At this time of year, many people think back on how their businesses have performed over the past year. If you own and operate your own business, this necessarily involves evaluating your own performance as well. Giving yourself and your business an evaluation may seem unappealing, but it is certainly something doing, at least on an annual basis if not more frequently.
Evaluating yourself and your business does not have to be a complicated or time consuming exercise. After all, your time is valuable, and you still (hopefully) have plenty of work to do. The year is not over yet, so why not pull out your calendar and make a date with yourself to get it done. Block out about an hour or two of work time, and commit to doing an evaluation.
When it is time to do your evaluation, you may want to go to a nice place like a coffee shop or other quiet, pleasant place where you can do some thinking in a nice atmosphere with some treats. I will be doing mine at home, after the kids are in bed, one of these nights. I dream of the days when I can sit at coffee shops and do my writing work, at least once in a while.
To do your evaluation, sit down with a pen and paper or in front of the computer and ask yourself a few simple questions about your business. You can get ideas for questions online, or try a few of the following suggestions: What are the three most positive things that your business has done this year? What are the three most positive things that you have done as the owner/operator of your business this year? What are three areas where your business could improve? What could you do to improve those three things? What are three things that you would like your business to accomplish in the coming year? What can you do to ensure that those three things get accomplished? You might be surprised at how simple these questions are, but they are effective. They are simply things that people do not generally stop to think about as they go about running their businesses every day. They are also things that if you take the time to think about them, will keep you aware of the path that your business is taking and what you can do to ensure your future success.
Photo by mconnors on morguefile.com.