Mid-Year Check-Up: Is Your Business Plan Working?

Each new year, we have the opportunity to start fresh, setting goals and business plans for the coming year with the intention of being organized, efficient and posting a record-setting number of transactions for the year.Then all of a sudden it's May! One quarter is down, and we are halfway through the second. How’s your plan working? Now is an excellent time for a mid-year check in: If you aren’t sticking to your business plan, examine it for needed refinements and tweaks. If the plan is solid and you’ve gotten off track, recommit to working it.No matter how busy you may think you are, setting aside tie for a review will improve your chances of meeting your financial goals.Let’s examine some points to consider as you review your annual plan for solid productivity.

• Be clear about your purpose. Before beginning your evaluation, know what you are trying to achieve. You may want to evaluate your own performance, reallocate resources to better meet goals, provide leadership in your office or to your team and make more money than you otherwise would.
• Set expectations with your team. Before starting your review, make sure you’ve prepared and share your agenda with your team. Schedule sufficient time to complete it and be clear about what you want to achieve. Discuss successes and accomplishments before moving on to talk of necessary improvements.
• Examine your distance to target.By the end of June, you should be halfway to your goals for the year so by now you should have a clear idea of whether you’ve set realistic goals. If you are close to the halfway mark, carry on! If not, now’s the time for a cold assessment of your daily schedule and work patterns, distractions and what’s keeping you from reaching your target. Determine if there’s a legitimate reason to believe you’ll meet your objectives.
• Check your marketing strategies. The marketing plan you launched at the beginning of the year could probably stand a fresh look. Are you getting new prospects? Is your website and social media converting to sales? Tools like Lately are helpful for organizing and creating content as well as ensuring your messaging in consistent cross-platform.
• A SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – is a classic tool of business for a good reason. Leverage your strengths to grow business and shore up your weaknesses.

If you haven’t planned a mid-year review, waste no more time. By conducting a business analysis now, you can take advantage of opportunities that may not still exist as the year progresses.