Twice a year I like to do a little business review in order to see if I'm on track to reach my business goals. A few people have asked me what I include in that document so below is the Business Review template I created.
Need the short answer? Here's my 1-Minute Marketing Tip on this topic:
My purpose in doing the review is to re-visit my business goals and the strategy and tactics I'm using to achieve those goals. I mostly want 4 things out of this exercise.
- To know exactly who my clients are and understand their online behaviours, keyword phrases and content that most resonates with them. It's down to the ABCs: Acquisition, Behaviour and Conversion. Where do they come from, what do they do on the website, how and when do they convert from a prospect to a client, and what factors are in my control influence that?
- To know the precise cost of doing business. In order to maximize my revenue and optimize my profits, I need a keen understanding of the expenses. I like calculating things like the Cost per Page Like or Cost per Action for any advertising or promotional campaigns. I like to look at the direct costs for each project in order to clearly assess their impact on the business.
- To know the results. “We are aiming for results, not effort,” are words of wisdom from my management prof many years ago.
- To know what works and why. If I get the first 3 points here in order, then #4 becomes clear. The answers I see here come from data overlays that I currently pull together manually, but I'm basically looking at Google Analytics with annotations on campaign performance, social media marketing data and my make-shift CRM and marketing automation tools.
So here's that template!
Anecdotal Thoughts on the Past 6 Months
- I like to start with my general sense of how things went and the theories I'd like to test or examine in the data.
- My hypotheses are usually about the type of clients who we are best suited to serve, the activities that bring in that preferred business and what is working and why.
Financial Overview
- The money. Here's I look at top-level metrics like total income, total expenses, and the year-over-year comparison.
- Then I add the colour commentary to provide some context to those numbers.
- I also do a breakdown of revenue according to service offering in order to see what services brought in the most revenue. I have a little matrix that also includes an “enjoyable” index because although I run a business, I do like to enjoy the way I spend my day.
The Knowns
- To maintain my focus, I like to review the market we serve and what I know about our ideal clients. This is helpful when assessing our marketing activities in order to ensure we are spending our time in the right places.
Brass Tacks
- Here I add the strategy, KPIs and tactics for the upcoming reporting period.
- I also include bullet points of the previous year's plan so that I have some comparisons.
Lessons
- The end of my document is a running list of things I've learned over the years that I don't want to forget. It's a little kick in the pants to make sure that I'm doing the things I advise other people to do.
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