As a service-based business, reviewing how your year is going every quarter or at least twice a year is key to growth and stability. Running a quarterly review on your business though, can provide crucial insights and direction to help you get to your year end goals faster.
Raise your hand if you set goals for the year and are looking up realizing somehow it’s now the middle of the year. 🙋🏼‍♀️
Whether this year is one that’s blowing your expectations out of the water, or it’s not going the way you thought it would, keep on reading.
At the bare minimum, running a mid-year check-in on your business is a great way to help you refocus and reprioritize tasks so you can feel better prepared for the last 6 months of the year. While it’s important to do one at the end of the year to prepare for the coming year, doing a quarterly business review (or even just a mid-year one) will help you stay on track with the goals you’ve set.
While there are a lot of things you can do to review how your service-based business is doing, there are a few big things you can do, plus some questions you can ask yourself to help guide your review.
Here are 4 tips to jumpstart your mid-year check in as a service-based business
Embrace the Season You’re In
Whether your business is experiencing a slow period or you’re in the midst of a busy one, it’s important to embrace the current season and make the most of it.
If things are slow, use this time to refine your processes, invest in personal development, and focus on long-term business strategies. Letting yourself just accept it’s slow is most likely going to keep things slow. While there’s always things you can be doing from a marketing perspective, there are other internal tasks you can be doing to help once it picks back up again.
Aside from continuing to market, reviewing your processes and workflows is one the best thing you can do when things are quiet. I can guarantee you that once things pick up you’ll be wishing you’d done this when you had the space and time to do it. If you need some ideas for automations or workflows to review or setup, check out this post where I share my 3 favorite ones.
If you’re overwhelmed with bookings, manage your workload effectively, consider delegating tasks, and explore ways to maintain the quality of your services.
It’s a great feeling, being totally booked, but sometimes that feeling gets cut short when you realize just how much you need to do. Especially if it’s just you doing the work. While it may feel counterintuitive, bringing in support can substantially help alleviate the stress of managing everything yourself. If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to hiring or who the best person to bring on right now is, book an Implementensive® or better yet, if you love Asana let’s chat about my OBM retainer.
Remember, every season brings valuable lessons and opportunities for growth, and cycles in business are NORMAL.
It doesn’t mean you’re failing if it’s slow.
Double Down on What’s Working
If you aren’t tracking where your leads and clients are coming from, this one is a big reason to start.
Identifying the marketing channels that have been driving the most leads and conversions for your business will help you know where to put your efforts. If Google, Instagram, or word-of-mouth referrals have been bringing in consistent results, it’s time to double down on those efforts.
At the same time, consider branching out into one new avenue to explore additional growth opportunities. By testing the waters in a controlled manner (AKA having things already working without scrambling for business chaotically), you can discover potential new sources of clients without jeopardizing what’s already working.
Review Your Numbers
Regularly reviewing your financial and performance metrics is CRUCIAL for making informed decisions.
Take some time to review your numbers at the end or beginning of each month. Assess your revenue, expenses, and profit margins. Look for trends, identify areas of improvement, and make data-driven decisions when it comes to hiring, marketing strategies, and financial goals.
Now that you have those numbers, use them to drive your offers and marketing efforts for the second half of 2023.
If you’ve never tracked your numbers or are curious what numbers to track, check out this post where I share the top 4 numbers I track in my business and my client’s businesses.
Take More Breaks
As the season shifts and people start taking vacations, seize the opportunity to recharge your own batteries.
Whether you have kids out of school or not, consider taking some extra days off for a long weekend or treating yourself to a well-deserved half-day of relaxation. Taking breaks allows you to step back, gain perspective, and make more strategic decisions moving forward.
After you’ve reviewed everything, ask yourself these 12 important questions to reflect on the past 6 months and set clear intentions for the remainder of the year. These questions will help you assess your progress, identify areas for improvement, and align your priorities for the next quarter.
These questions will help you assess your progress, identify areas for improvement, and align your priorities for the next quarter.
- What was a lesson you learned this past quarter
- What did you accomplish? What are you most proud of?
- What roadblocks or bottleneck-situations did you run into? How can you fix or solve them moving forward?
- How would you summarize this past quarter?
- Where did you spend the majority of your time and energy?
- What do you want to stop doing this quarter?
- What are your top 3-5 priorities for this quarter?
- What does success look like for you in the upcoming quarter?
- What is something that drains your energy and you need to scale back on?
- Are there any goals you had that you haven’t started on? Do you need to keep them or let them go?
- What type of support are you focusing on this quarter?
- How do you want to feel at the end of the quarter?
By sitting down and honestly answering these questions, you’ll gain valuable insight into your own business. You can then realign your focus, refine your strategies, and make the second half of the year even better!
If you’re wanting to dive a little more into the personal side of your review, check out this post.
Remember, your business thrives when you find balance and align your priorities with what’s working.
Happy mid-year review planning!
