Mid-year check-in for your small business goals

by Anh-Minh Le

Yep, it really is June already. Time to flip another page on the 2015 calendar. And, if you’re a business owner, it’s a good time for a status check—to see where things currently stand, as well as think about your small business goals for the remainder of the year.

• Know your business goals: Hopefully, you have a good system for tracking your goals. If not, consider getting something in place sooner rather than later (it’ll make your life easier in the long run). Set aside time to review your goals, including with employees. Acknowledge and praise any accomplishments that you’ve made. For those items that you’ve made progress with, figure out what still needs to be done to complete them. And for the goals that you’re struggling with, evaluate how you’re going about achieving them and if this is really the best approach. If your approach has to change, come up with clear and actionable steps.

• Areas of improvement: Examine what it is that’s preventing you from achieving your goals. Are you short-staffed or under-funded? If business has been slower than you predicted, try something new or different. For example, kick off a marketing/sales campaign like sending out an email to customers to remind them of the services that you offer. Or give them an extra incentive to hire you—like a small discount if customers sign up for/commit to three appointments right now. (You can charge them full price for the first two appointments, and the discount will then be applied to the third appointment.)

• Success stories: If everything is going smoothly and as hoped, congratulations! Whatever you’re doing is working—and maybe you ramp up those efforts to try to increase business. Also, it may be worthwhile to regularly monitor your goals for the duration of the year to make sure you continue to stay on track. Doing so will help you avoid falling behind, and allows you to immediately devise and implement a fix if that does happen.

• Embrace change: It’s okay to update your goals halfway through the year. Determine if what you outlined at the start of 2015 still makes sense and is attainable. Perhaps some of the goals are no longer that important or relevant to your business. Or maybe there are new ones that you’d like to prioritize instead. And if your financial targets need to be tweaked, do so. Adjustments are often required to sustain and grow your business, and there’s no reason to wait until December to get going on them.