The year is coming to an end. And while everyone is busy with New Year’s parties and resolutions, you have a set of wrap-up tasks to complete as a business owner.
Your Christmas magic is different as an entrepreneur. Actionable insights, detailed analysis of the past year’s accounts, and data-driven New Year’s business planning are what make your holiday season exciting.
With a good year-end checklist for small businesses, you can figure out how your business performed, what areas need improvement, and how to set realistic targets for the upcoming year. And if you can execute these tasks efficiently, chances are no Santa’s going to bring coal to your stocking for the next year.
The golden rule of the year planning checklist is ensuring you don’t just analyse the past year’s performance to identify what went right and wrong.
Every observation you make should be analysed to discover the WHYs of your successes and failures.
Further, every insight you derive should be reflected in your business plan for the next year.
No disruption in this chain of analysis and planning is acceptable if you want every year to be better than the previous one.
Well, let’s begin the checklist with step one.
Want the unfiltered truth about your business? Let your financial statements tell you the real story.
Financial data is the ultimate health indicator of a business, that doesn’t let business owners sugarcoat their failures or count their successes based on gut feelings.
So, the first step in your year-end checklist should be to review your financial performance.
If there is a financial department or an accountant working with you, sit down with them and discuss the numbers in detail, as non-professional interpretation can be misleading.
We do hope you have quantifiable KPIs set for your business at the start of the year because the next crucial step in your year-end checklist for small businesses is measuring your business’s overall performance against those goals.
Besides the financial performance, we strongly recommend you analyze the following.
Here’s what is crucial: along with setting the KPIs and goals that should serve as benchmarks for the year-end planning, you need to set up the data collection and analysis systems to help you track these numbers throughout the year.
You need to track your business’s performance regularly to have a realistic review of the year-end. So, even if you are late for this year, set up the tracking systems right now for the upcoming one.
Here are tools and platforms to create and manage KPIs for a small business that can help you at the beginning stage.
Fall seven times, get up eight.
There is no business that hasn’t experienced failure. You made mistakes; you’ll do them again. Always.
The most crucial thing is to find out what led you to those mistakes so you don’t repeat them in the future. And that’s why you need to ensure your year-end checklist for small business includes a detailed analysis of failures and their underlying reasons.
If you tell your team what went wrong and why, they’ll know what not to do in the future. But if you don’t celebrate what went right, how will they know what to continue doing and put in more effort for?
Most importantly, celebrating success is the never-ending fuel for team motivation. And if you want your team to give their best next year, you need to allocate enough time and enthusiasm in your year-end checklist for small business to applaud successes and recognize team members’ contributions.
Do it however you like- have a motivating speech, organize a party, give out bonuses or employee recognition awards. Just make sure your team feels appreciated and motivated to work harder for the upcoming year.
Again, be very realistic. Let your team feel you’re really pointing out their hard work and achievements, not just doing a nice formality for them to feel good.
When the hard year is over, and you and the team have enough time to understand how the resource/staff allocation worked for the business, oblige yourself to sit down and evaluate your team’s performance.
Listen to your employee’s voice: are there employees who are exhausted but have still been putting in extra hours to meet workload requirements? Or, some people could do better if given better resources?
Is everyone feeling in the right place? Do you have extra staff that you don’t need anymore? Or are there departments/positions that heavily require more people next year?
That’s an extremely sensitive and potentially tricky issue, so handle it with empathy. You need to maximize your H.R. efficiency to masterly link your business goals with what every individual employee wants.
Yes, that’s one of the hardest points of the year-end checklist for small businesses. But the investment in genuine human touch to your workforce goes a long way, and it’s worth the effort.
The end-of-the-year business checklist is not a pure self-assessment. You need to look at the market and your niche and analyse where the competition stands. If you’re doing better- define how and why to keep it that way; if not, make sure to analyse what’s giving them an edge over you.
Also, competitor analysis is a great source for you to identify new opportunities in the market, untapped potentials and gaps that you can fill with your business.
New Year is the time to say “Thank You” to everyone who was a part of your business’s journey throughout the year. It includes the team and customers, suppliers, partners, investors, mentors, and everyone else who played a significant role in your business’s growth.
Make some nice gestures like thanking them personally, sending out thank you notes and gifts, organising an appreciation event, etc. These small acts of gratitude can go a long way in building strong relationships and strengthening your business network.
And they will feel your heart in it, which is no less important!
And… that’s a wrap for this year! But the real challenge lies ahead- planning and executing a better next year. Your year-end checklist is your roadmap- it will guide you where to go, how to get there, and what to expect on the way.
Here’s what you should be doing to make your next year better.
Have contingency plans for the budget so you know what to do and how in case of unexpected ups and downs. Have some room for investments and risks. Your next year’s budget should rely on learnings of the past year and your vision, goals and strategies for the upcoming year.
New year, new goals. But make sure they are not just generic statements but specific and measurable targets with KPIs attached to them. You need numbers that will tell you where you are in the race- whether you’re winning or lagging.
Draw a well-thought-out plan that will take you step-by-step to reach your goals. Define timelines, responsibilities, and resources required for each action item. Involve relevant team members in this process to ensure everyone is on the same page with the strategies and their roles in executing them.
You have spent enough time understanding your employees’ needs and assessing their performance. Use this information to plan your staffing for the next year. Whether you need more people or only a specific skill set addition- make sure to plan early and be prepared.
There you have it- your comprehensive year-end checklist for small business that’s your best advisor for wrapping up this year and starting the next one with a bang. Remember, your business is not just about numbers; it’s about people, relationships, strategies, goals and vision. Use this checklist to reflect on all these aspects and make your new year better than ever before!
P.S. Don’t forget to rest well and enjoy the holidays with your loved ones. Personal resources are as important as business resources!
