Your 90-Day Plan
A 90-day plan with priorities, owners, milestones and a review date.
This is the final lesson of the course. You’ve learned to see the abundance in your community, understand the pressures it faces, recognise the patterns of places that keep value at home, apply principles of stewardship, design a business model and ownership structure, and build a full business case.
Now the question is simple: what will you do next? This lesson helps you build a 90-day plan, a short, focused set of actions that moves your opportunity from paper into the world.
What you’ll learn in this lesson
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
- explain why a 90-day plan works
- choose the most important actions for the next three months
- set clear goals and assign responsibility
- plan how to keep momentum and report progress
- commit to your first step
Why 90 days
Ninety days is long enough to make real progress and short enough to stay focused. A one-year plan can feel distant, and it’s easy to put off action. A 90-day plan creates urgency. It asks: what can we actually get done by this date?
At the end of 90 days, you review what you’ve achieved, learn from what didn’t work, and make the next 90-day plan. Each plan moves you further around the CIRCLE process.
What goes into the first 90 days
The first 90 days are usually about building the foundations. Depending on where you are, your actions might include:
- Building support. Presenting your business case to leadership, holding a community meeting or meeting with key stakeholders.
- Rallying the team. Confirming a champion, forming a working group and agreeing on roles.
- Testing demand. Talking to potential customers, gathering letters of interest or running a small trial.
- Securing supply. Talking to suppliers and getting commitments in principle.
- Finding partners. Meeting potential operating, finance and government partners.
- Starting approvals. Identifying the permits you need and starting the process.
- Seeking finance. Applying for a planning grant or meeting with lenders.
- Running a pilot. If you’re ready, launching the smallest version of your enterprise.
You won’t do all of these. Choose the ones that matter most for your stage.
Choosing your priorities
A good 90-day plan has three to five goals, no more. For each one, ask:
- Does it move the project forward? Will it remove a blocker, fill a gap or build momentum?
- Is it achievable in 90 days? Can it realistically be done with the time and people available?
- Is it clear when it’s done? Can you tell, without argument, whether it’s been achieved?
Good goals are specific. “Build community support” is too vague. “Hold a community meeting and gather at least thirty people’s views on the compost pilot by the end of month two” is clear.
Responsibility and support
Every goal needs a named owner, one person who is responsible for making sure it happens. They may not do all the work themselves, but they keep it moving.
Then list what each owner needs, such as time, money, information or introductions, and who will provide it. Many plans fail because an owner is named but given nothing to work with.
Keeping momentum
Momentum is fragile in the early stages. These practices help.
- A regular check-in. A short meeting of the core team every week or two to review progress and solve problems.
- A simple tracker. A one-page list of goals, owners, actions and status that everyone can see.
- Early wins. Choose at least one goal you can achieve in the first month. An early success builds confidence.
- Community updates. Let people know what’s happening, even when progress is slow.
- A 90-day review. Set the date now. At the review, celebrate what was achieved, learn from what wasn’t and plan the next 90 days.
When things don’t go to plan
They won’t always. A partner may say no, a grant may be refused, or a permit may take longer than expected. This is normal. Treat each setback as information. Ask what you’ve learned, what you can change and what the next step is. Most of the enterprises in this course faced setbacks along the way. What set them apart was that they kept going.
Your first step
The most important part of any plan is the first step. Before you finish this course, decide what you will do in the next seven days. Make it small and specific: a phone call, a meeting, an email, a conversation with a leader. Then do it.
Reflect
- What are the three to five most important things to achieve in the next 90 days?
- Who will own each one, and what will they need?
- What early win can you achieve in the first month?
- What setback is most likely, and how will you respond?
- What will you do in the next seven days?
Exercise: Build your 90-day plan
- Write down where you are in the CIRCLE process.
- Choose three to five goals for the next 90 days. Test each one against the three questions.
- For each goal, name an owner, list the key actions and note what support they need.
- Identify at least one early win for the first month.
- Set dates for regular check-ins and for your 90-day review.
- Plan how you’ll keep the community informed.
- Write down your first step, to be taken in the next seven days, and who will take it.
This plan is the bridge between your OPPORTUNITY business case and a working enterprise.
Key takeaways
- A 90-day plan creates focus and urgency, and builds momentum one step at a time.
- Choose three to five specific, achievable goals with a clear sign of completion.
- Give every goal a named owner and the support they need.
- Keep momentum with regular check-ins, a simple tracker, early wins, community updates and a 90-day review.
- Treat setbacks as information, and take your first step in the next seven days.
Closing thoughts
Every community has abundance. Land, water, people, culture, skills and even waste are resources that can sustain local enterprises and keep value at home. The pressures communities face are real, but so are the opportunities.
The communities in this course didn’t wait for someone else to solve their problems. They looked at what they had, brought people together, chose a place to start and kept going. You can do the same.
Thank you for taking this course. We look forward to hearing what you build.
Your working notes
Use the exercise above to build this part of your project: a 90-day plan with priorities, owners, milestones and a review date.
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