Around the end of financial year or half way mark, many hours are invested in reviewing what has occured so far, and a lot of time and energy is spent collating data and reflecting on the past performance of the business. While it is important to reflect on the past months, assess performance and make changes where necessary, this is has already occured and the course can not be chnaged. It is therefore critical to regularly review your business strategy, plan and performance, and to calibrate how you are tracking on a more frequent basis.

Most people I have worked with, including some great executives, business owners and senior managers, seem to put two very important things at the bottom of the ever lengthening to-do list – working ‘on’ their business and their own professional development.  For now, let’s focus on the first one – working ‘on’ your business.

Working ‘on’ your business refers to taking a step back from day to day operations and assessing the strategy and direction as well as a comprehensive review of the external environment and anticipating any trends developing so as to make any necessary changes to the strategy or operations.

You may be on the right track, but if you just sit there you’ll get run over.
- Paul H. Dunn

Taking time to get a high level overview gives you a better and more balanced perspective and allows you to monitor and anticipate market changes. Translating this to actions for adapting radically or just fine-tuning your business sets you up for long term success. All it takes is half a day of clear, uninterrupted thinking time (well, that and good coffee, a new or energising environment and some structure to the session also help). 

Reviewing these questions and what your response needs to be is a good starting point:

  • Are you on track with your goals for this year?
  • Or, looking ahead, 12 months from now, where do you want you and your business to be?
  • What’s happening in the market?
  • What are the key trends developing?
  • How well does your current business plan align with these trends?
  • Who is experienced with this developing trend/who would be a good person to discuss this with in more depth?
  • What’s the ‘noise’ around the business?
  • What are people talking about either internally or externally?
  • What’s not as effective as it could be?
  • What could you stop doing?
  • What should you start doing?

Me personally, I treat myself to a phone-free brunch at a great cafe every month and invest 1-2 hours in clear thinking time, reviewing my plans and setting new actions. So, now it’s your turn – open your calendar and book in a meeting offsite each month to work ‘on’ your business and stay ahead of the game.