Business Evaluation Time

Whether you are working on ways to deal with the economic recession, just starting your business, or looking for ways to increase your business, it may be time to work that business plan!

If you’ve written a business plan only to set it aside never to be looked at again, it may be time to revise your business plan, revise your business goals, and check out your past performance.  I know, can you say, “YUCK!”

The idea of writing out business plans, let alone revising them, is enough to send anyone into cardiac arrest, but it doesn’t have to be that bad.  Depending on the type of business you run, you may not need a full fledge business plan, but more of an outlined goal sheet broken down into bite-size, or more digestible, goals.

The idea is to determine how you did last year in terms of profit and loss, business growth, and accomplishing the goals outlined in your business plan. 

If you surpassed your target, you did a great job!  It’s time to write a new plan, with new goals and a higher profit margin.

If you barely broke even, you did a good job, but there are areas you will need to improve on. Take the time to evaluate your business and see where your strengths and weaknesses are and determine how you can turn your weaknesses into strengths. 

If you lost money, you did a poor job of running your business. You need to take a hard look at how you ran your business in the past year.  Did you run it more as a hobby or did you put forth a good effort?  What areas did you struggle the most in? How can you improve those areas? Is there a product or service that just didn’t perform as you planned? It may be time to dump that product or service and find a better one.  Did you do a sufficient amount of outside advertising in both print and online venues?

The important thing to remember when going over last year’s business records, business plans, and goals sheets is that while your business is a vital part of your life, it should never take over your life to the point that you miss out on important opportunities to enjoy time with your family and/or circle of friends. Learn to balance both business and personal goals.

Take the time to make sure that your business goals are structured around the goals you set for your family and you’ll find it much easier to reach those business goals!