. Well, they were significantly more likely to accomplish them than those who held the same goals in their heads. So, for early childhood business operators specifically, the pattern I have observed over 30 years is consistent with this research. The programs that grow year over year almost always are the ones being led by someone who has a written quarterly plan, not because the plan is perfect, not because the plan is actually right, but because the act of writing it forces clarity, it generates commitment, and it creates a reference point that daily operational positioning really can be measured against. Now, the ones who were still in the same financial and operation position three years later are almost always the ones who have been responding to fall rather than designing it. Those of you that know, I call it dreaming by design. Now, an early childhood business owner that I worked with, someone in the Pacific Northwest, described every September of her first seven years in business as survival mode. Now she was talented. Her families loved her, and her program was excellent. But fall arrived each year like something that was happening to her, not something that she was directing. So the year that she built her fall CEO vision plan in July for the first time, man, that's when something shifted that she described as almost disorienting.

She said she felt so strange to walk into September knowing exactly what the quarter was supposed to accomplish, having already communicated the plan to her team and having a weekly check-in on her calendar to review the progress against the goals she had actually written down. By mid-October, she had her best enrollment retention rate in seven years. She had launched the extended care package structure that she'd been talking about doing for three years. The program it didn't change. The families they didn't change. Her planning window had changed. She no longer operates in survival mode. She calls October her favorite month now because it's the month she can see the plan working. Let's start with the first of those three strategies, our CEO strategy number one is the director or manager versus the CEO fall mindset. Remember, CEO is confident early childhood operator. Now, before we get into those planning tools, I want to spend a few minutes on the mindset distinction that's going to determine whether the tools will actually be used because the tools only matter if you believe you are the kind of leader who builds a plan and follows it. And a lot of early childhood directors and managers, well, they don't believe that yet, even when they want to. So the director or manager mindset goes into fall focused on what needs to happen today and this week, that to-do list-it's long. Every item it feels urgent, and strategic planning feels like something you do when those urgent things are already handled. The urgent things-they are never fully handled. We all know that. So that strategic planning-it often doesn't happen. Now, when you're a CEO, whether you lead an early childhood business, whether you lead a corporate business, whether you lead a restaurant, no matter what kind of business that you lead, a CEO mindset goes into fall focused on what needs to be done by the end of the quarter. That's a CEO mindset. Now, the week's tasks they exist in service of that quarterly goal, every decision gets filtered through a question: Does this move me toward the outcomes I'm trying to achieve in the next 90 days? Those to-do lists they get organized by strategic priority rather than urgency, and those urgent fires will they get handled by the team members who know how to do them and know the plan, rather than exclusively by the owner, operator, or leader, and the shift between these two mindsets-that's not an instant thing. It's a practice, and the practice starts with a simple but powerful commitment. And this, for early childhood businesses, that commitment needs to happen before September arrives. I will write down what I want my fall quarter to accomplish-that's not a vague aspiration. That is a very specific outcome. Not I wish to have a good fall, but I want to open the fall semester with full enrollment, launch the extended care package by September 15, complete my Q3 financial audit by October 31, and have a net promoter score from families of at least eight out of 10 by the end of the quarter, that specificity is what separates a CEO vision from a director or manager hope. And the quarterly business audit checklist, the one that's go the resource with today's episode at kelleypeake.com, that is the first tool I want you to use in this process. It's going to give you a structured framework for assessing where your business is right now across enrollment, finances, team, operations. Before you even set your fall targets, and then if you want even more support, be sure to check out our Shine membership, where it's kind of a do-it-yourself, or our Clarity Collective, where we do it with you with coaching and inspiration. So, action step number one here: download that quarterly business audit checklist, kelleypeake.com, episode 192. Complete it before you do any fall planning. That audit is going to tell you where you are, and you cannot set meaningful fall targets without knowing your starting point. This is the non negotiable first step of the CEO planning process. Action step number two. I want you to write down your answer to this question before you go to bed tonight. What would make this fall a success? Not a perfect fall, but a successful fall. Be specific enough that you could evaluate whether you achieved it.

That answer, refined and structured, that's going to become the foundation of your fall vision plan. On to CEO strategy number two: your four-part fall vision plan. Now, a fall vision plan doesn't have to be a 30-page document. It does have to be specific enough to give you and your team direction, and honest enough to reflect what's actually achievable in the next 12 to 14 weeks. Those weeks between August and the end of November. Now, I build my fall vision plans around four domains that I have used in my own businesses for years. They are the four areas that determine the quality and the profitability of any early childhood season: your team, your services, your sales and marketing, and the impact you want to leave. Now, the team domain that's going to ask, who do I need on my team this fall? What does my leadership investment in that team look like? And what does success look like for the people that I am responsible for developing. Now, this is not just a headcount question; it is a leadership question. What does your fall team need from you as a CEO that they may not be getting right now? What one team development investment made in August would change the quality of your team's fall performance the most? Now, remember, this all ties into our leadership lift program that we talk about in the Clarity Collective and the Shine Membership. Because the more leadership lift opportunities you offer to your team, the more is taken off your plate. Okay. Now the services domain. Now that's going to ask which programs am I leading this fall? Which ones am I optimizing? And which ones am I intentionally stepping back from? Now, most managers and directors try to run everything at full capacity every season, but the CEO approach that asks which services deserve your primary focus and investment this quarter, and is honest about the fact that trying to run everything excellently is less effective than running three things excellently and the rest adequately. And the number three domain is your sales and marketing. Now that you want to ask, what does your fall enrollment strategy look like through December? Now, not just filling the September roster, but the conversion strategy for October, the retention work for November, and the re-enrollment conversions, if you need them for the following year, that should start really honestly begin by Thanksgiving. Now, fall is also your highest referral season because new families are in the experience and they're excited and they're talking about it. So, what's your intentional strategy for capturing those referrals before the season ends? Now, finally, the impact domain, and that's going to ask when this fall season is over, what do you want families and your team members to say about their experience in your program? Now, this is the vision dimension of the plan, not a financial target, not an enrollment number, but that felt experience you are committed to creating. The question often reveals the specific improvements, the specific leadership behaviors, and the specific team investments that the other domains should point toward. I know I get it. This one feels a little bit less specific as the other three, but I promise you, it's why I've been in business for over 20 years because it is important that we know we are making an impact in our community, and so those are the things that help you stay the course when things get bumpy. Now, a fall vision plan that answers all four of these questions, addresses these four domains in writing, even a single page is going to give you something that almost no early childhood director or manager has, and that's a clear intentional direction for the next 12 weeks that your team can understand, that your decisions can be measured against, and that your September well, that September self, she is going to be extremely grateful for. So your two action steps here: set aside an hour this week, write one paragraph for each of the four domains: team, services, sales and marketing, and impact. Four paragraphs. This is your fall vision plan draft. It does not have to be perfect. It just has to be written and a rough, honest, specific fall vision plan that is worth more than a perfect one any day that only exists in your head.

Your action step number two: share your fall vision plan with at least one person before August 1. You have to commit to yourself. If you don't share it with someone else, it's not real. It's still in your head. A business partner, a trusted team member, a coach, a loved one, or maybe your community, like the one that we have at the Back to School Challenge at kelleypeake.com, or the CEO Private Facebook group. Accountability transforms a written plan from intention to commitment, and you are sending the universe a message that this is real. You are ready, and you're excited for the success ahead. Now, the act of saying it out loud to someone who will follow up-that's going to change your relationship to that goal. All right, my friend, we're on to CEO strategy number three: the 90-day CEO action plan for fall. So a vision plan that's going to tell you where you're going, and the 90-day action plan is going to tell you how you're going to get there, quarter by quarter, week by week. The 90-day structure is the right time horizon for early childhood business planning because it's long enough to accomplish something meaningful, but short enough to maintain focus and pivot, if you need to, a 12-month plan gives you enough runway to procrastinate almost anything to the fourth quarter. A 90-day plan creates real urgency without panic. The fall quarter for most EC businesses runs from August through October, or maybe September through November, depending on when your school year starts. That's your 90-day window. Everything in the fall CEO action plan that's going to live within it. The framework is simple and powerful. Choose three focus goals. Now you should have, if you were are working with us in our Shine membership or our Clarity Collective, you know that we plan our year with three main focus goals. So those are going to be the focus goals you have for each quarter. Then we go into the quarter and we adjust those focus goals. So for those of you who have had your three main focus goals for the year, what you're going to do is you're going to reevaluate them. You're going to look at them for this next quarter. Do they still make sense? Do you need to pivot? Do you need to adjust? So again, only three, not 10, not seven, just three. Each of these focus goals is going to get four milestones, one for each month of the quarter, and each milestone has two to three specific action steps that can be assigned to a specific person with a specific due date, if at all possible. So let me give you an example. So if your first focus goal is, I want to launch an extended care package with 80% of the eligible families to enroll by October 1st, your milestone might look like this: an August milestone, complete pricing structure and package design. September milestone, communicate package to all current families and open enrollment. October milestone, reach 80% uptake and evaluate the program for a Q4 adjustment if needed. So at each milestone, there's a specific action step: who creates the pricing document, who designs the communication, who tracks the enrollment numbers. Now this structure does four things that most EC operators, managers, and directors have never experienced simultaneously. It gives your team clarity about what the quarter is and what you're working toward. It creates a weekly reference point so that Monday mornings start with direction rather than reaction, and it makes delegation possible because the action steps, well, those are specific enough to hand off with confidence, and it creates data for your quarterly business audit at the end of the season. So that next quarter, it's going to start from evaluated evidence rather than vague impressions. So the weekly CEO check-in, This is the maintenance mechanism: 15 minutes Monday morning or Friday afternoon. You pick whatever day works best for you. Three questions: What did we accomplish last week toward our focus goals? What is the priority this week, and what is in the way that needs direction or a resource to help clear it? That's it. 15 minutes every Monday morning. That consistency is what separates CEOs who finish the quarter having to achieve their goals from directors and managers who finish their quarter surprised by where they ended up.

So that quarterly business audit, which you downloaded at the beginning of this episode, right? That's how you're going to close the loop at the end of October or maybe November, depending on your school year, your calendar, you complete the audit to evaluate what was accomplished, what was not, and what the data is telling you about the next quarter. That data is going to be the starting point for your winter planning, which ideally is going to happen in November. Now, while you still have space to think before that holiday season arrives, this is the full cycle: vision to action plan to weekly check-in to quarterly audit, and then back to vision. That is how CEOs operate early childhood businesses. That is how fall goes from survival mode to something you're actually proud of leading. So your two action steps here. Number one, this week write out your three focus goals for your fall quarter. Again, do you need to change, adjust the ones you already have if you've done this, or do you need to write them from scratch? But just three, no more. Use the format: verb plus specific outcome plus measurable target plus date. So, for example, launch extended care package with 80% eligible family uptake by October 1, increase fall referrals by 20% over last fall through intentional referral outreach. Those are two examples. Here's another one: complete team performance conversations with all four lead team members by September 30. Those are three goals written right now. Your action step number two: Schedule your Monday CEO check-in on your calendar right now for every Monday through November. Name it, protect it. 15 minutes first thing. The CEOs who do this consistently have meaningful, better quarterly outcomes than those who plan to check in but do not schedule it. A scheduled commitment becomes a kept commitment. Let me repeat myself, my friend. A scheduled commitment becomes a kept commitment. An intention remains an intention. So those three strategies-the mindset shift from director or manager to CEO, the four-domain fall vision plan, and the 90-day action framework-are the complete architecture for a fall season you actually designed instead of one that happened to you. So here's your sequence: today, download the quarterly business audit checklist. This week, write your four domain vision plan, just a draft, four paragraphs. Before August 1st, write your three focus goals for the fall quarter, and then schedule your weekly Monday CEO check-ins through November. Then share your plan with someone who will help hold you to it. Now, if you want to do all of this inside a supported community with expert guidance and real accountability, please join our back-to-school challenge. It's live right now. The planning and session inside the challenge is specifically designed to walk you through building your fall CEO vision plan with support and structure to make it go. Go check it out, and if you want that expert guidance on a regular basis, be sure to check out our Clarity Collective, where we give you a video recorded training every month, a new resource every month, and real live coaching with me every month, and a community that is dedicated to helping each other succeed. Now, here's what I believe about you, my friend. You have already done the hard part of early childhood leadership. You built something from nothing. You serve families who trust you with the people they love most, and you show up every day to do work that genuinely matters. You're not missing talent. You're not missing commitment. You might just be missing a plan, and this is your window to build one. July and August are a gift that September does not get to give you. Use this time. Plan like a CEO. Lead your fall with intention. You are a confident early childhood operator. I can't wait to see you next week. Take care, my friend. Thanks for tuning into our podcast. Are you ready to take your early childhood business to the next level? Then head over to kelleypeake.com to join a community of other early childhood professionals who are ditching the chaos and the overwhelm and creating a business they love. I can't wait to see you there. Bye for now.