Want to make the new year your best ever? That sounds cliche, but if you’re ready to do the work it is imminently feasible.
The biggest difference between growing businesses and stuck ones is the amount of time they spend working ON the business. It' isn’t about filling customer orders or handling complaints. It is about tearing apart and rebuilding the order process and asking why the complaints are happening in the first place. It isn’t reducing overtime by hiring more people. It’s asking how many people are we going to need ten years from now and in what order?
But this is not urgent work so it gets pushed aside so that orders can get filled, complaints can get handled and applicants can get interviewed.
If there’s one thing you can to make this next year different it is to spend 60-90 minutes per week working on the business. It’s so important we dedicated an entire episode of the Axiom Podcast to it. Here are 52 strategic todo’s to get you started.
List and define 3-4 core company values
Define your vision by writing a one sentence goal for the next ten years.
Write 2-3 paragraphs describing why your business is important to you and why achieving your 10 year vision matters
Write a one sentence mission statement that describes what you do and why to the general public
Draw your ten year organization chart
Write down the 5 most important things you and only you can do on a weekly basis.
Look back over the past week and do a time audit by identifying when and where you spent your most valuable and least valuable 8 hours.
Identify your three biggest competitors and secret shop their prices
Do a "new customer" walk through of your business
Walk through the warehouse or materials storage area and make a list of anything that looks like it hasn't moved in the last 6-12 months
Ask someone to call the front desk with a specific problem. Listen on speakerphone and write down what you learn about your customer's experience.
Listen to the last 10 customer service calls and identify 2 things that went well and 2 things that didn't in each call.
Take your insurance agent to lunch, describe your ten year vision and ask what you should be doing now to manage risk better.
Take your CPA to lunch, describe your ten year vision and ask what you should be doing now to manage taxes better.
Go through all of your advertising spend for the last 12 months and determine whether you can calculate your return on investment for each vendor/channel.
Identify two products or services you should stop offering and come up with a timeline to get out of them.
Call your industry trade association and ask what you should be taking advantage of that you aren't
Call a competitor across the country and setup a time to discuss best practices
Read your employee handbook and highlight anything that is out of date or confusing
Ask HR to put you through a new employee orientation
Schedule your time off for the next year and share it with your leadership team
Go to your website and make a list of all the stuff that doesn't work or doesn't look like you want it to.
Write down your personal goals for the next year
List all of your products and/or services and next to each write down the price and the date the price was last adjusted.
Call the chamber of commerce and ask who you should call for [your product or service] in the area. Follow-up by asking what you would need to improve for your company to be top of mind on future calls.
Take the mayor to lunch and ask what your company can do to help the city.
Identify two things on your desk that you can delegate to someone you normally do not delegate to. Give them the work and describe what success looks like with a deadline.
Imagine that you landed in the hospital tomorrow and were out of the office for 6 weeks. What day-to-day tasks do you need to delegate for this to be a minor inconvenience opposed to a major disruption.
Walk through the storage lot, yard, etc and make a list of all the things that need to be scrapped, dumped or sold.
Walk into each and every bathroom and ask yourself "what does this space say about my business?"
Spend 90 minutes with the person in charge of facilities/physical plant and have them show you evertyhing that needs repairing, painting, maintenance, etc.
Ask accounting to spend 90 minutes with you going over every item on the balance sheet.
Compare overhead expense accounts today to where they were 5 years ago. What has increased the most and why?
Take your lowest performing salesperson to lunch and ask what you can do to make him more successful.
Take your newest employee to lunch and ask what needs to change in the company.
Take your oldest tenured employee to lunch and ask why they're still choosing to work for your company.
Google your service/product and see where you show up. Who's ahead of you? Why?
Identify the biggest crisis of the last week. What can be done to avoid a repeat ocurence?
Call the last customer account that you lost and ask what you could have done to keep their business.
Call your longest standing customer and ask what you can do for them to say thank you.
Ask your spouse to list the ten best and ten worst things about the business.
Calculate your annual, monthly, weekly, daily and hourly breakeven sales numbers.
Do a quick interior inspection of every vehicle in the fleet. Take pictures of the best and the worst.
Go through your calendar and write down a highlight and lowlight for each of the last 12 months.
Do a personal SWOT analysis of your company.
Answer the question "what would break if sales doubled over the next three months?"
Ask for the check register and go over the last 30 days worth of cash disbursements.
Call your banker and ask what services you should be using, but are not.
Ask your largest vendor to analyze your account and identify ways you can save money while increasing business with them.
Brainstorm three new products/services your company could launch in the next two years. Ask your team to provide feedback in one week.
Ask your best and worst salesmen to pitch you back to back.
Identify 90 minutes during each week for the next 52 weeks when you will work on the business and put them in your calendar.