Part 1 of this Blog Post was all about the reasons why you should reflect on the past year of your business to help you move forward.  Now we present some questions to guide you when you are reflecting.

When you want to reflect on the past year, start with a high-level overview of your business. Reflect on your overall activities of the business as a whole. A good example would be to ask yourself, “Overall did we achieve our goals,” then delve deeper.

To complete this activity, you would do it yourself or with your partner if you have one. Because this activity would involve a lot of thinking, it is best to choose a quiet place and at a time when you are alert mentally. I prefer mornings. You don’t have to complete the activity in one sitting you can pause and come back at a later date and time, so allocate enough time.

Here are a couple more questions you can reflect on:

• What are the first thoughts that come to mind when we think about the past year?  Was it Positive, Negative or Neutral?

• What words describe the past year?

• What were our greatest accomplishments in the past year?

• What goals did we set for the business in the past year and did we meet those goals?

• Are we operating and delivering in line with our mission, values, brand, and the reason we started the business?

• What lessons did we learn and how will this help us next year?

• What key relationships such as partnerships, stakeholders’, and suppliers brought the most value and the least value?

• What challenges did we face?

• What approach did we use to solve those challenges and are we likely to face such problems?

• What are our biggest pain point and what keeps us awake at night?

• What are we grateful for and what gratitude conversation do we need to have before the New Year?

• What tough conversations do we need to have before the New Year?

• What changes do we need to make?

In addition to looking at the overall business, you need to look at different aspects of the business. You may decide to segment it by departments, so you address questions specific to that particular department.  At this point, you may want to involve key leaders in these departments. In this Blog Post, we are segmenting by different sectors which we believe exists in most businesses.

Finance

We start with finance because that is the meat of the business, after all, “If you are not making money, why are you in business.” The Finance sector deals with how money comes into the business and how it is used, basically how money comes in and goes out. Here are a couple of questions to consider:

• What big financial wins did we celebrate in the past year?

• How well did we manage our budget?

• Did we make more money in the past year, compared to other years?

• What expenses are too high and too low?

• What expenses provide the greatest value?

• If we got an investment of an extra $1 million to grow the business, where would we invest it in the company?

Operations

Operations is another big area you need to critically look at. Operations include all aspects of creating your products, manufacturing, and distribution. Here are some questions you can pose to your operations department.

• What aspects of production worked well and what didn’t?

• What changes do we have to make and how do we go about making those changes?

• What market or environmental changes happened?

• How did such changes impact us?

• What issues or hurdles came up more than once, was it as a result of issues with time, money, knowledge, or resources?

• What lessons did we learn and what can we do differently going forward?

• What ongoing projects do we have right now?

• What projects did we start and not finish?

• What projects did we try and fail at?

• What opportunities are available to us that we are not taking advantage of?

• What generally slows down our progress and what processes used up or depleted a lot of our resources?

• How did we improve our efficiencies?

• What new process did we invest in this year and how did it improve our operations?

• What used to be difficult for us in the past and is easy now?

Sales and Marketing

Sales and Marketing is another important aspect of the business. It is how your products get to customers. Sales entail all the resources put in place to get customers to purchase your product, while Marketing involves the process of promoting the brand in order to find more customers. Although Sales and Marketing operate differently, most businesses tend to merge them together to simplify their processes.

• What feedback did we get from customers this year? Was is Good, Bad, or Nothing?

• What lessons did we learn from their feedback?

• What new Sales or Marketing strategies did we implement last year?

• Was it successful or a total failure? What do we need to change?

Innovation

Innovation is very important for every business. Innovation is applying new solutions to meet new or existing needs. All businesses should seek out new technology to improve their bottom line.

• Do we have a solid innovation plan for our organization?

• Is it working or do we need to change it?

• What is missing from our organization that would be beneficial?

Company Culture

Company Culture represents how the business is run internally. Under Company Culture, we would look at Leadership, HR, Communication, and Time Management. Some factors to consider are

• Does the current organizational structure work for our company?

• Would we need to make any changes?

• How well did we communicate with people within and outside the organisation?

• What relationships did we explore in the past year and how did it help us?

• Who were the people who helped us accomplish our goals?

• What are we good at?

• What strengths did we use and how did it grow the business?

• What skills do we have?

• What skills do we need and don’t currently have and how can we acquire such skills?

• What do we want to learn more about?

• How well do we manage our time?

• What do we spend the most time doing?

• Do we really need to continue or should we make some changes?

• What do we need to spend more time or less time doing?

• What could be automated or outsourced?

• How well do we keep our records?

Social Responsibility

Social Responsibility involves ways in which we engage with the community and the environment so we can make it better.

• In what ways did we give back to our community?

• What were the amazing things we did in our community and what feedback did we get?

• Do we need to do more or less?

• What eco-friendly policies did we adopt?

• Do we need to do more or less?

• Do we need to give more of our time volunteering or give more money?

• What were our most memorable events?

I know this is an exhaustive list and it may seem a little overwhelming, but remember that some of these issues may not affect your organization right now and it is okay to skip them. But whatever you do be honest with yourself, so you have a clear picture of what is going on in the business and what needs to change.

What ideas has this sparked? How has this post helped you? Please share your ideas and thoughts in the comments.