How to do an End of Year Business Review
It’s that time of year again, and boy, where did 2023 go? We’re closing up another year in the books and opening the door for a great year ahead.
The end of Q4 can feel stressful and daunting, while we often feel inspired and motivated by Q1. The new year often brings much inspiration and hope to do better and stick to our resolutions.
In order to take action and achieve our goals in the new year, we first need to step back and look at the past year so that we can learn from our accomplishments, learn from our mistakes, and make a plan that we will actually follow through with!
Every year I do an annual business review and business plan for the next year. In this guide, I share the exact review framework that I use to look back on the past year and learn from it.
The Overview
1. FINANCIAL AUDIT & REVIEW
Revenue vs. Expenses
Sources of Revenue
2. PRICING EVALUATION
Inflation and Raising Your Prices
3. ACCOMPLISHMENTS & LESSONS EVALUATION
Business Successes (What You Did Great in 2023)
Business Lessons (What You Could Improve on in 2024)
4. CREATING YOUR 2024 BUSINESS PLAN
A Business Checklist
Step One: Financial Audit & Review
Don’t avoid this step, there’s a reason we put it #1 on this list. The first stage of your year end business review is to examine your businesses financial health. You can do this by calculating your total gross revenue, expenses and then net revenue. This will give you a skyscraper view of your income for the year and is a good place to start.
REVENUE VS. EXPENSES
Every business has gains and losses, it’s all about ensuring there’s a healthy balance to ensure you’re providing yourself and your team a healthy revenue. Revenue describes income earned through the provision of a business's primary goods or services. An expense is a cost incurred in the process of producing or offering a primary business operation.
Start off by calculating the total revenue you made in 2023 on all goods or services.
After you have that total number, subtract any expenses you had in your business in 2023. This could include employee wages or contractual work you paid for, phone and wifi bills, programs you use for work, office expenses, etc.
By doing this you’re seeing what has the most impact on your financial earnings. Perhaps by doing this you’re realizing too much money is going elsewhere, which could be pulled back on or you could more money into.
SOURCES OF REVENUE
From here you should examine the sources of the revenue and break out what percentage of your total gross revenue came from each source. Your revenue sources might include affiliates, advertising, digital products, coaching, physical products, courses etc.
Looking at the specific sources will help you when it comes to determining where you need to focus your efforts in the coming year to have the most impact on your earnings.
IN SUMMARY, CALCULATE YOUR:
Gross revenue
Revenue by source e.g. affiliates, advertising, retreats, products, courses
Expenses total
Net revenue after expenses
Net profit margin % (gross revenue/net revenue)
OUR FAVOURITE TOOLS FOR THE ABOVE ARE QUICKBOOKS OR PAYPAL ANALYTICS/REPORTS
Step Two: Review Your Pricing
Now that you understand your financial health, it’s time to evaluate if you could increase your pricing based on your increased experience, return on investment, inflation, and more.
Most service providers and product-based company’s increase the pricing on their products on a yearly basis. You should do the same for you and your business!
PERFORM A PRICING EVALUATION
This is exactly how the above sounds like. Here’s how to perform the best evaluation:
Consider and do research on your competitors: what are they charging and how are they charging that?
If you increase your prices, will you need to work on stepping up on your client or product experience?
What is the cost of creating these products or offering a service? Ensure you’re covering all expenses in your offerings, plus some for the net profit margin.
What has been the budget of your dream clients/customers? What are they willing to pay for what you offer? Send out a feedback form from these past clients/customers.
Step Three: Accomplishments vs. Lessons
You’ve probably accomplished so much in 2023, it’s time to celebrate and acknowledge all that you did well and successfully for your business (if you hadn’t already). This usually encompasses if you successfully completed your set-out goals, took advantage of opportunities, or even went above and beyond.
With the accomplishments, come the business mistakes that result in lessons for us to improve upon for the next time. We also devote some time on what we can improve upon, because without acknowledging this, we aren’t growing and doing our business any favours.
ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS & WRITE OUT YOUR RESPONSES:
What did I do well in 2023 that I will continue to do in 2024?
What goals did I accomplish in 2023?
What mistakes did I make in 2023 that I will do better and improve upon for 2024?
This can apply for both your personal and business life!
Step Four: Creating Your 2024 Business Plan
Once you have completed the year end business review the next step is to work on your plan for the upcoming year. You are armed with the information that you’ll need to create a plan of action!
Use this checklist to map out your plan for the coming year so that you can set realistic smart goals that you will actually accomplish!
YOUR 2024 BUSINESS CHECKLIST:
Determine your 5 Year Plan (Break this up year by year!)
Will you be buying a house? A new office space? A new car? Expanding the team? A new savings goal?
Determine Your Personal Experiences
Will you be planning to take some time away to travel/go on a vacation? If yes, how much time in the year and how will you set yourself up for success to take some time away, while having your business run itself?
Creating Measurable Business Goals
Featured in more press
Reaching 25+ clients in the year
Making $10K months
Focus on 2024 Goals (1 Year)
Write out the large 2024 goals
Break them up into feeling achievable by creating tasks to complete on a quarterly or monthly basis
Take these tasks and distribute them on a weekly basis and devote at least 1 day per week on your business’ success (a CEO day)
GOALS CAN LOOK LIKE:
A brand revamp/refresh (brand strategy and visual identity)
Social media presence and consistency
Website updates or a whole new platform that might lead to better success
Expanding the team/delegating more tasks
Taking on more opportunities (speaking gigs, events, etc) to expand your circle
Speaking on 5+ podcasts
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Welcome
I’M DANIELLE LABONTÉ
Brand and website designer working with ambitious entrepreneurs, leaders, and scaling companies seeking impactful and refined branding built upon both strategy and storytelling.
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