It’s getting so close to the end of 2015, and as always, it feels like the year’s flown by! A lot of people tend to pack it in when it gets this late in the year. You’ve done a lot already, why not just coast through the holiday season?
But there’s still plenty of time to get things done before the drinks parties start … and one of the most important things you can do for your business is to do a review of your year before the new year starts. Ask yourself:
What was my goal this year?
If you set a goal back in January, how did you get on with it? Why did you make the progress you did, and what helped you or held you back? If you didn’t set a goal for the year, how did that affect your business?
Did I meet my objectives?
Maybe you had a particular revenue goal you wanted to meet, or a specific number of sales prospects you wanted to find — or maybe you were thinking more broadly and wanted to develop a new mission statement or create a charity initiative within your business. Whatever your specific objectives were for this year, did you meet them? If so, what did you do to make that happen? If not, why not?
What did I do to contribute or detract from my business’s success this year?
This can be a hard question to answer, but it is very valuable to know the areas that you could be better in, especially if you’re the owner of your business, because then you set the tone for the entire organisation. So ask yourself, what issues need to be addressed? Where could I be better?
What were my biggest victories this year?
It’s really important to recognise your successes as well as your failures. If you get so caught up in analysing what went wrong, you’ll lose valuable data about what went right. So how about it? What are you really proud of yourself for accomplishing this year?
What am I going to create next year?
Finally, think about this time next year. What do you want to be writing about your business in a year? What will have happened; how will you have grown? The great thing about doing this exercise a few weeks out is that you have lots of time to get some solid planning in place before the year starts. Remember, start by dreaming big … then go back and build the plans you need to make those dreams a reality!
What is 2016 going to look like for you? Tell us in the comments so we can cheer you on!
