Start your business off on the right foot this year

Celia Núñez Chemeketa Small Business Development Center

Published 8:18 PM EST Jan 16, 2019

What better time than the beginning of a new year to look at how your small business performed last year and how you things can improve this year.

A thorough assessment of your business will help you gain new awareness and set clear intentions and achievable goals for 2019. 

The following steps will jump-start your review. 

Revisit your business plan to ensure it is alignment with your current business goals. If you've never created a business plan, now is the time to create this critical document. 

Conducting a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis will help you define your strengths and opportunities so you can determine ways to capitalize on them and identify weaknesses and threats so you can make improvements. 

Consider your customers. Do you know who they are and what they need? Put yourself in their shoes to get a clear idea of how you can serve them better by offering them the products and/or services they want or will want. Remember to include a competitive analysis as you review your business from your customers' perspective.

Speaking of your customers, is your business customer-focused? Don't forget that your customers are your most valuable asset. Find out if they are happy, why they use your products and services and what would cause them to take their business elsewhere. 

Once you've completed your initial review, dig deeper by looking at your marketing, human resources and financials. 

Reassess your marketing strategy. What worked for you last year? Did you utilize all strategies to include online, social media, strategic affiliation and in-person options? Do you have an annual promotions calendar? Tweak your strategy after you identify the tools that helped your business grow and those that didn't. 

Do you and your staff have all the qualifications required to operate your business? Did you set aside time to educate yourself and improve your business skills? Did you incorporate staff training and development? Analyze your strengths and weaknesses as well as those of your staff. Determine what areas you need to concentrate on improving.

Review your cash flow statement to understand the changes in your cash as it flowed into and out of the business over the past year. This is a useful tool to see how you used your cash and how to manage it better to meet your business goals. Also, review your customer base and sources of revenue. Are they stable? At risk? If any one customer represents more than 10 percent of your revenue, it's time to diversify.

A business review takes time and the information gained can sometimes be overwhelming. Take advantage of sources of assistance as you move forward. The Chemeketa Small Business Development Center (SBDC) is available for support as are other organizations like SCORE and MERIT. Joining a Business Mastermind group is also an excellent way of getting support from other business owners.

Celia Núñez is the Director of the Chemeketa Small Business Development Center.