The start of new financial year offers an excellent opportunity to look at some aspects of our business and plan to invest in making improvements over the next twelve months.

Get Your Record-Keeping In Order

For those businesses who have good systems in place, the end of a financial year is relatively stress free. Unfortunately, we know that for many small businesses tax time consists of searching for receipts and searching for funds to pay their tax bill.

If that sounds like you, don’t get caught out again next year. Good bookkeeping software is very affordable and it is easy to set up a separate bank account to set aside funds to cover tax. The peace of mind does wonders for your stress levels and your performance.

Review Your Customers

If you keep a database of individual customers, a new financial year is a great time to drill down into your reports and have a good look at who you are dealing with and what types of customers you want to attract more of.

Don’t just look at revenue. You should also look at the relationship between things like:

• Profitability
• Frequency
• Lifetime value

Plus you also need to weigh up how well you are able to service their needs. Are they calling you at 10 p.m.? If that doesn’t fit with your lifestyle, maybe they are better serviced by someone else.

If you don’t have a customer database that can help you extract some of that valuable information, maybe that will be a good place to start this year.

Plan to Serve Your Ideal Customers Better

If it has been a while since you actually asked your customers how you are doing from their point of view, now is a great time to do it. Also look at your internal systems to see where you can improve your service.

When you know where you need to invest resources to better serve your customers, you can plan for it financially whether it be investing in technology, training, or new products and services.

Review Your Online Presence

If your website is your looking dated and your social media accounts are looking neglected, potential customers are probably moving on to a competitor whose online presence looks more professional and inviting. Make getting things up to date a priority.

Plan Your Own Personal Development

As a business owner it’s important to invest in your own learning and development. Go ahead and book into a course or workshop that will make you a more effective leader, business person, manager or whatever your goal is.