The year has rapidly come to an end, and now is the best time to take a look back at 2018 to review your business performance, prepare for what’s in store for the new year, and establish strategies that will help get you set up for success. Below is a checklist of seven things to do to aid you in kick-starting your business for 2019.
- Assess your core activities – Evaluate your products and/or services, and determine what made them successful and what can be improved. Review how effective you were in meeting the needs of your customers/clients in terms of quality and price, and analyze your direct and indirect costs as well as your overhead.
- Evaluate your business efficiency – Ask yourself if there were any internal or external factors compromising the growth and efficiency of your business. Analyze your workflow and identify ways to cut cost while improving productivity. Outsourcing is a common trend for reducing overhead while maintaining or increasing output. Nowadays you can outsource almost anything. A virtual assistant can assist you with distinguishing your business needs, and identifying whether outsourcing will be a great option for you. Check out some of the services offered by AVA.
- Perform a SWOT analysis and conduct a competitor analysis – Review your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and identify who your direct and indirect competitors were as well as what they offered. Familiarize yourself with understanding their customer base, and what their competitive advantages and disadvantages were compared to yours.
- Conduct a Market analysis – The market is constantly changing so it’s important to pay close attention to new trends and technology, new and emerging consumer needs and demands, and changes in competitive activities. All of these factors will play a vital role in successfully growing your business. Request and/or review feedback from your customers, or conduct a focus group within your target demographic to try to gain untapped insights into your customers or clients, and to help assist you with recognizing any possible changes in their needs or demands. This will also help you identify ways improve your products and/or services.
- Analyze profits and losses – The end of the year also marks the beginning of tax season. Be sure to gather up all of your documents and receipts, and make sure that your financial reports are up to date. After you’ve collected and updated all of your data, review your assets, profits, and losses, and initiate new goals and strategies for improvement for 2019.
- Break down your strategic structure – Did you have an attractive strategic approach in 2018? What worked? What didn’t work? Thoroughly examine your business operations, resources and capabilities and determine whether your strategies were in alignment with your value proposition, profit proposition, and people proposition. Did you leverage your strengths, and were there any missed opportunities for successful collaboration?
- Redefine your business goals – Ask yourself who, what, when, where, why, and how. Where is your business now? Where will your business go? When will you get there? How will you get there? Who can help you get there? What strategies of execution do you have in place? What is your Why?
At last, give yourself a well deserved pat on the back for all of your achievements in 2018, both small and big, and get started on working towards the new goals for 2019. May you have a prosperous new year!
Thank you for reading!
