‘Tis the season for holiday parties, hot cocoa and, if you’re a business owner, planning for the new year ahead.

If your year was anything like mine, it brought its fair share of twists and turns.

Some of those had you jumping up and down like a kid on Christmas morning.

Others had you wanting to hide out in a homemade tent in the living room and escape the real world for a day.

Hey, there’s a reason why it’s called the entrepreneurial roller coaster.

However, before you start diving head first into plans for the new year, you’ll want to be sure to do an honest evaluation of what’s in front of you right now.

By doing this end of year self-evaluation you will be able to:

1. Clearly see what didn’t work so you don’t take it with you into the new year with you and repeat patterns that don’t serve you or your goals.

2. Get laser focused on what did work so you can better maximize your time and effort in those areas.

This knowledge is priceless, yet many skip it.

Not you though, right?

The End Of Year Business Evaluation

This is an evaluation I personally do BEFORE planning out anything in my business and ask any of the women I work with to do as well if we are working on profit mapping together.

So, where have you been this year?

Let’s dive into the questions and find out!

• What changes did I make to improve myself this past year?
  No one achieves success by standing still. This is your chance to take a look at what positive changes you have made for yourself that have allowed you to grow on a personal level.
  
  This could include investments you made, events you attended, help you sought out or negative habits you let go of. Use this as the time to honor taking those steps forward to a better YOU.
• What do I feel good about? What went right for me this year?
  One thing we don’t do enough is celebrate our WINS! Go ahead and use this as the time to get everything out that lit you up this year in your business.
  
  This could include new connections made, serving the most incredible group of people in the course you launched this year, getting featured by one of your favorite publications, booking an absolute dream client… your choice!

• Looking back, what didn’t work out as planned this year?
  Let’s be real here, not everything goes as planned for any of us. This is the opportunity to use that as your advantage in order to make better decisions for the new year ahead!
  
  This could include anything from a flopped launch, an investment that  didn’t work the way you thought it would, an offer that you were no longer in alignment with… list anything that comes to mind for you.
  
  
• What did I learn from what didn’t work out as planned this year?
  While we are going to choose to let go of what didn’t work as planned, the LESSONS you learn in the process you’ll want to keep. They’re where the true magic is in this journey and this is your place to soak up all that newfound knowledge from this year!
  
  Outsourced to a flaky person that made you want to pull out your hair?
  Maybe you learned how to better vet new team members.
  
  Invested in something that didn’t give an ROI?
  Maybe you learned that you need a different style of support.
  
  Didn’t hit your launch goals?
  Maybe you learned that you need to increase your visibility in order to have a larger audience to launch to.
  
  No matter what the situation was or how bad it may have felt in the moment, there was a lesson to learn from it that will serve you for years to come. That is, if you allow it to.
• What offers did I love serving my audience with this year?
  Not all offers are created equal. Some we will love, others we won’t and a few will have run their course in our businesses.
  
  This is where you can evaluate all your offers for the year for yourself so that you only take the ones that both light you up and convert into the new year.
  
  If it doesn’t light you up, this is the time to let it go.
  If it does light you up but isn’t converting as much as you’d like, this tells you where you need to get more support with that offer in the new year.

• What social platforms and content styles worked best for me this year?
  Just like your offers, this is the time to take a look at what social platforms and content styles you enjoyed and saw growth with throughout this past year.
  
  This will show you where to focus more of your attention in the new year by doubling down on what’s working for you vs the latest and greatest trend online.

• What do I need to let go of in the new year?
  Based on what worked and what didn’t work for you this year, you can no let go of anything that no longer deserves your time, money and/or energy.
  
  This could include lowering the amount of social accounts you’re trying to maintain, taking on less clients, team members that aren’t working out, trying to do everything yourself… be honest with yourself around what you need to let go of to grow.

• What do I need to focus more of in the new year?
  Now that you know where you’re time, money and/or energy isn’t going anymore, where should it go in order to accelerate your growth?
  
  This could include bringing on a mentor that is in alignment with where you’re heading, focusing on building your team, launching your membership for recurring revenue, maximizing the live streams you’ve been doing each week more, etc.

What to Do With Your End Of Year Business Evaluation

Now you officially have everything you need to start planning for the new year ahead!

You now not only know which offers will get you to your income goal but the offers that will get you there and feeling good about it as well because we’re leaving the rest behind.

You’ll be fully empowered with type of content that you should be focused on creating and the social media platforms to share that content that have already proven to work for you.

You’ll have already identified what you need to focus on (and what to stop giving your attention) into the new year in order to turn your goal into a reality, without spinning your wheels.

And with all the lessons you’ve learned along the way, you’ll find yourself thankful for the unexpected that this past year brought in the process!

Win, win, right?

So, if you haven’t planned out your new year yet, I want to encourage you to do this FIRST in order to customize your plans to your individual business and needs.

If you’ve already planned out your new year, go through these questions and then review your plan to see if it matches what came up for you.

This will make sure you’re heading into the new year utilizing all of the amazing information available to you from this past year.

Happy planning!