Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
It’s incredible how quickly time has passed; we’re already halfway through 2024, and summer is right around the corner. As we embark on the second half of the year, now is a perfect time to set aside time to review your business’s performance and plan for the months ahead.
Doing so can help you evaluate your sales revenues, identify areas for growth and improvement, and realign your objectives to ensure you finish the year strong. This blog article from Balboa Capital can help you get started. It features a mid-year business checklist.
Set aside time and create an agenda.
Creating a mid-year business checklist and reviewing your company’s performance in a short amount of time, such as over lunch, can be challenging. So, make sure to allocate sufficient time in your schedule to create a comprehensive agenda for your business checklist. This will help ensure that all necessary tasks and priorities are accounted for and keep you organized and focused.
The time needed to create the checklist will vary based on your company’s size and the scope and complexity of the desired checklist. For example, a small business owner with one office location and three employees will spend less time creating a checklist than a middle-market firm with multiple locations and hundreds of employees. So long as you have a set agenda and up-to-date business documents, you should complete your mid-year business checklist promptly.
Review your business goals and results.
Establishing strategic goals is crucial for driving your company toward success. It’s essential to review the goals you set at the beginning of 2024 to evaluate your company’s performance so far this year. This evaluation may encompass financial goals (such as sales revenue and profit margins), marketing goals (like conversion rates and return on investment), customer relationship goals (including customer acquisition and retention), and growth goals (such as expansion and hiring new employees).
Reviewing your year-to-date progress on each goal presents an opportunity to gain valuable insights that will impact your business decisions for the remainder of the year. By identifying what’s working and not working, you can develop a targeted action plan and allocate your time and resources more effectively to achieve your desired outcomes.
Identify areas that need improvement.
In an ideal business scenario, your company would meet and exceed all the objectives and targets set at the start of 2024. However, numerous variables and challenges could hinder this ideal outcome. These include increased competition, operational inefficiencies, changing consumer behavior, unpaid invoices, and economic downturns. If your company purchased inventory, supplies, and raw materials during the first half of the year and their prices increased, this can impact your profit margins.
Once you pinpoint the specific aspects of your business operations or processes that require improvement, you can devise an action plan. Be realistic with your expectations for the second half of the year. While it’s important to set high goals, they must be grounded in a practical understanding of your company’s resources and capabilities and the realities of the market. If your revised goals are too ambitious, you and your employees might be unable to achieve them, leading to frustration.
Review and update your company’s financial records.
As a business owner, you are often so immersed in your company’s day-to-day operations that you can lose sight of the importance of financial record-keeping. Mid-year is a great time to review your company’s financial records, such as your income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, and any other relevant financial documentation.
If you catch any accidental mistakes or omissions, make it a priority to get them in order. Having up-to-date financial records that accurately reflect your company’s income, expenses, and assets is essential. This can help you make informed decisions that drive growth and save time when preparing your business tax return.
Reduce business costs.
Controlling your spending can maximize your company’s cash flow and profits. Doing this at the mid-year mark can help you save money during the second half of the year. To get started, gather your expense reports and identify the costs that can be reduced or eliminated altogether.
Certain fixed expenses, such as employee salaries and office or facility rent, remain constant each month. That said, fixed expenses may change over time, resulting from new contractual agreements or terms. Variable expenses, on the other hand, fluctuate along with your company’s production or output. Everyday variable business expenses are supplies, materials, commissions, and shipping fees.
It’s easy to accumulate unnecessary business expenses. However, by identifying and eliminating them, you can save money without sacrificing the quality of your products or services. Examples of expenses that might be unnecessary include unneeded subscriptions, membership fees, excess/unused office space, lavish employee perks, and costly expense reimbursements.
Celebrate your mid-year wins with your employees.
Celebrating your mid-2024 wins, no matter how big or small, is crucial for boosting team morale and motivating your employees. Recognizing your team’s hard work and accomplishments conveys that their efforts are valued and appreciated. Whether it’s hitting a sales target, introducing a successful new product or service, or simply weathering a challenging period, these milestones deserve to be celebrated.
So, take a moment to pause, reflect, and applaud your team’s accomplishments over the first half of 2024. You can do this cost-effectively and make a solid impact. Here are some ideas to consider:
- Hold a company-wide meeting and announcement
- Give employees a half-day off
- Give employees an extra vacation day
- Cater breakfast or lunch for the whole team
- Treat employees to a team day out (sporting event, lunch, etc.)
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.