All businesses need to review what’s going on, on a regular basis. (you may disagree!?)
With my 121 coaching clients and my membership club members I go through some key areas every three months.
Here are some of the things we look at – you might like to look at them too, if you don’t already – you may do most of them but haven’t thought of others.
Review
1. Key numbers.
I talked a few weeks ago about 7 key numbers you should know – these certainly need to be reviewed regularly. Things like number of customers or orders or invoices sent (whatever is most relevant to your business – what are the trends).
Look at the profit figures also – and review by customer type, by product type, by location – what’s looking good, what’s causing concern?
Your sales pipeline – value of? Number of opps? Number of proposals sent? Conversion rate? Length of sales cycle – is it taking longer and longer to close a sale? How will that impact on cashflow?
Many of these should be reviewed monthly if at all possible – look for trends and seasonality. But – beware of short term changes that don’t reflect the general trend. A big data point in one month may mask a general downward trend – so make some time every quarter to look at things more carefully.
Remember the “boiling frog” – it’s only by tracking numbers regularly that you will identify where things are moving in the wrong direction – and have the opportunity to change course.
2. Reflections.
I ask clients to reflect on what went well (always start with the positives!) and where they found success. Who are the best customers – and why? This can change over time – never assume that customers will continue to behave in the same way year after year. Which social media platforms are bringing success? Which campaigns went well? Which networks are delivering new clients or partners? Learning what to STOP is as important – don’t continue with activities that just aren’t working for you (right now).
3. Forecast
Knowing the trends, and knowing what’s working, what will be the earnings in the next quarter broken down into categories – product categories or customer types or industries as appropriate. I understand the hesitancy regarding forecasting – no one ever gets it “right” – but it helps to focus, and to drive success if you know where you are going.
4. What was difficult and what did you learn?
Finding customers? Time management? Demanding customers taking up too much time?
What have you learned? This can either mean by experience, or might be an opportunity to think about training courses and how youhave benefited from them. What have you produced? A new product or service? New marketing material – how will this help you in your efforts next quarter?
No one said running a business would be easy but learning from your mistakes is the next best thing. A client said to me recently “The first time was the last time” – great to hear that mindset!
5. Time management
What percantage of your time was spent on different categories of activity? If you are not tracking your time, then perhaps make that a goal for the next 3 months? You may get a huge surprise!
Once you know where you spend time then you can set targets for next quarter – how are you going to achieve that? This question often reveals that people don’t really know how they spent their time (at least in the first review!) Must try harder!
6. Review your Ideal Customer
Do you know who your ideal customer is? (You may have more than one, depoending on your products / services). Once you know who you are targeting they tend to come to you! However, if you did it once and haven’t looked at it since then you are probably missing a trick – what social media platform are the using now, for example?
Set Goals for the coming quarter
What are you going to do better – how – what are you going to learn? What new habit are you determined to embed?
How do you want to feel on December 17th 2021 (the last working day for many of us) – what will you have achieved?
With the coaching clients we set targets – SMART goals – which we will review again at the end of December (which is actually only a few weeks away!)
So – with the last quarter of 2021 looming – what can you review and how can you set yourself up for success in 2021?
Get in touch if you’d like to chat about how I can help.