Have You Taken Personal Inventory Of Your Business?

Can you believe we’re at the end of June already?  It seems the older I get, the faster time slips away from me. But it’s not just time that seems to slip away, it is tasks or goals I’ve listed that also have a tendency to slip by the wayside. That’s why it’s so important to take inventory at the halfway mark to recount your new years resolutions or business plan—to make sure things are progressing along according to plan, to readjust goals and plans that don’t seem to be working out, and to implement new goals and plans according to growth or downsizing.

Taking inventory isn’t easy. In fact, it’s one of the first things small business owners procrastinate on. And who can blame them? Taking inventory involves time away from normal day-to-day operations and it requires taking a good hard look at where you really are and where you should be.

That’s why I encourage my home business colleagues to keep inventory throughout the year, instead of on a quarterly or semi-annual basis. And the best way to do that is to keep an ongoing task list—a list that helps you stick to your business plan and your new year’s goals. And then taking time each month to evaluate what you’ve accomplished, what still needs to be accomplished, and where your business is at financially.

Task lists are about breaking your resolutions and/or goals down into bite-size pieces and working on them every week so that you naturally progress towards your destination.

Here’s a system that’s been very helpful to me over the years:

• Task List: Task lists are perfect for keeping track of ideas that you know will benefit your business but don’t necessarily fit into your current business plan.

I have my long-term goals broken into categories and every time a new idea pops in my head, I place it in the appropriate spot on my long-term goals list.  That way, I never feel pressured to get those new ideas done today for fear of forgetting about them, and I won’t lose them on a slip of paper that I accidentally throw away.

• Goals of Week Master List: Master lists are perfect for keeping track of larger projects that are vital to the success of your business this month or this year.

My main business duties, the ones that are repetitious and have to be done every week, are broken down into digestible chunks and saved in this file.  This is the file I use to begin tailoring my goals of the week.

• Goals of Week List: Weekly Lists are perfect for keeping you on track without feeling overloaded. The idea is to take a month long project and break it down into weekly or daily chunks so that you stay on track while still leaving room to complete other duties—duties that may seem mundane but are vital to the overall success of your business.

This is the sheet I work from every week.  Every Sunday evening, I sit down and plan my week.  I break it down into digestible projects and write a single line sentence for each project; not too detailed, just enough that it reminds me of the task at hand.  I try to list my projects according the time each project needs to be completed during the week, and then break it down a step further by listing the short projects first and finally, I print my goals list out. If something new comes up that has to take priority, I simply write that project in the left hand column.  Every time I achieve my goal of completing a project, I cross it off my list.  This visual is very important in keeping me on task.  Then every Friday, I transfer over the things I didn’t complete to next week’s goals list.

If you haven’t been able to stay on task find someone to help keep you accountable.  It could be a business partner, an employee, a paid business coach, an unbiased and trustworthy friend, an old instructor, or even a family member. An accountability partner will help you reach your goals by making sure that you don’t procrastinate, by allowing you to vent about your frustrations, and by providing an objective eye to a situation you’re too close to so that you can make well-informed, educated decisions.