Time for Reflection.

The end of the year is always a time for reflection. When we can take a moment to think back on the year as a whole, it’s an opportunity to leave behind the junk and move forward with fresh perspectives and new ideas. However, part of that reflection is to consider what worked, what didn’t, and what needs to be approached differently in the next year. Sometimes this is process and procedure, projections and trends, goals and initiatives, marketing, and the list goes on; but the list is continuous. Why? The truth is, a business always has room for improvement. The day improvement isn’t needed is the day the company dies.

So, what is the best path for reflection? Here are a few steps that might help.

1. Every year comes with its share of wins and challenges. Take some time to jot down the wins for your business this year. Do the same for the big challenges/roadblocks you encountered. Next, put some thought into each item on these lists. What contributed to the win, and what lesson did you learn from the challenge?

Sidenote: Do this with your team - the results turn out better.

2. The action for 2025 is to weave your wins into your new year strategy and work on the challenges in a preventative way.  Setting goals that align with both is critical, but be cautious and set bite-size goals. Have you ever heard the expression, how do you eat an elephant? Answer: one bite at a time. Rome wasn’t conquered in a day, and you can’t eat an elephant in one sitting. Success takes time and it comes in small steps. This means don’t go with vague (“Grow Revenue”), rather, use your wins to set goals that will “grow revenue”. Additionally, use your challenges to be sure your goals don’t prohibit “revenue growth”.
3. If it isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it. Your best asset is what’s already working, so utilize that and expand on it.  There's no need to recreate the wheel, it’s better to add fuel to an already burning fire. What does this mean? You know what your business does well, and your team can confirm that. Those are your strengths, and that is where you start. Each strength is an opportunity to grow and expand, but also a point to consider potential challenges. Here’s an example: Your business hosted an event, and it turned out larger than you expected, but it also doubled your revenue projection. This happens all the time because events are one of your strengths. Reflection tells you to keep the events going but understand the challenges you run into. Maybe that’s time management for planning, or marketing & promotion; it could be that your team can’t keep up and hates doing them. Regardless of the challenge, the reality is there are challenges. So, think about the fix. A goal could be to reduce the number of events and focus on the ones that yielded the greatest return. Now you can focus on growing successful events, triple your revenue, and not kill your staff!
4. Remember Newton’s 3^rd law: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Meaning that every new goal you set will have something unforeseen that comes up in the new year. For every challenge you circumvent, a new one will be exposed. That’s normal and part of the growth process. Again, if you ARE NOT evolving and growing, you’re dead. So, keep this in mind and be ready to embrace new challenges, and to use those challenges to adjust your new goals.

The key to goals is that they should be ever-changing. You can put together a yearly plan for growth, but you should be adjusting it monthly. The version of your plan in December should never look like the version you had in January; if it does, you may not be receptive to change and you might not grow as much as you wanted. So, start small and think big.

If you need help, we’re here for you! Here’s to a new year!