As the sights and sounds of the fireworks fade, we find ourselves already at the halfway point through the calendar year. In many sports this is a time to pause, reflect on how well the team has performed so far, and make adjustments in the game plan to better prepare them for success in the second half.
Why shouldn’t we do the same thing in our business endeavors?
Hopefully your company or organization has already started off 2015 on the right note by establishing some metrics at the beginning of the year – especially a budget. (If you haven’t, it’s never too late to start!)
Take a look at the benchmarks you made for financial results, such as revenue growth, capital expenditures, personnel costs and so forth. Are your projections living up to expectations? Are you achieving your targeted milestones?
If not, start asking why – and what can be done to get the team back on track.
Did external events affect your sales, such as a worsening economic outlook? Did you pick up new customers beyond expectations, or lose more than you should? Is it possible that you just made bad assumptions at the beginning of the year, which now must be revised in line with actual performance?
It can be a struggle to perform this sort of honest assessment. As anyone who’s ever been the owner or manager of a business knows, you strive so hard working in the company every day that you don’t take time to work on the business. But undertaking these sorts of regular, periodic evaluations of your organization’s actual results is critical to growing stronger and more competitive in the marketplace.
When you’re looking at the numbers, also go beyond the dollars and cents to look at the off-line factors that can crucially affect a business: employee satisfaction, turnover, etc.
Mid-year is a good time to determine if you need more bodies to shore up the segments of your operation that hold the most potential for revenue generation – or if you need to remove poor performing team members who are not adding value to your team.
A good practice when doing these kinds of assessments is to look at not only your internal projections, but compare to broader industry standards. If, for example, you’ve suffered a sharp seasonal dip in revenue that your competitors have not, then something needs to be addressed.
If you’ve done well and don’t see any black marks on your team’s performance up till now – don’t just coast on your success!
If you’ve managed to exceed your forecast and do better than planned, now it’s time to ratchet up your expectations. Point your vision even higher and raise your results. Don’t use accomplishment as an excuse to slack off.
If you need help in assessing your organization’s performance at the halfway point, contact Mike Bedel at (317) 613-7852 or email [email protected].