Date: October 15, 2021
What you should be looking at and working on during fourth quarter
Here we are in the last quarter of the year already! Time moves faster when you’re an entrepreneur. The holidays may be your busy season, or they could be your slow season – either way, there are some key areas of the business you should be focusing on during the last quarter of the year to maximize your performance and set your business up for success as we go into the new year. Read on for some helpful tips to gear up for the holidays and end the year with more money.
Find a way to leverage the holidays to increase your revenues and cash flows.
With Halloween right around the corner, there are so many ways to incorporate the holiday into your business to appeal to your customers. You could have a Halloween-themed sales event to increase revenue (think scary or spooky sale). Your employees could join in the fun with a chance to dress up (increase morale, decrease turnover). People are holiday shopping right now (especially with the global supply shortages due to the pandemic) so be sure to keep that in mind and give your prospects some festive reasons to buy! Start planning now what promotions you will offer for Black-Friday and Cyber-Monday – whether you have sales or limited-time offers, your prospects are looking for deals!
End the year by hitting your goals.
How close are you to hitting your annual goals for revenue and profits? If you don’t have your goals written down, look at last year’s performance and make one (right now) to hit by the end of the year. What gets measured, gets managed and it’s never too late to start. Late is better than never.
Improve client satisfaction by sending out an End-of-the-Year Survey.
If you don’t already send out surveys to your customers, now is a great time to start. Asking your customers questions about their experience is an invaluable way to gather feedback to make improvements (and potentially save a customer who is shopping for other services). As a business owner, you should be taking some type of proactive approach to consistently improve the value of your services. This will help ensure you are maximizing the lifetime value of each client and getting ahead of any problems before they arise.
Make a plan for next year.
Finally, end this quarter by reviewing your year and making a plan for the following year. Celebrate your wins, learn from the losses. Incorporate the lessons learned into your goals for 2022. How are you planning to maximize your profits for next year? What growth percentage are you competing against in the industry? How are you going to lower your tax bill next year? Which customers are your most profitable, and why? How can you incorporate more of those in the future? What about the least profitable? How are you increasing their fees or when are you planning to fire them? How about hiring – what month are you going to hire which positions, and how much will you be paying? How does it impact the bottom line?
If you need any help with planning for 2022, we are here for you. Click here to schedule a call with one of our tax strategists to see how you can save more money to put back into your business and make 2022 your best year yet!