12 Days Of Christmas: Annual Business Review

You made it! 

The end of 2017 is nearly in sight and you’re still here, still in business. Can we all just take a moment to realise how great that really is?

We don’t do it nearly enough so you’ve my permission to sit back and take a little moment to reflect on how well you’re doing. And, even if you’ve not had the easiest of years in business, you’re still standing. That counts for everything.

Feels good reflecting, doesn’t it?

So good, that I’d like to encourage you to do a little more of it. In the form of my 12 days of Christmas annual business review – a chance to review your business one day at a time for the next 12 days.

I used to do this in one day, but it was a bit much to tackle all in one go. So this year, I’m breaking it down into 12 manageable tasks, and I hope it inspires you to join me.

Start your review by making time to check in with the people that help your business run – your staff and your suppliers. 

• How have they found this year? 
• What have they enjoyed most? 
• What feedback do they want to share?

Asking these questions will unearth gems that will not only show you where you’re doing really well as a business, but where you can improve in 2018. 

Write down all the moments that made you feel pride, satisfaction and joy in your business throughout the year.

When did you fist-pump the air in celebration in 2017?

Take the time to write them down today. 

It’s not just about acknowledging your achievements (though a worthy exercise) it’s about identifying what makes you happy in the work that you do.

Beyond profits, these are the moments that will keep you getting out of bed and doing your thing next year and it’s good to know precisely what they are.

As you near the end of Q4, it’s time to run the data on all your key business metrics.

Start with sales, revenue, and profit/loss.

Then dive into the deeper metrics such as marketing results to get a full picture of this year to date, but also growth/change year on year.

Pull them all together today so you’ve got a clear view of everything that’s happened in your business this year.

Having run your numbers, today I’d like you to ask yourself:

“What is your most profitable revenue stream?”

Sometimes this is very clear, and you may know it already, but I’ve found with a number of clients that interrogating the data unearths a surprise. You may want to also determine which revenue stream is not only profitable but is the easiest or takes least effort/time/resource.

Why?

Because this could be a huge area of growth for your business next year, and worth paying attention to before you get into planning (more on that later). 

Some things won’t have gone well for you this year and it’s time to take stock of what they are and why they happened.

I find this one especially hard to do because it’s a little ego-bruising. But, it is always worthwhile and teaches me not to make the same mistakes again. It’ll also keep my senses sharp to similar mishaps in the future so I can do something about them quicker next time.

This is your task today – take some time out to review things that were disappointing for you in your business in 2017.

Today your task is to ask yourself:

“What are the three big things I want to achieve in my business in 2018?”

You might want to look at your big three in terms of:

• Financially
• Systematically
• Personnel 
• Expansion

Or, any other metric that’s meaningful for your business.

Maybe you want to land a specific client in 2018 or be stocked in a particular store?

Or maybe you want to create an exit plan to sell your business?