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You Survived the Year – Now What?

Review the past, take stock of the present and plan for the future

First of all, Happy New Year!  Second of all, you made it.  If you’re reading this it means you managed to survive the year of 2009.  Despite the recession, despite the problems, despite everything, you’re still there.  Despite the claims that “no one is doing any work,” you found some people who did some work.  Despite the claim that “no one is spending any money,” you found people to pay you for your work.  Now you need to sweep up all the pieces and take a look around you and see where you stand.  Now is the time to review the past, take stock of the present and plan for the future.

You may have done things this past year that you hadn’t done before.  You may be thinking “I don’t have to do that again.”  Wait a minute.  Those actions got you through a rough time.  Why stop doing them?  What is far more important is to figure out what actions you added that helped you get through the rough spot and add them into your routine actions moving forward.  Make them part of your regular business operation.  For example, you may have mailed to your past clients to say hello and gotten a few jobs from that.  Well, why stop now that you made it?  I recommend you take a thorough look at your actions this past year and anything new, work them into your regular actions going forward.  Don’t skimp on this, be complete.

Next, take a look around you at the present situation.  Where do you stand?  How many jobs are there on hand to be done?  What do you have left in terms of staff – both in the office and in the field?  How are you doing financially?  What bills do you have and what money is there to be collected?  Make a full list of your current resources and a plan for the coming months to handle any immediate existing situations as well as complete any current jobs, etc.

Finally, you need to plan for the future.  Knowing what your current resources are is important as this will help you determine what your future will be like.