2020 was a wild ride, right? The election is over and I’m pretty excited about the outcome. I’d particularly like to extend congratulations to Kamala Harris on being the first female and first woman of color Vice President. We’re all doing a little bit of celebrating here at Moxie, but the work of moving toward equality and justice is just beginning.
Across the U.S., we’re all starting to take deep breaths again as the year draws to a close. From a business standpoint, the best word to describe this year might be “disruptive.”
Disruptions don’t last forever, though, and as we count down to the new year, it’s a good time to find a quiet space, reflect and get ready for the next year.
Particularly after a year that’s been so incredibly disruptive, it’s a good time to take a big step back and re-evaluate, but an end-of-year round of reflection and intention setting is a good idea every single year. Here are nine points to consider this year and every year.
1. Did I actually enjoy what I worked on this year? Do I want to continue?
If you’re in business for yourself, you started on this journey for a reason. But over time — especially if you get caught in a feast-or-famine cycle, have your business interrupted or get caught in an economic downturn (like, say, the one caused by a global pandemic) — you may have gotten sidetracked or been forced to change direction to keep the lights on.
So what are you spending your time doing? What are you selling, when, and to whom? What tasks are you performing? And do you like those tasks and this direction? Is that what you actually want to be doing? Why or why not?
If the answer to any of these questions is “no,” it might be time to re-evaluate whether you want to run this particular business at all, or what shifts you might need to make to get yourself back on track to doing work that’s fulfilling. There’s an excellent short book by Seth Godin called The Dip that walks you through how to know when to persevere and when to give up or pivot.
2. Have I given myself grace regarding events out of my control?
Though 2020 was a doozy, every year carries the chance of affecting our business in ways we simply can’t predict or control. Are you giving yourself sufficient grace about it, or are you still beating yourself up? If it’s the latter, drop your shoulders, take a deep breath and put down the guilt stick, because stuff happens and we all have to respond as best we can in the moment.
Now is the time to let that stuff go and move forward.
3. Am I on track for my goals? Do I need a new roadmap?
Remember January, when you were so excited to implement your shiny new plan for the year? How did that turn out? Are you on track to meet your goals for the year?
If so, congratulations! Great job. Spend some time recording what went right and how you can capitalize on this year’s success and build on it next year.
If not, don’t pick up that stick to start beating yourself about the head and shoulders again. Spend some time really thinking about what went off the rails and how you can pull your business back on track over the next year.
4. Am I proud of how I managed employees this year?
If you have employees, full- or part-time, how did you do this year with hiring and managing them? Is there anything you’d like to change about how you hire or manage in the future?
Are there any hard conversations you’ve been putting off having with an employee? Do you need to write job descriptions or search for additional employees in the new year? Which cool ways can you reward your employees at year’s end?
5. What skills do I want to learn next year?
Unless you’re a mud puddle, you probably don’t want to stagnate over the next year, and growing pond scum isn’t good for your business either. What skills will you need to acquire or improve next year to continue to grow your business or your leadership skills?
Consider carefully how these skills will fit into and help you accomplish your long-term goals.
6. Am I happy with my 2020 spending and expenses? What might I want to change?
Look over your current-year spending and expenses. Where is your spending going? Is that in line with your goals?
If you’re using the Profit First accounting method, this step gets significantly easier. Since Profit First gives every dollar a home, it’s easy to see whether you’re spending a larger percentage of your income on expenses than you planned. (Or, on the flip side, whether you can safely increase your expenses to gain resources, as we’ll discuss in question 9.)
8. What can I learn from the past year?
This is your space to consider the year as a whole. What lessons did you learn about running and growing a business? Is there anything you would have done differently? Is there anything you’re proud of?
Record these thoughts — especially your lessons learned — so that you can refer back to them as needed. The lessons and moments that seem obvious now might not be so clear in a few years. You might even write a few notes to your future self about pitfalls to avoid, then set a calendar reminder to refer back to these yearly.
7. What habits and systems do I want to build?
Now that you’ve given some thought to where you’ve been and where you’re going, what scaffolding do you need to get you there? You deserve to have support in place at every step of your business’ growth, and now is the time to set them in place.
Take a very honest look at your goals for next year, and consider what habits and practices you personally need to put in place to support them. If you plan to publish a blog post three times per week, do you have time to do that much writing? If you plan to do your books once per week, will you actually do it, or do you need an accountability buddy or lots of calendar reminders to make it work (or the wisdom to hand it off to an expert)?
In addition, do you have systems and resources in place to make sure you’re carrying out the basic business necessities like these?
- Filing taxes
- Wrangling charitable donations and deductions
- Staying on top of inventory and bookkeeping
This is also a great time to think about building new systems. In addition to larger — but important — projects like switching over to Profit First accounting, this is a great time to record the steps you take to complete tasks you don’t do very often. That way, when that task next rolls around, you won’t have to reinvent the wheel. You might even be able to hand that task off to someone else to complete instead, with the good documentation you’ve created.
9. What resources do I need next year?
This question is particularly important if your answer to question #1 now has you re-evaluating your entire business. (Sorry, not sorry! We’re here to ask the tough questions.) Either way, I’ll bet there’s some area of your business where you really need resources.
The area where you need more resources might even be in your personal life. Here’s a story from a small-business millionaire who found that the area where she could most effectively use more resources was at home.
Either way, consider where you need more resources — time, money, training, expert help — and make a list of what you need and how you might acquire more of that resource.
Taking intention into reality
As you consider each question, keep in mind that just sitting down and taking notes isn’t enough. Action is required for you and your business to grow. As a last step, revisit each of the nine questions above and use them to create a plan of action and a roadmap for the next year.
Next year’s accounting starts now.
We regularly help our clients set up sustainable business habits with Profit First accounting. Schedule a complimentary call with me, where we’ll talk more about putting profit first.