The Pre-Loaded Plan: How to Build Your Most Successful Year in 2026

December is one of the most important months in the fitness business calendar. It can set you up for an extraordinary year or it can leave you starting behind the eight ball.

Too many fitness business owners cruise into Christmas, lose focus, and then spend the first quarter of the new year recovering.

This episode of Profit Made Simple is designed to stop that cycle. It gives you the exact process to reflect on 2025, clarify your vision for 2026, and build a Pre-Loaded Plan that helps you enter the new year with clarity, momentum and energy.

If you want more impact, more income and more freedom, this is the planning framework that will help you achieve it.

Step 1: Review Before You Preview

You cannot plan your most successful year without first reviewing the one you are completing. Before diving into strategy or tactics, you must answer a fundamental question.

Where are you going and what does success actually look like?

Most business owners skip this step. They set vague goals like grow the gym or improve my health. Vague goals do not lead to growth. Specificity does.

Define Success in Three Categories

  1. Business

    • Number of clients

    • Gross revenue

    • Net profit

    • Your personal role

    • Hours worked per week

    • New products or services

    • Team structure

  2. Personal Life

    • Holidays and destinations

    • Date nights

    • Weekend structure

    • Quality family time

    • Routines that make you feel proud as a leader of your family

    • Work finish times

  3. Health

    • Training frequency

    • Sleep habits

    • Down regulation practices

    • Supplements

    • Nutrition structure

    • Events or challenges

Write these down with detail. Your scribbles should fill a page. Clarity creates alignment. Alignment creates momentum.

Step 2: ‘The Prime Five’ Questions

These five questions form the backbone of the Pre-Loaded Plan. They require honesty, courage and introspection. They are uncomfortable by design because growth requires truth.

1. What do you actually want?

Many fitness business owners build a business based on outside noise. Social media trends. Industry influencers. Mentors. Friends. Competitors.

But what do you genuinely want in 2026?

More clients?
Fewer clients but higher quality?
More delivery?
Less delivery and more leadership?
More freedom?
More challenge?

Your answer shapes everything.

2. What price are you willing to pay?

Every goal has a price of admission. Not everyone wants to sacrifice. Not everyone should.

In 2025 you may have worked long hours, travelled constantly, or pushed harder than you wanted.
What are you willing to pay in 2026?
What are you not willing to sacrifice?

Your boundaries protect what matters most.

3. What are you not willing to do?

Clarity is power. When you know what you refuse to do, you avoid distraction and misalignment.

This might include:

Working weekends

Coaching too many clients

Taking on tasks outside your zone of genius

Write your list. Honour it.

4. What do you want more time for?

Here are the 4 categories Dan is prioritising in 2026.

They may inspire your own.

    1. Thinking

      White space unlocks clarity and creativity.

    2. Leadership
      Your team grows when you grow.
    3. Marketing
      Visibility drives momentum.
    4. Sales
      Conversions unlock new opportunities.

    What are your four?

    5. What will you pay to buy back time?

    Your time is the most valuable asset in your business.

    You can buy more of it through people.

    This may include:

    • Administrators
    • Bookkeepers
    • Coaches
    • Cleaners
    • VA
    • A digital marketing partner

    Household support like cleaners, nannies or gardeners

    Whenever you invest in leverage, your effectiveness increases.

    Step 3: Reflect and Rise

    Before you build the 2026 plan, capture the lessons from 2025. These insights prevent you from repeating patterns that slow your growth.

    1. Your top 3 lessons from this year

    Dan shared his three.

    Use them to spark your own.

    • Lesson One There is a law of diminishing returns when you do too much technical delivery.
    • Lesson Two You can serve people, but you cannot save them.
    • Lesson Three Abundance is real. Money flows where belief and action align.

    What are your three?

    2. Identify your bottleneck

    Fitness businesses rarely fail because of everything.

    They fail because of one thing.

    Your bottleneck could be:

    • Lead generation
    • Booking conversions
    • Attendance
    • Retention
    • Sales
    • Leadership
    • Operations

    What is yours?

    3. What skill must you develop in 2026?

    Every business plateau comes from either:

    • A model limitation
    • A belief limitation
    • A skill limitation

    Which one applies to you?

    What is the one skill you need to master to break through your ceiling?

    4. Where did you miss the mark this year?

    This is not about shame. It is about truth.

    What is yours?

    Step 4: Build Your 2026 Calendar

    This is where your plan comes to life. Buy a large physical calendar. Open space. Thick marker. Time to map the year.

    Start with the big rocks

    There are two that matter most.

    1. The Money Makers

    These are the activities that inject energy, clients and revenue into your business.

    They build momentum.

    Examples include:

    • Seasonal specials
    • Black Friday
    • New Year campaigns
    • Challenges
    • Open days
    • Community events
    • Fight nights
    • Retreats

    Put your money makers into the calendar now.

    Do more of them in 2026.

    2. Your holidays

    Take time off every quarter.
A long weekend.
A week away.

    Recovery is not a luxury. It is a requirement.

    Add the sand

    Once the big rocks are locked in, fill the gaps.

    • Quarterly planning days
    • Learning and development events
    • Competitions or challenges
    • Family events
    • Hobbies
    • Social, educational, charity and competitive events
    • Team performance reviews

    Once these are set, your year has shape. Structure. Intent. Purpose.

    Everything else fits around them.

    2026 Starts Now

    December is not the month to check out. It is the month to take control.

    Do the deeper work now.
    Answer the hard questions.
    Define success.
    Learn from 2025.
    Map your 2026.

    If you do, you will enter the new year with clarity, momentum, and excitement.
And that is exactly what I want for you.

    More impact. More income. More freedom.