When was the last time you gave your business a check-up? Last year, or did I hear you say never? It’s something that should be done each year and traditionally is done around the end of the financial year. I agree that it does take time away from doing other tasks, but it’s not something you can afford to skip.

Today I’m going to walk you through how to give your business a check-up, plus give you some motivation to do it!

Why Should I Give My Business a Check-Up?

Maybe you hate analysing and reflecting upon things. Perhaps you’d rather spend time making products? Or you could not know where to start. When it comes to growing your business, you need to look to the past to make the future better. A check-up will help you:

• Know where your business has been
• Help you plan where you want it to go
• Check that things are on the right track
• Fix things which aren’t going so well
• Analysis your financial position
• Make business goals for the next year
• Check if you met your current goals and if not, why not
• Create or check your customer persona and target market
• Ensure your business is still doing what you want it to do
• Change the direction if necessary
• Identify strengths and weaknesses
• Put strategies in place to grow your business next year

How Do I Analyse My Business?

What I’d like to stress here is that there is no size fits all model. Each business and each business owner has different needs and requirements. Likewise, there is no one template which suits everyone. That’s why many business owners prefer to meet one to one with me, to tailor their business goal setting and check-up.

So, here are the things you could use to help give your business a check-up

• SWOT Analysis – focus on your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Identify the internal and external factors which affect your SWOTs for a wide-reaching check-up.
• Reviews – review three key aspects of your business: market review, operational review and management review. Your market review focuses on things like sales, pricing, competition and advertising. Operational reviews are concerned with your products, human resources, risk management and business premises. A management review takes into consideration the people in your business and their knowledge, abilities and performance.
• Make Projections – what are your financial projections for next year? How will you meet them? What goals will you set and how will you achieve them?

If you’d like some support to do your annual check-up, I can help! Either book a Skype one to one with me or even attend my Business Owners Weekend Retreat. Together we’ll get your business moving forward!