January 2, 2013 | ||||||||
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Eight End-of-Year "Must-Dos" All year long you've been in frantic motion. You've put out fires. Solved employee snafus and issues. Juggled conflicting priorities. Fielded exhausting back-to-back meetings, telephone calls, and endless emails. Motivated yourself and others. And, kept blocking and tackling month after month by leading and managing your company toward achieving the objectives and goals you set. In other words, it's been a typical year.
You owe it to yourself, your customers, your employees, and your future to tear yourself away from the daily grind long enough to do some end-of-the-year or early-next-year reflection and forward planning.
Here are eight "must-dos" to tackle before the end of the year:
Hold a 2012 post-mortem Ask yourself: Did your business have a successful year? What did it do well? What could it have done better? Where are the future opportunities that will grow your business? What are the threats to your company's success, or what is holding your business back? These are serious questions that demand serious answers. And once answered, then it's up to you to define the leadership skills needed to move your business from where it is today to where you want it to be tomorrow.
Do a top-to-bottom walk-through of your systems and procedures Great procedures and processes need controls, and these controls in
turn create great results and skilled employees. The key to understanding
the importance of processes is to understand the concept that processes
operate your business--and employees operate the processes.
Pinpoint your best customers. Give them a heartfelt end-of-the-year
thank you. Once you've identified your VIPs, create ways to enrich the relationship
and continually create added value for them. Obviously, saying thank
you doesn't hurt, no matter how often they hear it. No one likes to
be taken for granted. A call or letter from you will show them that
you don't. It's amazing the ROI you'll get from such a simple action.
Both the gross profit and net profit you make is actually your competitor's
opportunity. Just as your opportunity is their customers and the gross
profits they generate--they are worth attracting and worth fighting
for. Don't neglect your other big "asset": employees The idea is to show employees that you recognize and appreciate their contributions.
A heartfelt thank you, a compliment passed along from a customer, an
inquiry into an employee's goals and aspirations, or a simple handshake
and acknowledgment can be incredibly meaningful. A good motto to follow
is: Be firm--but fair, and show them you care.
Review your marketing campaign. Does what you're doing make sense for you? It takes marketing to bring customers in and it takes marketing to keep them. Many companies see marketing as an expense but it's actually an investment and deserves your focused attention. There are two key points often neglected when businesspeople think of marketing. The first is that marketing without measurement is being reckless with your money; results matter and have to be measured. In other words, create an objective and measure results against it. Secondly, your best market opportunity may in fact be your own customer base.
Meet with your accountant, your attorney, and other key advisors Ask each of them, "What are the three most important things I need to know right now?" In fact, you might pose this question in advance of the meeting so they will have time to think about it and won't just give you an off-the-cuff answer. Then you can factor their feedback into your plans for the upcoming year and beyond.
Kick off a cost-cutting, gross-profit-building mission This doesn't mean knee-jerk reactions like massive layoffs or switching to inferior-quality materials. Don't cut out the wrong things, but do look for smart, well-thought-out ways to save money and start building up your cash cushion. Think about Ford Motor Company. Years before the 2008/2009 credit crunch, they began to restructure their debt and build up their cash reserves. So when their competitors needed bailouts, they didn't. That's what smart planning can do for you. We all have heard 'Cash is king' and it is, especially when it's there when you need it."
Set some realistic goals for next year. Then, dial up the "aggression factor" just a little bit more The marketplace is a war zone and you must develop a warrior mentality and maintain it for as long as you're at the head of your business. If you take your focus off the market, competitors will step in and take what you have worked so hard for. It's just the law of the market place jungle.
Bill McBean is the author of The Facts of Business Life: What
Every Successful Business Owner Knows That You Don't (www.FactsOfBusinessLife.com).
He is currently general partner of McBean Partners, a family-owned investment
company.
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