As the year draws to a close, it is time to look back at what you achieved this year and assess the performance of your business. Knowing how well (or poorly) you did this year can help you improve for the coming years. I’ve written a series of articles entitled “Home Business End of the Year Review” providing a checklist of 10 things you need to do to review how your home business performed this year. This is the first part of the series
Home Business End of the Year Review
Review your Customer Acquisition and Retention Strategies
Your business is only as good as the number and quality of customers you bring to it. Customers are the lifeblood of your business, and you need to always review how you are getting customers, and more importantly, how you are keeping them as customers. Some questions you need to think about: How well are […]
Analyze the Financial Numbers of Your 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 […]
Think of a Backup Plan for Your Business
Think of a Plan B. It is always smart to have a backup plan in place in the event that things do not work out as planned. It is great to be optimistic about things and hope that running the business will go as smoothly as possible. However, things don’t always work accordingly. The strategies […]
Analyze Your Web Analytics
Whether you are operating a Web business, or just using the Web as an online brochure for your brick and mortar business, it is important to look at the numbers behind your website. The Web has become an integral medium for any business today that it is important to understand how your web site is […]
Prepare Your Mind for New Challenges Ahead
Prepare your mind for new challenges ahead. You have already taken stock of where you are. You have thought about where you want to go. The next step is to ensure that you are in the right mindset for your entrepreneurial journey, and committing yourself to staying with it. Pat yourself in the back for […]
Assess Your Marketing Strategies
Marketing is a huge chunk of your daily efforts, both in time and in expense. It is important that you periodically monitor what worked for you in terms of bringing in the most sales, increasing awareness to your brand, and engaging with your customers. How do you market your business? Do you think you’ve used […]
Make a List of Strategies that Worked
Make a list of what worked – and what did not work. As the business owner, you will find it exceedingly difficult to develop a future strategy for your business if you do not know how successful your current strategies are to date. Hence, it is essential that you look at how you perform this […]
Check Your Competition
Check out your competitors. You don’t operate in a vacuum. Hence, it is important that you take time to see what your competitors are up to. Big businesses have departments dedicated solely to understanding the competitive landscape. Just because you don’t have dedicated manpower to find out what others are doing doesn’t mean that you […]
Develop Your Goals and Strategies for Next Year
Develop your goals and strategies for next year. As a small business or home-based entrepreneur, it is easy to get so caught with the day-to-day running of the business that you fail to think about your ultimate objectives for the business. Who has time to sit down and think about what to do next year, […]