Most entrepreneurs and solo entrepreneurs are just too damn busy. Keeping up with your daily business to take time to reflect on the year, reviewing it and setting goals for the year ahead is a must for me. That’s how I connect the current year with the upcoming year. Never take for granted looking back at your year no matter how good or bad it was. Knowing what went right with what went wrong is good for your overall improvement.
Setting time aside to reflect and retool can help you find renewed commitment to your business. It can boost your motivation and even for your team. It helps define key priorities for your business next steps. It could also refine your business message. It can help you better understand the needs of your customers and know them. It can also identify key weaknesses and make a plan to address them.
Below is a 5-step Self-Review to conducting your own annual review. This requires your full honesty in assessment. I need you to set aside some 3 hour focused time like what I talked about in my previous blogs. Take as much time as you can, whether it be 30 minutes, 3 hours or an entire day.
1. INVENTORY YOUR WORK – What did you spend your time on this year the most? Make a tally sheet on your top 10 and what was the output from doing so per category. Include everything, even distractions.
2. INCLUDE DATA ON PERFORMANCE – Which product, service or project was a home run hit for you? Which one got the best reviews? When you look at your output with success measures helps you focus on what you did the best.
3. CHECK YOUR BUSINESS HEALTH – Think Key Metrics, include the number of subscribers you have amassed vs the year before, site visits, your conversion rates and of course your profit. Tracking this data year over year will help you see if your business is actually growing or not.
4. KNOW WHERE YOU SPENT YOUR TIME – In addition to your output, where did you allocate your time and how much did you spend? Are you spending a lot of travel time? Are your admin tasks taking too much time from your creative time?
5. REFLECT ON WHAT WENT WELL AND WHAT YOU CAN IMPROVE ON – Take time to articulate and write down your bigger goals. Measure what matters the most. Consider doing a SWOT Analysis Chart for yourself. Don’t know what a SWOT is, Google is your mother.
Question of the day: Have you ever done an annual review?
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