Mid-year check-in for your business

A year is a long time in business so as you hit the mid-year point whether that be on the annual calendar, financial calendar or your business calendar it is important that you have a mid-year check-in for your business. It’s a chance to check how the business is performing in relation to your goals and also get serious about what needs to happen over the next 6 months so you can ensure your business goals are achieved and you can celebrate at the end of the year. Keep on reading to find out how to do a mid-year check-in for your business.

 

 

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MID-YEAR CHECK-IN FOR YOUR BUSINESS 

 

Review your annual goals

The first thing you need to do is review your annual goals. Hopefully, you have them all written down somewhere easily for reference, but if you haven’t, you aren’t the first, just go digging and find them.

 

Then you want to look at all of your annual goals and from a scale of 0-10 track how much progress you’ve made. If you completely forgot the goal existed and/or have done nothing score that goal 0. If you’ve completed the goal you give it a 10.

 

Next for all of the goals that have scored less than 5 ask yourself “What has stopped me from making sufficient progress towards this goal?”. There is a big difference between not making sufficient progress because you hadn’t planned to focus more on in the latter half of the year versus you’ve been taking lots of action and not getting the results.

 

Be brutally honest about the amount of attention, time and energy you’ve given to achieving that goal. If you’ve not been taking sufficient action try to work out what has been stopping you from taking those actions. And if you have been taking action but not getting the results it’s time to think about whether it is time to change your approach.

 

If you didn’t have any annual goals

You might be reading this but you didn’t set any annual goals for your business. If you didn’t have any goals there are still a few things you can check to review how the business is operating. For example, you can check your finances in terms of revenue and profit. You can review your sales data to see how many new and returning clients / customers you’ve had. If you have take sales calls or have people fill in an application form you can work out how many leads you’ve had so far this year and what your conversion rate is.

 

Create quarterly goals

Once you are clear on the current position of your goals it is time to set quarterly goals. I’m a big advocate of creating 12-week, 90 days or quarterly goals in your business. I read the book The 12-Week Year (check out my reiview here) back in 2016 and have used it successfully in my business and many of my clients love working in this way.

 

Setting quarterly goals at the mid-year point is especially powerful because you are identifying where you need to be in 3 months’ time knowing you’ll then have 3 months left to achieve your goal.

 

It could be that some of your goals can be completely achieved in the next quarter. If so, go for it and have that ultimate goal as something you want to achieve in the next quarter. But you might also have some of your annual goals that need to be broken down and have a smaller related goal for the quarter.

 

For example, if you’ve set an income goal of £200,000 for the year and you are currently on £130,000 then you might push yourself to achieve the original goal of £200,000 by the end of the next quarter. But you might have set a goal of creating, launching and having sold 100 copies of your course this year and right now you’ve done nothing. So you set yourself the goal of hiring a marketing strategist, getting a launch plan created, creating the course and being ready to launch. Then in the final quarter, your goal would be to sell the 100 copies.

 

WANT HELP TO MAKE YOUR NEXT 6 MONTHS YOUR BEST IN BUSINESS?  Right now you are at a pivotal moment in the year. So much can hapen in 6 months, which is why I have offer 6-month one-to-one mentoring programmes. The majority of business goals require you to improve your marketing in some shape or form – and that’s exactly what I can help you with! Marketing is a means to an end and if you come with clear goals for what you want to achieve in the next 6 months I’ll create the strategy for you, and then ensure you have the right training, support and accountability to successfully implement the strategy. To find out more about my 1:1 Business and Marketing Mentoring click here.

 

Make a quarterly plan

If you are serious about achieving your quarterly goals and during your mid-year check-in you should go a step further and create a quarterly plan. Taking the time at this stage to map out the actions you’ll take to achieve your goal will enable you to use your time more effectively and efficiently over the quarter. Also when you start planning for all of your goals you can identify in advance whether you are being too ambitious and need to give yourself more time or get more support within the business.

 

The way you create the plan doesn’t matter. I map mine out on a spreadsheet, but you can write it down on paper or use a project management software like Asana or Trello. Don’t get too caught up with the method. All that matter is you’ve broken down what actions you’ll take on a weekly basis and that it is easy for you to refer back.

 

The point isn’t to set goals, create a plan and then let everything gather dust. You should be referring back to your quarterly plan at least once a week.

 

 

Monitor your progress 

If you are super duper serious about achieving your quarterly and annual goals you need to be regularly monitoring your progress. Having this mid-year check-in is great, but you should be doing some quick top-line reviewing on a weekly basis. By monitoring on a weekly basis, you are able to quickly spot if you are falling behind track rather than not realise for a few months and the situation being much worse.

 

For each of your goals think about how you can be tracking your progress on a weekly basis. For goals that involve numbers that is fairly easy. You can easily track sales revenue for the last week, number of new clients, how many people left your membership, new Google reviews or what your average Trustpilot score etc. Even some goals that don’t seem quantitative can be broken down. For example, if you want to publish a book this year you might have milestones for writing the outline, completing each chapter and submitting it to your agent.

 

That’s it. You now know how to do a mid-year check-in for your business.

As I said at the beginning a lot can happen in a year in your business. Taking the time to properly review your business at the mid-year point, know what your goals are for the next 6 months and then create an action plan for the next 3 months will make a massive difference.

 

Let me know in the comments what your biggest takeaway was. 

 

YOU CAN CREATE SET GOALS AND YOUR BUSINESS STRATEGY AT ANY TIME OF THE YEAR! Has reading this blog post made you realise that right now you just aren’t as intentional and strategic about your business as you need to be? No worries. I have a tried-and-tested process that I’ve used for years to guide business owners to set goals for their business for the upcoming 12 months and then map out the overarching strategy to achieve that. Oh and did I mention it only takes one day! You fill in a questionnaire before our day together. Then on the day I’ll guide you through my annual planning process, take notes so you are free to just talk and then create your annual plan and timeline. The next day you can get back to your day-to-day work and you’ll receive your plan and timeline. It couldn’t be easier!   For more information and to book a 2023/24 Strategy Day click here.