How to do an annual business review (for solopreneurs)
As it gets to the end of the year, I’m in a reflective state of mind & I’m taking a moment to do my annual business review.
This year has been one of the fastest flying years of my life, and yet at some points has felt like a total drudge (truth talk!)
I’ve had some of the happiest moments - becoming an auntie, wonderful time with family & friends, buying the first home with my husband & growing my business to a point that I never thought possible, but also some very low lows & some very sad, life questioning moments. (I wrote more about all of that here)
If you’re interested - you can also have a peek at my big learnings from 2022 too - I always love to see how businesses evolve by peeking their annual business reviews!
And so, with all things in life, to make sense of things, to grow & to move forward reflection in the form of an annual business review is an incredibly powerful tool!
The annual business review is a practice that large, established businesses do, but as a one person band, I’d say it’s equally important, it just looks a bit different - so read on for a the full step by step on how to do an annual business review for solopreneurs (& small businesses)….
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How to do an annual Business review as a solopreneur - the setting
The first thing to do is to set aside some time, ideally a whole day (I know some folks that take 2 full days), if possible somewhere different to your normal working space, turn your emails off & really dedicate this time to you & your business. It might be nice to pair it with a little celebration or treat - a nice meal out for yourself, a glass of something fizzy, a massage or something else that’s a thank you to you for the year you’ve had.
Note your annual business review doesn’t need to be done in December - think of it as a yearly business review that can be done whenever makes sense for you in the rhythm of your year!
How to conduct an annual review for your business - what you need to prepare
If you track data for your business (and if you don’t I highly recommend that you start) gather it and bring it along to your review session. The sorts of things you might want to look at are:
Revenue
Profits (and profit margins)
Number of clients/ customers
Customer satisfaction (reviews)
Website visitor numbers
Conversions
Followers (various social media platforms) & engagement
Enquiries/ leads
Average client/ customer spend
Hours worked
Expenses
And there may be more, these are all useful sources of information for your business review. If you don’t have this sort of data, this might form a goal for your next year - to set up data tracking systems so you have quantitative data on your business performance.
But of course quantitative data is only one part of the picture - we know there’s much more to running a business than the numbers, and that’s where we’re heading with a holistic approach to reviewing your year in business.
review your goals against the reality in your yearly business review
If you set goals for the year, using either your data, or your reflection if you’re reviewing qualitative goals list out the goal, and write down the reality next to it.
Now notice, when you look at the list, how you feel. No judgment - there’s no right or wrong here.
Firstly identify the goals that you did well against
Do you feel they were the right goals?
How do you feel about your achievement against them?
What has achieving them meant for your business?
Next look at the goals you missed, ask the same questions
Do you feel they were the right goals?
How do you feel about your achievement against them?
What has missing them meant for your business?
Note down your thoughts. Circle the goals you think you’d like to carry on into next year, and cross or star any you think weren’t useful for you to focus on, or track against.
Review the successes you had in your business this year
Now you’ve looked at the data, take a moment to think about what you think your greatest successes were over the last 12 months. Some of these may relate to the goals you had, some of these might be completely unrelated, or very qualitative. (This has the added benefit of being proven to raise your performance level & confidence!)
For example - maybe you managed to stop working every day at 5, or you rebranded & you’ve had a different & more aligned type of client reaching out to you.
Reflect on why you were successful is a key part of your annual business review
Identify, for each success - what led to it. What specific activity, or mindset or approach did you use that meant you had that success. Try to dig beyond luck, or the surface level things but get into the mindset, or approach that sits more deeply & led to your success.
For example - you started task batching and it means that you work more efficiently & can honour your boundaries which means you are able to finish at 5 every day. Or you realised the importance of investing in your business and that meant you found a great designer to do your rebrand. Or you found a system that allows you to keep your instagram community engaged without a big time commitment.
Highlight which of these things you’d like to keep doing into the next year.
Identify what you could have done better
This is your moment to look at unmet goals (that you think had you have met your business/ you would have been more successful), or other things that didnt go as planned, or as well as you hoped & list these. Again these could be qualitative, quantitative or a mix.
For example - you didn’t hit your revenue target for the year. Or you had planned to launch a new course, but didn’t finish it.
Reflect on what you could have done differently to change your business outcomes
For each missed target, or area you think didn't go well, identify what behaviour, mindset or circumstance led to this. Reflect on how you might address that moving forward.
For example -
You booked too many low paying projects because you were worried about making ends meet, which meant you didn't have time to launch your course & led to lower revenue than expected. This came from feeling fearful about making enough money & so next year you’d like to work on being more long term with your financial goals and less anxious about a certain monthly revenue, allowing you to make better long term business decisions & prioritise more effectively.
Note what you will do to change this for next year, you’ll be able to look back at it in next year’s annual business review to see how you got on.
Review what you loved doing & brought you joy in your business
This is a special bonus of being a team of one, to a great extent we’re masters of our own destiny & can choose what we spend our time doing and the yearly business review is the perfect moment for this. What did you love doing in this last year - what gave you energy & joy (whilst contributing to your business of course). Even the HBR talk about the importance of joy at work!
Now highlight those things that you want to keep doing/ do more of into next year.
Reflect on what you hated doing, or drained your energy
What things in the last year did you dread doing, or did you find drained you. Write these down. Reflect on them - what is it about them that doesn't serve you. Looking forward is there the opportunity to stop doing them, do less of them, do them in a different way or outsource them? Note down what you can do for this against each one.
Identify what you will stop doing in your business
From the lists you’ve created & reflection you’ve done so far in your annual business review, identify anything that you will stop doing - maybe it’s a product or service that isn't profitable, or a task that you could outsource to give you more time for things that bring you joy.
(This article speaks to the importance of stopping doing things - it’s just as important - of not more important - as adding things, but we tend to find it harder to do!)
Make your high level business plan for the next time period
So now you’ve got all of that information, it’s time to think about what it means for you & your business for the next time period. This could be the next year, it could equally be for 3 months if you prefer to plan quarterly. The sorts of things that you might want to add into this plan are:
Your goals (financial, business foundational, personal)
Data you will track to know if you’re on track toward your goals & if you’ve met them at the end of the time period
Activities you will do to move toward meeting your goals
When you will do certain things (and what your priorities are if you don’t have time to do everything)
How to ensure you’re working toward the plan your created in your annual business review every day
It happens pretty often that business reflections, annual business reviews & goal setting are done once and then never looked at again, which is such a shame as there is huge potential in all of reflection you’ve done, so my final tip for your annual business review is to find a way to make it central to your day to day business. My favourite ways to do this are:
Build in time for a quick weekly or monthly review against your goals/ plan
Track your data
Make it visual - a poster or desktop background that shows your goals is a great daily reminder
Build out your quarterly or monthly plans to be in line with your annual plan - each is a brick in the wall!
And there you go, my process for undertaking a powerful annual business review as a solopreneur. I’ve even created this annual business review template for you to use, that guides you step by step through your review - grab it here.
