Since owning your business, have you ever completed a “year in review” to get a full view of what went really well and what you can improve moving forward? Now that we’re in the last week of the year, this is an excellent time to complete your review and prepare for the upcoming year.
Acknowledge What Worked Well
You know the phrase: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The same applies to your business. If there were things that you totally rocked over this past year, you’ll want to continue doing them moving forward so that you’re guaranteed the same success. However, if there’s something you can do to make these results even better, you can absolutely include them.
Identify What Didn’t Work Well
As a business owner, there’s always room for improvement. Identifying what might have hindered further success is hard to do, but it’s important to do so that you know what you can change in the new year.
Maybe you hired a team member who wasn’t a good fit, maybe you tried launching something new that flopped, or maybe you have an onboarding system in place that isn’t benefiting your clients as much as it could be. Whatever it may be, pointing out these shortcomings gives you the opportunity to change the way you’ll be handling them in the future.
Appreciate Your Goals
Is anyone else guilty of not patting themselves on the back nearly enough for what they accomplished over the past year? I know I am! Make a list of every single thing you accomplished so that you can be proud of it, as you deserve to be, no matter how big or small. Whether you doubled your revenue or made a better commitment to work / life balance, everything you achieve deserves to be celebrated!
Plus, if you feel like you “did nothing” over the past year, writing out everything that you did do will force you to realize that you did a lot more than you thought.
Reevaluate Your Missed Goals
Did you set out to do something this year, but it didn’t quite turn out as you hoped it to? Firstly, don’t be discouraged if you wanted to achieve something this year and didn’t–that’ll happen in life and business, and that’s OK! Secondly, here’s your opportunity to change that so you can have a different outcome in the coming year. Identify what might have prevented you from reaching that goal, and brainstorm what you can do differently to make sure you hit it this time around.
As you review all of these buckets, I recommend buying giant sticky notes, sticking four of them to the wall of where you typically work, and writing all of your thoughts out. It’ll make it easier to take a step back and see everything from a “bird’s eye view” as you begin plotting your next moves!
Are you planning on reviewing the past year to improve as a business owner throughout this next year?
