Question:
I’ve heard a good practice is to conduct a mid-year review of my business, in June or July, but not sure what is involved. What advice can you provide?
A: Excellent question and the best place to start is by updating your financial statements and performance metrics along with your goals and objectives. Your objective is to find performance gaps and make necessary change to help you achieve your goals.
- Quality time with your financials: Assess your financial statement with a comparative eye toward last year and/or prior quarters. Are you lagging behind, meeting or exceeding financial expectations? What actions can you take to influence your statements?
- Seeking CPA savvy: Changes in tax laws can impact your business. Identifying those changes early affords you time to adjust and potentially save money.
- The long (or short) reach of marketing: How effective is your marketing in driving sales? Are there new channels that have not been tapped that could bring in more customers? Make sure you’re staying connected with your clients and seek their feedback.
- Keeping it efficient: Evaluate for inefficiencies that may be costing you time and money. Examine key processes and look for areas to automate or streamline. Cycle time reduction, reducing non-value effort may seem trivial, but left unchecked can impact your profitability.
- View from the ‘bridge’: What’s different over the past year? Changes in the economy, level of competition, labor market, technology (such as AI), etc. Having a macro perspective can bring a refined focus on your business to help you find solutions.
Remember, a business review is about your progress and results to date and to being open to making changes. Central Oregon Community College’s Small Business Development Center offers free, confidential professional business advising and a variety of low-cost courses to help entrepreneurs through the business lifecycle. Visit cocc.edu/sbdc to learn more.
About the Expert:
Dave Grotjahn is a business adviser with Central Oregon Community College’s Small Business Development Center. He is a non-licensed CPA and retired senior finance leader from Boeing Commercial Airplanes where he led investor relations, estimating and pricing and financial planning teams across many programs. He also supports Habitat for Humanity as a financial mentor, assisting clients in attaining home ownership.
