When was the last time you did an end-of-year financial review of your finances? Have you ever? Or do you have your bookkeeper do it for you and report back, because it’s an “admin” task?
I cannot stress this enough. Bookkeeping is not just an “admin” task. Don’t get me wrong, the day-to-day work can, and should, be delegated out if you can, so you can spend time focused on the other aspects of your business (because there’s TONS of work to do!).
But an End-of-Year Financial Review is a strategic CEO task. It can help your business grow and run more effectively.
In fact, I’ve put together an agenda for you that you can use to complete your own end-of-year financial review.
When you’re able to review your financial situation strategically, you can use that to help make smarter and better budget decisions moving forward. It gives you the opportunity to review any errors you made in the past year, analyze where you had hits and misses and arm yourself with as much information as possible, so the next year you have fewer misses and more wins.
And that’s what we’re all after as creative entrepreneurs, right?
I see lots of entrepreneurs who avoid doing a year-end review, for a whole bunch of different reasons.
- It can be a little daunting (or really daunting if numbers aren’t your thing).
- It can be tricky to know where to begin, what to look for, and then what the heck you do with the information once you have it.
- Or you just trust that your bookkeeper is doing a review for you.
I’ve heard all these rationales and more before, and I get them, but I’ve got to tell you they’re hurting your business.
I’ve watched my own clients use their year-end reviews to grow their companies, get better returns and run more efficiently.
How?
That analysis gives them a clear picture of where their business was at and so they could make more informed decisions – in all aspects of their business, from sales and marketing to their books.
So to sum it up (get it? sum it up?) at the end of the year you’re going to go through a few steps and ask yourself some questions.
Step 1: Gather your financial statements
Step 2: Review for errors and if you’re missing any numbers.
- Are you missing anything? If you are, why?
Step 3: Look backwards to identify your patterns, pitfalls, and successes
- Do you recognize your patterns?
- Why do you think your successes and pitfalls happened?
Step 4: Look forward and use your information to improve your strategies for the next year
- How can you use this review to maximize your successes and minimize your pitfalls?
- How will you use this information to create a new strategy?
Step 5: Celebrate your success (cue happy dances and double fist bumps!)
As a CEO and creative entrepreneur, it’s so important to have a solid sense of your numbers – and you CAN do this.
Time to empower yourself to take control of every aspect of your business with an annual numbers analysis.
Get ready to review and have a great new year by downloading my FREE end-of-year financial review worksheet
