When you are a small or solo business owner time can quickly escape from you, which is why the new year is a great time to do a spring clean of your business and review a number of things. Keep on reading to find out my new year checklist for small and solo business owners.

1 – Set clear business goals for the year ahead

The New Year is the perfect time to get clear on what your business goals are and write them down. Ideally, you also want to put the right measures in place to ensure you monitor your progress and achieve your goals by the end of the year.

2 – Have a plan

Goals are great, but you a plan about what you are actually going to do to ensure you achieve your goals.

If you don’t already have a marketing plan for your business in 2020 read How to create a 2020 marketing plan as a freelancer, solopreneur or small business owner. 

Now when it comes to planning at the beginning of the year it is common to set annual plans. However, some people prefer to set in 90 days, 12-week, 3-month or quarterly format. I think technique is great if you are someone who prefers to create a more detailed action plan and also loses motivation over a period of time. I use the 12-week format when I’m delivering an Intensive Strategy Day with 1:1 clients and I also use that format within my Inner Circle Membership (I lead a goal-setting masterclass 4 times a year and ensure we all set 12-weeks goals). However, if you would prefer to do it by yourself you can read How to create a 12-week plan for your business.

3 – Update the date where necessary 

One very simple thing that often gets forgotten is to update the date. If you use a © symbol with the date on the footer of your website or emails then this will need to be updated.

4 – File, archive and set up folders for a new year

Whether your business is entirely online or a mixture of online and offline it is likely that you have lots of documents, files, images and videos related to running your business. Nowadays businesses are accumulating masses of digital files and it is easy to fall behind with your filing.

Use the new year as a time to go through your documents and file or archive everything from the past year. Then ensure you have the correct folders and filing structure to ensure you are organised for the year ahead.

5 – Review your Google Analytics

Whether you regularly review your Google Analytics account or have never used it before, if you have Google Analytics setup then now is a great time to do a review. Previously I have written about the 7 Google Analytics Metrics Every Website Owner Should Review. That is a great place to start and if there is one metric I think you should especially examine at the beginning of a year it is Metric 5: All Pages. This metric will enable you to see what pages have been viewed the most. You can then decide whether that content was evergreen and is still applicable now, or it was more timely and should be updated to ensure it is still relevant for the year ahead.

That’s it! You now have my new year checklist for small and solo business owners. This is just 5 of many things you can do, but will help you to start your year well.

If the thought of completing the new year checklist alone is too much for you and you would prefer 1:1 support, check out how to work with me.