Reaching the end of 2024. Many organisations take the time, if they haven’t already, to look at what went and not so well, appraising the performance of the company according to the goals they set to meet during the year, and review if changes need to be done, like removing objectives that no are no longer fit, introducing new targets, or adjusting current ones to make them more or less demanding.

You could do the same. Even if you’re a small business, it’s a good approach to schedule some time and review the performance of your business.

This doesn’t apply only to how much we spent more or less according to the budget, or other financial indicators, like meeting or exceeding your sales targets and how much revenue you made. There can be other goals that can help you see if you’re on the right track. For example, the number of users that visit your website, repeated customers, complaints, number of manufacturing defects and percentage… There can be as many metrics and goals as business needs or managers.

The point is to take a moment of reflection, observe and decide on what action points need to be taken, in a similar way as you would do when thinking of your New Year resolutions. At the moment of writing I have already ruminated on the targets for the new year and skills I need to develop. Something that can help you is to define objectives that are S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely). This will help you know where you can focus time, energy and financial resources on.

There is no need to wait till the end of the year to monitor if you are on the right track. This is an exercise you can do regularly, every day, week, month, quarter… Experience, market changes, and other variables may influence or force you in different levels to realign your targets, especially if they seem to be unrealistic, unnecessary, or too easy to meet.

The most important, though, is not to lose sight of your main goal.