You’ve got big plans for your business, but do you have an easy way to set your goals then review your business progress?
In this blog post I wanted to share key questions that you can ask yourself at the end of each quarter to allow you to take conscious steps towards achieving your goals.
Six ways to review your business
1. Goals
Can you easily find what your goals were for the quarter? If you can, then skip straight to the questions. If you find yourself not remembering what they were that is a sure sign that there is a gap in your planning system as your goals need to be stored somewhere you can easily find them as you’ll be referring back to when setting your actions for each month.
Did you achieve your goals this quarter? If not, why not? If you did succeed, were there any particular actions you took that made a difference?
What challenges did you face and why?
What lesson do you need to carry forward to the next quarter?
What do you want to improve on next quarter?
2. Numbers
It’s critical to be an eye on the metrics within our business. One of your goals was likely related to your income, yet there might be other numbers you need to track that weren’t directly related to your goals.
What were the results from the metrics you’re tracking?
Will the metrics you’re tracking remain the same for the next quarter?
3. Trends
One of the reasons that reviewing our numbers is useful is to consider if any trends are emerging.
These might be in your audience behaviour or in your own behaviour. If you found you were consistently avoiding doing FB lives or following up with potential clients now is a good time to look at what was going on.
Was it a case of not having enough time or was the motivation missing? Was there something else that needed to happen first in order to make those actions happen more easily?
Did your numbers show any emerging trends?
Did you notice any trends in your behaviour?
4. Feelings
It’s all too easy to focus on the metrics and the facts and skip right past how you felt about your business this quarter.
There is no point in hitting your income goal if you dread starting work each day. By looking at how we felt about our business we can identify where things weren’t going well, like a high percentage of clients being the wrong kind of clients.
Of course earning income is important but it needs to be balanced with enjoying delivering the services that you offer.
How did you feel about your business this quarter?
What frustrated you the most in your business?
What delighted you in your business?
Which of your services did you enjoy delivering the most?
What were you grateful for this quarter?
5. What bugged you?
There are often things going on in our businesses that feel too small to bother with yet they drain a disproportionate amount of our energy.
Did you have a piece of software that was constantly glitching?
Was your wireless mouse not working properly and it was super clunky to use?
Did anything bug you this quarter?
What can be done to fix it quickly?
6. Create space
The end of a quarter is a great time to sit back and clear some space in your business, especially in this digital age. Give yourself an hour to organise your information. You could:
- Clear out your downloads and screenshot files
- Archive old information
- Remove email lists for old freebies and services
- Delete old branding images from Canva
- Delete FB posts you’ve saved to read (but know you’re never going to!)
- Delete emails you’ll never open.
- Delete freebies you’ll never read.
- Delete FB groups you keep meaning to be active in.
Give yourself space to breathe, to increase your capacity to grow your business in the way it needs.
By having a regular routine to review your business you’ll be more focused on your goals and can consciously make adjustments, rather than waiting until the end of the year.
If you’re ready to set yourself up for success with then book in a free 20 minute call with me to discuss how I can support you and your business growth. I’m a total systems geek and I’d be happy to talk to you about organising and systemising your business.
