Layoff to Launch

Ninety-Day Plan Checklist

Companion to the lesson "The ninety-day plan"

Start date:   Trigger date:   Trigger condition (the date and condition under which the lane weights flip):

Phase One: Stabilize and Count (days 1 to 14)

Day 14 Deliverable A dated number, a filed claim, and a household that has seen the same page you have.

Phase Two: Decide on Purpose (days 15 to 30)

Day 30 Deliverable A chosen path, written down, with a trigger date attached. Still torn is also an answer: default to dual-track, set the checkpoint at day sixty, stop relitigating nightly.

Phase Three: Execute (days 31 to 60)

Day 60 Deliverable Not revenue: pipeline. Interviews at real stages, conversations with real prospects, and a runway number you have watched move for a month.

Phase Four: Verify and Decide Again (days 61 to 90)

CheckpointQuestion
Day 45Recompute the number against the original; if the pot has burned materially faster than the budget predicted, fix the budget or the burn, not the goal
Day 60Count the pipeline honestly; audit the search quality (screens from good applications, or silence everywhere?)
Day 90Business lane: revenue covering some honest fraction of the survival budget, repeat customers or a filled pipeline, trend line up. Job lane: interviews at late stages or an offer. Dual-track: whichever lane shows traction gets the weight
Kill and Pivot Rules Kill means stop paying for this version: day 90 with zero revenue and an empty pipeline sends the business to nights-and-weekends and the job search to the day shift; pot crossed half with neither lane producing means income-first takes over completely. Pivot means the market answered a different question than you asked: the adjacent service, the smaller scope, the business clients instead of the households.

The Ninety-Day Plan (summary)