Conducting a mid-year review of your business gives you an opportunity to objectively assess the current state of your business and implement any necessary changes. And now that Q2 is coming to an end, it is the time to prepare for and conduct your business’ mid-year review.
There are numerous benefits to conducting a mid-year review including preventing mistakes from multiplying, allowing yourself time to implement necessary changes, and engaging your employees. You can learn more about how conducting a mid-year review benefits your business by reading our previous blog post “Mid-Year Review: Why Your Business Needs One.”
Conducting a valuable assessment of your business requires dedicated time and energy. In order to prepare for your mid-year business review, set aside a block of time that you will focus specifically on conducting the review. Treat this time with the same level of importance that you would a meeting with a client or customer. Then make sure to prepare ahead of time. Plan your review a couple of weeks in advance to allow yourself time to collect any necessary data and documents. During the review, make sure to focus on what the data is telling you so that you can make an objective assessment.
While each business is unique, there are some key elements that should be included when conducting a mid-year review.
Track Progress Toward Business Goals
Mid-year is the perfect time to evaluate your progress toward reaching the goals you set at the beginning of the year. By tracking your current progress toward reaching your goals, you are able to make adjustments as needed.
In order to effectively track your progress toward reaching your goals, you need to examine your business’ KPIs, or key performance indicators. (To learn more about KPIs and their importance, check out this blog post). Based on your findings, you will know if you’re on track to achieving your goals or if you need to make any changes.
When evaluating your goals, ask yourself questions like:
- Are my initial goals still relevant?
- What goals have I accomplished so far?
- Which goals am I on track to reach? Which goals appear unattainable?
- Are there any milestones I’ve missed? Why?
- Has anything changed in my business that demands a new goal be set?
Remember, goals aren’t set in stone. So if you need to make adjustments to your goals or the means by which you’re trying to reach them, now is the time to do it. And if you find you’re on track to exceed your current goals, take this opportunity to set some new ones!
Evaluate Methods and Strategies
Additionally, now is the perfect time to evaluate the methods and strategies you’re implementing in your business. Based on the data, ask yourself what’s working and what’s not. For example, have you been investing in a marketing channel that isn’t generating any revenue? How effective is your sales funnel? Is there an issue within your internal workflow?
Think about what you’ve experimented with this year and consider how well your strategies have served you. If you see that there is a problem, you still have time in the year to make changes and see results.
Assess Cash Flow, Expenses, and Budget
A major component of conducting a mid-year review is assessing your cash flow, expenses, and budget. Cash flow is the life blood of your business, so it’s important that you take some intentional time to examine these financial components of your business.
Look at the data and ask yourself questions like:
- Are you still within the parameters of your budget?
- Is there enough money coming in to the business?
- What can you do to improve your cash flow?
- Are there any areas that you need to cut expenses?
- Is it time to raise your prices?
If you see that your business is struggling financially, consider cutting expenses, revamping your offers, or looking into new methods of marketing.
Consider New Opportunities
It’s been 6 months since the year started, which means there are new opportunities available to you that simply weren’t out there 6 months ago. Now is the time to search these out and take advantage of them to finish out the year strong. Some opportunities to look for include new opportunities for collaboration, advancing your training or education, new tech that could help your business, or a new problem that your product/service could solve.
Meet With Your Employees
In addition to conducting a mid-year review on the above-mentioned aspects of your business, this is the perfect time of year to include a mid-year performance review with your employees. This mid-year performance review doesn’t have to be formal. Just check in with your employees on their progress. See how they are doing and if they have any questions for you. Let them know what they’re doing well, and on the flip side coach them through any problems they may be having. By conducting a mid-year performance review, you’re able to address any potential issues before they become damaging.
Your employees will also be appreciative of this because it lets them know you care about their progress, not just your bottom line. Additionally, it allows your employees to know what they are doing well and what they need to improve before formal year-end reviews.
We’re here to help!
We recently wrote about our new Quarterly Review services. Quarterly Reviews are only open to our current clients, but there are still ways we can help you make sure your business is on-track for the second half of 2022.
Whether you need help evaluating your financial position or goals, or you need a team of experts to check over your books, we can help. Reach out to us if you need any support.
