Just as you get a physical each year, your business can use a periodic health checkup.
Of course you check in on how you’re doing each day, or each month. But capturing the big picture through a business health checkup lets you identify the little things going wrong that can become big things later. A checkup also brings to the surface opportunities and successes you might have overlooked.
Just as people often miss their physicals, you may have passed the date when you intended to take stock. That’s not unusual for small business owners. In fact, missing the checkup date is a sign you need a checkup, because it likely means your business is growing or becoming more challenging. But it’s not as daunting a job as it might appear. It can be done in as few as a dozen key questions.
Some choose to do a checkup quarterly, some twice a year, and some monthly. Whenever you choose to do it, what matters is having a custom set of questions and metrics, so you can plot growth and change and easily identify challenges.
Take a holistic approach
A doctor wouldn’t look only at your blood pressure and disregard your heart rate. While revenues and profits are important, these alone don’t give you the comprehensive picture you’ll need for a good checkup. For instance, healthy profits could be undermined by high employee turnover or a changing market.
Your business health checkup should be as individualized as your personal health checkup would be. To help determine what questions and metrics you should include, consider your:
- priorities and challenges for the year ahead
- market and customer base
- systems and processes
- personal sense of challenge and satisfaction
You can put together a list of custom metrics to fit your business with help from the resources listed below.
After your checkup, contact Tenleytown Main Street for one-on-one assistance in identifying the resources and programs that can help you meet your goals.
Here are just a few of the questions that could make up your annual checkup:
- What’s your feel for employee satisfaction—and what’s your data?
- Do your employees have the skills and training they need to manage business or market changes ahead?
- Do you have a system in place to chase down past-due invoices? (As this article on business health checkup techniques puts it, “your business is not a bank.”)
- How’s your software and cloud use going? Cloud storage and periodic updates can add up.
- Do you have a budget in place? How is it matching with reality?
- Has your cumulative cash flow been positive for the past 12 months?
- Identify your best revenue streams, then ask: Is the return worth the resources you’re spending to keep them strong?
- Is it time to “fire” a client or customer who is turning out to be a resource drain?
Additional resources
- The Business Resources page on the Tenleytown Main Street website has information on training, regulations, and resources
- Hera Hub DC, located right here in the neighborhood, offers free, one-on-one consultations with local business GURUs.
- The SCORE business health checkup question list is free and a good basis for your own business health checkup list.
- The DC Department of Small and Local Business Development offers tip sheets, classes, training, and certification information.