- Assess How Your Home Business Contributed to Your Goals
- Review your Customer Acquisition and Retention Strategies
- Analyze the Financial Numbers of Your Business
- Think of a Backup Plan for Your Business
- Analyze Your Web Analytics
- Prepare Your Mind for New Challenges Ahead
- Assess Your Marketing Strategies
- Make a List of Strategies that Worked
- Check Your Competition
- Develop Your Goals and Strategies for Next Year
- How to Start a Successful Small Business
The only way you can really know how well your business is doing is by knowing the bottom-line. This assumes, however, that you are able to do regular bookkeeping, generate financial statements based on your bookkeeping journals, and analyze those statements to really understand the financial condition of the business.
- Do you know your margin of profit? Even if your marketing campaigns are effective in bringing in customers, if your margin of profit is too low, it will be hard for your business to actually make money.
- Do you know how much it cost you to produce the products you sell? If you are buying from a wholesaler and then sell off the finished good, it is easier to calculate the costs of your goods. But calculating this number may be trickier if you deal with intangibles such as information or an item that you produce yourself.
- How much does it cost to sell your products? From marketing and advertising expenses to labor, calculate how much it costs you to get your products out of the door. For example, if you sell on eBay, look at the fees that you need to pay to be able to sell on eBay. Calculate your pay per click marketing.
- Do you know how long it takes you to collect – and the cost of collecting – your accounts receivables?
- Have you prepared your budget for next year?
- Ask yourself tough questions, especially if your revenues and profits declined. Admittedly, business is tough today, but what could you have done to prevent the hemorrhage of your bank account?
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