As the year comes to an end, most business owners are preoccupied with the holidays, sales goals, and other items that are required to meet the bottom line.
The end of the year is when business owners should be giving their business extra attention and performing end of the year activities to set the business up for success.
What end of the year activities are a must for business owners?
We sat down with 10 business owners to hear how they are wrapping up the year to ensure success for the year to come.
Thank Your Clients for Choosing Your Services
As each year comes to a close, a good year-end activity is to personally reach out to your clients and thank them for their trust and confidence in your team. Your clients have many choices and they have chosen YOU, so show gratitude with a personal note, unique gift, or discount for the next year. The easiest business development task is to keep the clients you already have!
Sharon Bondurant, The Finders
Discover New Technologies
The year-end is a great time to evaluate new technologies. As a denture center, selecting the right dental technologies and materials enables us to offer a hassle-free process at a fair price for patients. Look at the year-end and see new technologies can be tested, utilized, and enjoyed by your company.
Henry Babichenko, DD, European Denture Center
Celebrate Your Employees
Don’t forget your employees in your year-end planning! They are an important part of your business success. Not only that, but the year-end holiday season provides multiple opportunities to reward them for what they’ve done. With COVID-19 putting a damper on normal holiday parties, be creative with how you can celebrate your employees and thank them for the hard work through one of the toughest years we’ve had in a long time!
Chris Dunkin, Portable Air
Individual Reflection
One of the things I like to do at the end of the year is a reflection activity. This is an Agile ceremony that we teach and coach every day, so we practice what we preach! I make a list of things that went well, and things that didn’t go so well. I reflect on how to improve, or how to create best practices. I reflect on how each item on my list feeds into my strategy for the upcoming year. This could take a couple days, so make sure you have some time set aside.
Debra Hildebrand, LurnAgile
Team Reflection
It is important for business owners to take some time to reflect on the strides they have made in the last year despite all the ups and downs 2020 has brought us. By doing so, you can identify what you did right and what you could have done better and create short and long-term goals for your organization in 2021.
Blake Murphey, American Pipeline Solutions
Evaluate Your Tech Stack
The common activity that business owners will be doing as the year comes to a close is making sure their financial records are in order. While doing that evaluation, business owners should also consider evaluating their tech stack to ensure that all financial records are connected in a single solution. Having a connected tech stack that combines financials, processing, and more will help business owners gain complete visibility of their operations.
Megan Chiamos, 365 Cannabis
Thank Your Collaborators
At the end of each year, I always make sure to take time to thank and give appreciation to the people that made our year possible. Interior design is such a collaborative effort, so I always make sure to deliver holiday gifts to the vendors, reps, builders, and architects that we work with on projects. I also make sure to do a special gift for each one of my clients, for trusting us to make their home beautiful. This is a great way to end the year and reflect back on all who are involved in making your business run smoothly!
Alisha Taylor, Alisha Taylor Interiors
Get with Your Accountant
The year 2020 was unlike any financial year for small businesses. PPP loans, grants, loan forgiveness, losses, profits. Make sure to schedule a year-end meeting with your accountant, bookkeeper, and/or your CPA to get things in order to plan for tax season. There are a lot of uncertainties facing financial professionals and business owners. The sooner you can have the conversation, the sooner you can get prepared.
Brett Farmiloe, Markitors
Clean Your Computers, Inside and Out
The end of the year is a good time to make sure our computers are clean, inside and out. Because so much of our computing power exists in the cloud now, many SMBs will neglect the hardware they’ve got right in front of them. You can have all the cloud presence in the world but, if you don’t have a good machine on your desk, you can’t reach it. Get a can of air and make sure your air intakes are clear. Take the case off and look for debris that may have slipped in. You’ll be amazed at how many spent staples manage to find their way into a PC case.
Once you’ve cleaned the outside of the hardware, make sure the inside is decluttered. Defragment your hard drive. While it may take a while, defragmenting your hard drive is a good way to make sure your machine keeps running as fast as it can.
Phil Strazzulla, SelectSoftware Reviews
Audit Subscriptions
Each year, business owners should audit the online services and subscriptions that are active for their business. Has anything changed? Are there any subscriptions that duplicate services? These are good places to cut costs overall and consolidate the services you are using. Fewer logins and fewer places to look for information makes managing the business easier.
Peter Adams, Ping! Development
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