Assessing Your Business Before Year's End

Once you’ve closed your books, written off what needs to be written off, and gotten everything to your tax attorney, it’s time to handle the philosophical side of your year-end assessment. It’s time to look at your business strategies and figure out what is working and what isn’t working.

Did you reach your goals?

Your year-end finances are going to give you a big clue into whether your business strategies have paid off, or if they cost you money. Your finances will also point you to areas that are not working, as well as areas that are successful. Be critical when you do a year-end review of your agency. If something isn’t working, find a solution and make the appropriate changes.

If there are any loose ends or goals that you didn’t reach, do a little soul searching and figure out what prevented you from completing your goals or what prevented your strategies from succeeding. You employees are valuable assets in helping you take stock of the year and helping you brainstorm for the future.

Were your strategies successful?

There are questions you should be asking yourself when you do a year-end assessment of your business strategies:

• Are you reaching the right clients?
• Are your marketing strategies paying off?
• Do you have an active relationship with your clients?
• Have you positioned yourself as a leader in your industry?
• Have you found the right niche or are you spreading yourself too thin?
• Are there ideas or strategies that you didn't implement or execute? Why not?
• In what area are you falling behind?
• Is everyone on your team pulling their weight?
• Are you managing your time wisely?
• Are you prioritizing the right projects and strategies?

Any strategies that you have implemented should be evaluated to determine if you should continue down the same path in the new year, or if you need to make changes to your strategies. No business plan or strategy is set in stone. You need always to take stock and evaluate your progress.

Make a plan for 2017

Depending on what problems you encountered in 2016, make sure you take time before year’s end to brainstorm solutions and steps forward. How can you capitalize on successful strategies, and how can you tweak - or completely scrap - strategies that are less successful?

Reach out to your AAI network of peers

Sometimes you need fresh eyes and fresh ears to help you find a way out of a problem. At Affordable American Insurance (AAI), we are independent, but we are not alone. We lean on each other, support each other, and help each other succeed. We share best practices, successes, and failures.

AAI provides a turnkey business model and continued training and guidance to help start an agency and maximize your potential as independent agents in Colorado, Arizona, and Utah.