It was the end of 2021. I sat in my kitchen in the center of Kyiv and planned the financials for my software development business for the next year. We were on a good track. We were generating about $70k a month of revenue. I felt optimistic — 2022 was going to be a big year. My goal? To reach $2M in revenue.
But then, life had other plans. Two major clients suddenly stopped work in January — within the same week. A significant portion of our expected income vanished overnight, leaving us with huge bad debt. And then, in February, war broke out in Ukraine. Everything changed.
It was a great and painful lesson for me that something was wrong with my planning. Obviously, I needed to learn to do it differently.
A lot has changed since 2021. Eventually, I came to a new approach to planning.
A new approach to planning
I changed my planning to a multistep process that includes resources evaluation, vision of the desired future, risk evaluation, and pillars of everyday focus.
So I start by evaluating the resources I already have.
For example, I have:
- ~40 working hours a week
- Financial reserves to cover [X] months without income
- Skills: Sales, writing, programming, management
- IT software development company that generates $[X}/month of personal income
- Plugin that generates ~[Y]/month of income
- More than 10 years of experience in IT development business
Then I visualize what I want to achieve:
- Reach $[X] in monthly income from products and solopreneur activities
- Build an engaged audience
- Deepen my expertise in AI, AI agents, and cloud engineering
Then I can define my risks and opportunities:
Risks
- Financial risks: Monthly expenses exceed income by $[Y], leading to reliance on savings. That causes anxiety and an uneasy mind.
- Business risk: Declining software development business, uncertain contract pipeline
- Product revenue risk: Plugin income can face potential declines
- Geopolitical risk: Possibility of political instability and wars
- Professional risk: Lack of clear direction, self-doubt, and questioning of my capabilities
With risks and threats, there are always opportunities.
For me, it is:
- AI Education: Enrolling in a structured program for credibility and networking
- Freelancing/Consulting: Offering product strategy, AI, and software development services
- Tech upskilling: Enhancing skills in AWS, Kubernetes, CI/CD, and Python
- Portfolio projects: Developing AI demo projects to showcase expertise
- SEO strategy: Drive more traffic and revenue to the plugin.
- New products: Creating additional revenue streams.
After I identify threats and opportunities, I need to develop a daily plan that contributes to both short-term stability and long-term goals. So, I created a three-pillar model for balanced focus.
The Three-Pillar Model
Here I have pillars that generalize things I want to focus on and describe daily actions I need to do.
How my daily routine looks now
Rather than chasing arbitrary revenue goals, I’ve created a system of daily actions that keep me moving forward:
- Morning (2 hours): Audience-building (writing, networking)
- Midday (4 hours): Revenue-focused execution (client work, consulting, plugin growth)
- Afternoon & Evening (2 hours): Upskilling (learning AI, building projects)
But we are living in a fast-changing world, and we need to look for events that can hinder our growth, so we constantly need to monitor and adjust for risks.
Monitoring and adjusting for risks
To stay proactive, I track key metrics and define response triggers:
Final Thoughts
This shift in mindset—from chasing numbers to focusing on a system or daily tasks and evaluating risks —has been game-changing. Instead of being reactive to crises, I now have a framework that helps me stay adaptable and in control.
If you’re navigating uncertainty in your business or career, I hope this approach gives you some useful ideas.
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