New year, new insights: 5 overlooked areas of your business to review annually | Cheryl Clendenon

Financial reviews are standard practices for the new year, but other metrics are often relegated to the “set it and forget it” mindset or evaluated only when a major change impacts the firm. If you consider these five areas of your business annually, you might uncover hidden opportunities for revenue growth and more effective management of your most important asset: your team.

1. Have you considered your own retirement plans for where you are today?

There are too many options to get into here, so you really must put this onto the plate of your CPA. Ask your CPA if a SEP IRA is a good plan for your firm or if a dedicated 401k might be better. These are long-ranging planning goals busy business owners do not always think about until retirement is looming and that is a mistake. Today is the day to consider planning for your future self!

Bonus: In most cases, you can make a 2024 IRA contribution until April 15, 2025.

2. Are you evaluating the capabilities of your business to service the core needs of your clients?

Your firm’s capabilities are the core strengths — usually around two to five — that provide a clear plan to reach and serve your ideal client. Often, we keep “doing what we do” without a serious sit down with ourselves to determine whether the status quo is working. As an example, a few years ago we realized some of the leads we were getting were good but too small for full-service design and they were detracting from our core clients. So, we developed the In Detail Edit. This is a more streamlined “product” we sell to leads not meeting the requirements for full service. The takeaway here is for you to spend quality time determining if what you are doing now is still sufficient to get you where you need to go in the new year.

Bonus: Make sure additional services that are less than what you do now can be turned “on and off” on your website depending on your bandwidth to accept them.

3. Is outsourcing work as cost-effective as hiring in-house?

And it may be — or not. This is the question you must ask and evaluate carefully. For example, if you are hiring a 1099 virtual assistant in another state that has a much higher cost of living, you could be paying more than you need to compared to hiring part-time in your own state. An in-house assistant could help you more day-to-day and truly be immersed in learning your business.

Bonus: Make sure your processes are outlined and detailed as carefully as possible before you hire anyone, or you both will end up frustrated.

4. Is a review of team incentives and bonuses warranted?

The variable nature of a discretionary bonus can help business owners during times of lower profit. Pay raises are permanent, but bonuses keep payroll costs lower when the revenue isn’t where it needs to be. We treat it as a year-end informal profit-sharing concept and base it on the months of service totaled and then each person gets a proportionate amount of the “pie” related to their time employed.

Incentive plans are completely different in that they are based on performance and are considered part of the employee agreement in most states. It is important to evaluate the incentive structure each year because a strong incentive plan can morph a bit based on the strengths of your team and the current needs of the company. Get creative and get your team involved in developing incentive programs. You might be surprised at the ideas they generate to keep themselves motivated!

Bonus: Don’t forget small incentives for the behavior you wish to see more of — reviews are powerful for our marketing, so when someone on the team is instrumental in getting a review of any type, they get a chance to dig into our “grab bag” of gift cards. It is a small but fun way to encourage what is most valuable to the company’s well-being!

5. This is not a trick question! What is it that you truly love personally doing every day?

What makes you energized to get out of bed in the morning? This sounds like some silly thing you read in a self-help book but really is important to decide annually what you love most about your daily work, as it can change. I have always loved the business end and being creative, but in the past few years I have intentionally focused more on doing all the schematic planning for larger projects, so I am very involved in the beginning and then can hand it off to my team to flesh out more of the design and creative selections. This allows me to focus on the areas I enjoy the most.

Bonus: Remember we work to live not live to work. It’s ok if your needs and wants change and that does not mean you need to give it all up. It is simply a time for a course correction!

Cheryl Clendenon owns In Detail Interiors, a full-service design-based retail showroom in Pensacola, Fla. She also consults with and coaches other small businesses and interior designers. cheryl@indetailinteriors.com