How to Plan and Manage YOUR Career Like a Business
Photo by Rick J. Brown on Unsplash
Your Career Is Your Business. Start Running It Like One.
Let’s make this personal, because your career should be.
Career strategy isn’t about climbing endlessly or chasing titles you think you should want. It’s not about having lofty, attention-grabbing ambitions. It’s about planning and managing your career in a way that works for you.
Putting your needs first isn’t selfish; it’s strategic because when work feels good, life feels lighter.
When you feel confident, valued, and in control of your career, it has a positive ripple effect on everything else: your energy, your relationships, and your well-being.
After years of placing senior executives and coaching hundreds of leaders through career transitions, I’ve noticed that the people who get headhunted, promoted, and offered opportunities treat their careers like a business.
The rest rely on luck and hope everything works out.
Hope is not a strategy. So let’s change that.
Plan Your Career Like a Business
You wouldn’t launch a company without a business plan, a market position, or a growth strategy. Yet so many talented professionals run their careers on autopilot.
Here’s a 10-step career blueprint to stop waiting and start building.
1. Audit Last Year’s Goals (And Get Honest)
Not your team’s goals. Yours.
What didn’t you do?
Go for that promotion?
Apply for the role?
Ask for the scope, pay rise, or flexibility you wanted?
This isn’t about beating yourself up; it’s about clarity. Make the audit about you, not circumstances.
2. Define Your Three Non-Negotiables
What three things do you wish you’d done differently in your career so far?
Write them down.
This isn’t regret. It’s insight. These become your non-negotiable priorities for the next 12 months.
3. Know Your Market Position
No one launches a business without understanding its market. Your career is no different.
Ask yourself:
Where do I sit in the leadership landscape?
What do I do better than most people at my level?
What’s my competitive advantage?
If you can’t answer this in 30 seconds, that’s your first problem to work on.
4. Build Your Personal Board
Every successful business has advisors.
You need them too and make sure they’re not just cheerleaders, but strategists:
People who tell you the truth
Challenge your thinking
Open doors you didn’t know existed
Careers don’t grow in isolation.
5. Invest in R&D (That’s You)
Companies invest 10–15% of revenue in research and development.
Be honest:
What percentage of your time are you investing in yourself? Think skills, network, visibility, personal development, and thought leadership.
If it’s less than 10%, you’re running on borrowed time.
6. Track Your Metrics
You can’t improve what you don’t measure.
Start tracking your career KPIs:
Salary progression
Scope and responsibility
Network growth
Industry visibility
Skills acquisition
This is data, not ego.
7. Create Multiple Revenue Streams
No smart business relies on one client.
So why does your career rely on one employer?
This doesn’t have to mean side hustles (unless you want that). It could be:
Advisory work
Speaking opportunities
Board or trustee roles
Consulting or mentoring
Diversification is your ‘third chapter’ strategy.
8. Market Yourself Relentlessly
The best product in the world would fail without marketing.
You are the product.
Your personal brand isn’t vanity, it’s visibility. If decision-makers don’t know what you’re capable of, you don’t exist in their world.
9. Plan for Pivots
Your career will pivot either by choice or by force.
The only question is:
Are you ready?
Do you have options?
Are your skills transferable?
The strongest leaders plan for change before they’re forced into it.
10. Set Revenue and Lifestyle Goals (Yes, Really)
Let’s talk about what everyone avoids: money and lifestyle.
What do you actually want?
How much do you want to earn?
How do you want to work?
What do you want your life to look like?
Write it down and make it concrete. Then reverse-engineer the roles, industries, and moves that will get you there.
Your Action Plan
Pick one and do it now:
Write down your three biggest career priorities for 2026
Calculate what percentage of your week goes into your own development
Identify one person for your personal board and reach out
Set a 3-year revenue or lifestyle goal
Audit your personal brand: Google yourself – what do you find?
After years of placing and coaching leaders, I know that the people who succeed don’t wait for their career to happen to them. They dedicate time and energy to the business of their career.
Your career is your business.
Start running it like one.
What’s one goal you’re writing down this week?
Let me know. Accountability starts here.
Tracy Short is a former executive headhunter turned leadership coach and career strategist, specialising in senior executives within fashion, luxury, and lifestyle sectors. Through her Career Accelerator programme, she helps leaders navigate transitions, build authentic careers, and create purpose-driven next chapters.