Time For An Honest Business Review - Step #2 - The Drill Down

Time For An Honest Business Review – Step #2 – The Drill Down

Published 27 Aug 2018

Author Erin Splatt

End of financial year has been and gone, hopefully the PD4PTs July blog inspired you all to start thinking about what the new financial year will look like in terms of growth, development, income, staffing, and performance (just to name a few areas!) If you missed the July Edition, or need to pull yourself back into “business mode” mindset – out of the client facing front line and into strategic direction mode. then recap on July’s “Time For An Honest Business Review – Step #1 – Set UP” – CLICK HERE to read

Looking from the outside in at your own business is a skill in itself and very difficult to do if you’re running around up at 4am, back to back with clients all day, juggling Instagram posts, trying to keep your own training up – I 100% get this, I’ve been here myself! The absolute last thing you feel like doing in your rest time, is sitting down and completely a business review, but it’s absolutely pivotal for growth and development. July’s blog mentioned taking yourself somewhere quiet, gathering all your data (sales performance, membership, client data, accounts etc.) and dividing your review into 6 sections listed below:

Financial (sales and spend)
Clients/Members (retention, performance, systemised journey)
Operations (ways of working, systems, OH&S, legalities)
HR (staff retention, training & development, performance)
Sales and Marketing (campaign performance, spend allocation, results)
Business Growth (professional development, personal development, strategic direction)

Obviously from here, you can create your own drill downs into each one, but here’s a list of non-negotiable review questions that you should be asking under each sub-heading:

Financial (sales and spend)

What was annual turnover and how did this compare against target
What was annual spend and was I within budget?
What can I do in 2018-2019 to pull that spend budget in tighter?
What can I to do improve top-line sales in 2081-2019?

Clients/Members (retention, performance, systemised journey)

How many new clients did I acquire last financial year?
How many clients did I lose?
What was the main reason for client attrition?
what can I do to improve client retention across 2018-2019

Operations (ways of working, systems, OH&S, legalities)

Did anything fall down operationally 2017-2018?
What can I do to systemise and automate the new financial year?
Am I covered appropriately in all areas of the business (WHS, OH&S)

HR (staff retention, training & development, performance)

How many staff left my business, is this a high turnover?
What were the reasons they left?
Have I recruited to replace and are the proper recruitment and screening processes in place?
Do I have systems in place to track staff performance?
Do I have a decent training and development plan in place to retain current staff?

Sales and Marketing (campaign performance, spend allocation, results)

What was the most successful sales campaign and marketing medium for 2017-2018?
What was my average cost of sale?
What will my marketing campaigns look like for the new financial year?

Business Growth (professional development, personal development, strategic direction)

What did I do to grow professionally in 2017-2018?
Did my business operate with strategic direction in 2017-2018?
What systems can I introduce this year to ensure I continue my professional development?
what systems can I introduce this year to keep me accountable to business growth and performance

Once you’ve had this honest conversation with yourself, the next step is implementation. Us PTs love a good plan, but it’s the step of ACTION that can be the hardest. Next blog we’ll turn reviews into action points and will send you off with some tangible tasks for September.