You can use any planner for a business planner but you’ll probably need to add your own printables or rule up your own business tracking spreads, or pay for social media, blogging etc. add on pages – if the planner company even offers it.

There aren’t many hybrid weekly planners and business planners but one of them is the PA Planner which we’ll be looking at in this post.

There’s a lot in this planner so be prepared for a long review!

Disclaimer: The creator of the PA Planner reached out to me to see if I wanted to do a review. I had come across the PA planner before so said yes! As is always the case, even though I received the planner for free all opinions are my own.

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking one of these links I’ll receive a small commission in exchange for referring you (at no extra cost to you).

MY PA Business Planner

Quick facts

Size: 7″ wide x just over 9.25″ high (17.7cm wide x 23.7cm high)
Softcover
Sewn binding
Dates at a glance page
2021 year in review, reflection questions, bucket list
2 page Monthly calendar (starts on Monday) with a habit tracker
4 Monthly planning pages – goals & actions, project planner and social media content planner
2 monthly financial pages – profit & loss statement and cashflow
2 page weekly spread (starts on Monday) – vertical hourly format
2 page weekly review
So many business pages in this planner which are divided into 3 sections:
- Business plan
- Marketing plan
- Financial plan
Year in review questions
Contacts
Graph paper
Lined notes
Neutral color scheme inside pages
115 GSM, bright white paper
12 month duration
Dated January 2022 to December 2022

Price: $45 USD on the MY PA Planner website but you can get 10% off using my referral link and the coupon code: INEEDAPA

Let’s take a closer look

To enlarge the screen of the video, click the square icon in the bottom right hand corner of the video (it will say ‘full screen’ when you hover your mouse over the icon).

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Video notes

If you want to try the layout, there is a free printable on the MY PA Planner website.
There is a digital version of the planner for use with an iPad or tablet on the MY PA planner website
You can get 10% off using my referral link and the coupon code: INEEDAPA

Just a note: you don’t need to have already started a business, blog, YouTube channel or other online venture before you start using this planner. This planner can be used for new and existing business owners.

The Cover

The softcover cardstock is thin and bendy but since this planner will stay on your desk at home, probably only the corners will be scuffed. Due to the number of pages included in the planner it is very thick and heavy so if a hardcover had been used it would just make the planner even heavier.

Some softcovers aren’t heavy enough to keep the pages open and want to self-close. Because this one has so many pages it actually lays flat despite it’s softcover..

Approximately 1.5″ / 3cm thick

There are too many pages to add detailed photos of everything in the planner to this post, so refer to the video (above) and pause it on the pages where you’d like a more detailed look.

2021 Review and looking ahead to 2022

At the front of the planner you can get stuck into planning all of your business goals but first, a review of 2021.

I love the structure of this page with the clean boxes layout and lined writing space. These are the review questions:

Did you achieve your goals and financial targets?
List your biggest achievements?
What didn’t you achieve?
Which business tasks were unproductive?
What business decisions will be different in 2022?
List your personal highlights in 2021
What made you happy in 2021?
What areas of your personal life would you like to change in 2022?

There’s also a page to list out the 50 things you want to tick off in the next 10 years which I really like – most planners only look ahead as far as the current year.

Your Life

Similar to the 2021 reflection, there are tons of questions (18!) to get you thinking about your goals for 2022. Some of them include:

Which tasks do you dislike?
How will you spend your evenings / spare time?
What hobbies will you pursue?

Which is a different take to most planners that just ask you the goals, this one gets you thinking about the lifestyle you want to have while working towards those goals.

Next is a giant bucket list for big and small things you want to do this year, then it’s onto the business plan.

Business Plan

First up we start with a logical question? What is your why?

On these 2 pages you can write up to 7 things you want to achieve and the outcomes for completing them.

The Your Vision page feels like a bit of a repeat of some of the earlier pages. These early sections are jumping around between the current year’s goals, 10 years in advance and now 5 years in advance.

The next pages start getting into some specifics for your business. The way the questions are worded will work for new businesses, and existing businesses looking to revamp or grow.

There are many pages so I haven’t taken photos of them all (refer to the video if you want to see the layouts). These pages are quite detailed with prompting questions to help you establish:

Your mission
Your big goals
Your brand
Your products and how you’re going to make, obtain or manufacture them
Pricing your product (there’s a worksheet to help you too)
Revenue goals
IP and trademarks
How you’re going to sell your product
Competition analysis & SWOT analysis

The proportions of the question and answer boxes are a good size for jotting down dot points.

Marketing Plan

Now that you know what you’re doing and how you’re doing it, it’s time to develop a marketing plan. You don’t have to fill all of these sections at the start of the planner all at once. You might dedicate January to figuring out what kind of business you start, February to setting up a website etc.

There are pages for:

Target audience
How you’re going to sell your products e.g. what does your website look like?
Sales funnel including webinars
Email marketing
Blogging, video marketing, podcasting
PR plan – contests

2022 project planner

I really like this simple spread – a giant checklist and a column to number them in order of priority. The line spacing is generous (8mm), so it’s ideal if you have big handwriting.

2022 Connections

Monthly / weekly / daily tasks

One of my favorite pages in the whole planner! I keep one of these lists in an excel spreadsheet and it is so, so helpful as a reference list when setting up your weekly and monthly spreads.

Financial Plan

Now it’s onto the numbers. This planner has more detailed financial planning and tracking pages than other business planners I’ve seen.

Personal 2022 survival budget
Profit and loss forecast
Balance sheet forecast
2022 dates at a glance

If you have a day job or a partner that’s supportive enough that you can quit your job to start your business venture, there’s a worksheet to calculate your total expenses and income without the business. Then you can see how much you ideally need to make to cover any shortfalls or financial goals you want to achieve.

There are monthly profit and loss and cashflow pages later in the planner too.

After all of those goals / overview pages, it’s time to start planning the year.

Monthly Calendar

First is the monthly calendar which starts on Monday (consistent with the weekly spread).

The boxes for each day are 4.1cm wide x 2.1cm high. If you’ve seen some of my other reviews on this blog you probably already know what I’m going to say about this spread… I don’t like the 6 rows / weeks. If there are 1 or 2 days that require another row, just restart the numbering in the unused boxes on the top row. Then each day’s box would be bigger and more usable.

While there’s no tabs, the months are printed on the top left and right pages so you can find them easier when flicking through the planner.

I love the monthly habit tracker – so useful.

The small boxes could be overlooked as there’s plenty of room to write on the 4 monthly planning pages: goals & actions, project planner and social media content planner.

Monthly Profit & Loss Statement & Cashflow

At the end of each month is the profit and loss statement and the cashflow. If you don’t like Excel spreadsheets, you can use these pages instead.

Weekly Planning

There’s a lot happening on the weekly spread!

Different motivational quotes for each week
Regular action checklist
Goals / projects / actions / goals checklist
To watch / read / notes / ideas
Notes
To buy / expenses
Hourly schedule runs from 7am to 8pm
Top 3 for each day
Water intake, exercise and number of meditations tracker (I’d probably switch this to a Pomodoro tracker)

The only con for me is the different line spacing. It’s about 9mm which I think is far too big. Most planners have about 7mm line spacing. In contrast, the top 3 goals for each day is small (5mm) and I don’t think the word ‘goals’ needs to be printed in every day’s box taking up space. There’s no space for meal planning but you could use the notes section for that.

Weekly Review

There’s a lot happening on the weekly review pages as well, with 2 full pages to reflect and jot down more notes:

How many sales did you make?
How many new email subscribers?
How was your social media growth?
Your achievements
What worked?
What didn’t?
What goals didn’t you achieve?
What do you need to achieve these goals?
Gratitude journal
Scribble / notes / doodle space

2022 Review

Questions like:

How did your business perform? Did you reach your goals and financial targets?
What were your biggest achievements? (appears to be a typo on the page as this question appears twice, you could turn one into the biggest disappointments instead)
Looking back, did you spend your time on anything that was not taking your business forward?
What would you do differently next year in your business?
Were you happy with your personal life? What aspects of your life did you enjoy?
What are you going to do differently in your life this year?

I’m not sure why there’s a project planner page at the back – it seems a bit random unless the intention is to use it for brainstorming 2023 goals.

3 contacts pages

There are 2 single sided graph pages. The grid is 6mm x 6mm

And lastly, 5 lined notes pages with 8mm line spacing and 2 blank pages.

I didn’t pen test this planner as I won’t be keeping it. There was a bit of show through of text printed on the back side of the pages. I think ballpoint and gel tip pens will be fine, but I wouldn’t use dot markers or thick pens (e.g. 1mm nib).

Pros of the Planner

So many pages – one of the most detailed paper business planners I’ve seen
Minimalist color scheme so you can color code without your colors clashing with the colors of the planner
2 planners in one (business planner and a life planner) for the same price as either a business planner or a life planner
So many extra pages not only at the front of the planner, but also the monthly planning pages + 2 page weekly review
Functional page layouts
Bright white paper
New and existing business owners would benefit from this planner
Digital version also available
Worldwide shipping
2 ribbon bookmarks

Cons of the Planner

6 rows on the monthly calendar (the boxes for each day are too small)
No tabs
No pocket folder
Ribbon bookmarks are both black, contrasting colors makes it easier to find your place
Heavy – as heavy as a university textbook, this is a planner that would stay on your desk at home
The line spacing is not consistent in this planner
Might be a con for some people – no dedicated meal planning space on the weekly spread

Would I use this planner?

I don’t use vertical hourly scheduling weekly layouts but there are other parts of the planner I’m going to use.

I went back and revisited my year in review questions and considered a few more in the ‘your life’ section at the front of the planner e.g. what hours will you work, daily exercise routines etc. I really like the weekly review pages too.

I think that both new and existing business owners would benefit from this planner. When I look at this planner I think of a self employed person, direct sales consultant, blogger, YouTuber or Instagrammer using it.

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