During the year, you go to the doctor for a checkup and you also bring your car to the mechanic for a tune up. But what about your small business? Have you thought about giving it a checkup also? You should always know the status of your business’ financial health, how well it is doing in other areas and what aspects need to be tweaked.
With an entire year to assess behind you, and a new year for implementation ahead, this is an opportune time for your business checkup!
The Examination During this stage, you want to accumulate all the data about your business from the past year. So here are some questions to help you get to the bottom line:
How do your assets compare to your liabilities? How is your cash flow? Gather your financial information to help you answer these questions. Have your financial statements for the current year ready along with those from the prior year for comparison. For areas where you notice significant fluctuations, be ready to answer what gave rise to these.
Are you still on target with your vision, mission and strategy? Pull out your business plans to help with this.
Do you still own your niche? Are you still an expert? Do you know what you don’t know? Surely, these aren’t easy questions, but it will benefit your business to answer honestly.
Is your brand still relevant? Is it time to revamp? It is important to remember that brands are shaped upon creation and have the ability to evolve. Additionally, they are not mutually exclusive from the business environment which is constantly changing. So with outside factors considered, does your brand need a boost?
Are you still meeting your customers’ needs? Are your solutions still needed? Are there new solutions you should provide to customers? Business is all about satisfying needs in the marketplace so you should know where you stand and what opportunities exist. Your business should be adaptable to keep up with your customers’ changing preferences.
Did you meet your goals that are outside the scope of your business? For instance, were you as involved in the community as planned? How did you give back?
Are your marketing efforts focused in the right areas? Did you notice different results from online versus offline marketing?
The Diagnosis Analyze the answers to the questions above. What information did you gather? What does it tell you about your business performance during the year? Did you notice any trends in your responses? Do you notice any inconsistencies? What are some areas of improvement? What should you continue doing?
Your assessment shouldn’t begin and end with you. Customers are vital to your business, so seek their input. Not only can your customers speak on your performance, but they can also provide insight as to what moves competitors are making.
And don’t forget your employees. The perception of those who aren’t making the decisions may be very different from those who are.
Altogether, these responses should help you identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. You will be able to determine what you want to accomplish as you look forward.
The Prescription As a business owner, you know that taking action is key to the growth of your business.
So in this step, you want to identify how you will accomplish your new goals. Here are some suggestions:
- Writing down each action item and for those that require more elaboration, be specific about your plan
- Know what resources you need to commit. These can be in the form of money, time, etc. In addition to that, you want to work on a budget and timeline.
- Assess your progress periodically. In addition to annual, monthly and quarterly assessment can provide you with timely feedback which allows the opportunity to make changes quickly.
In summary Make the idea of a checkup for your small business work for you! Start by accumulating all the relevant information you’ll need, conduct your assessment, and decide what you want to implement. Along the way, don’t forget to monitor your progress and how it compares to your initial goals. Based on these results, revise your approach accordingly.
Dasanj Aberdeen is an entrepreneur, businesswoman and artist. She founded Theafter5edge.com and is a graduate of the Wharton School of UPENN. Follow her at @TheAfter5Edge
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