It’s Time To Audit Your Business

Posted: 12th September 2016

Yes, I mean it! It’s time to audit your business. September is a time when many of us consider changing jobs or launching our own business. The holidays are over and our attention turns to our employment/business.

Most of our successes in life are the result of our passion (whether that’s personal or professional). As a small business owner I know the reason I’m still successfully running my own business after 13 years is partly due to the passion I have for it. Of course my business now is very different to the one I launched in 2003, as it’s evolved over the last 13 years. However, the passion is still there.

Happiness in your workplace raises profits and productivity. Whether you work for yourself or someone else there needs to be a sense of personal wellbeing in order for it to work for you in the long-term.

A study by Warwick University has shown happiness makes people around 12% more productive. This makes sound business sense no matter how large or small your business is. Conversely the annual cost to the UK of mental-health related sickness is £8.1 billion. I don’t know about you, but to me that’s an eye watering sum of money.

In monetary terms the actual sums are probably very small for a micro or SME business. However, in percentage terms this could be quite a sizeable chunk of your annual turnover. It’s all relative to the size of your business and its turnover. This is why I’m suggesting now is an excellent time to conduct an audit of your business.

If you’re genuinely passionate about your business and you’re getting the work/life balance right you’ll feel more confident to dip your toe in the water. Having the confidence to dip your toe in the water means your business has the potential to grow and evolve, or even change direction.

Here’s a short audit exercise to help you assess where you are now and where you’re heading. These questions are designed to get you thinking and help you decide where you go from here. When you’re ready….

  1. Imagine you’re describing your business/job to a total stranger. What would you say?
  2. Did you feel passionate and have a fire in your belly when you answered question 1? Or, was your answer quite matter of fact?
  3. On a scale of 0-10 rate your passion for your business/job. On a scale of 0-10 rate your confidence in your business/job. If your score for either or both was below 8 it’s time to take stock as you may not be doing what’s right for you
  4. What has changed in your business since you launched it? Are you selling different products and services? Is your product/service offering continuing to meet the needs of your customers and providing you with a decent return? Have you seen steady growth since you launched?
  5. Are any of your products or services failing to sell? If so, it’s time to seriously consider whether to continue or remove them
  6. Thinking about your customer/client base – what’s changed? How many customers/clients are still with you? Are they buying more/less/the same amount from you? Have you consistently acquired new customers/clients without losing existing ones?
  7. Take a moment to think about any customers/clients that are no longer with you. Have they left because your relationship came to a natural end or because your business failed to keep up with their changing needs?
  8. What’s your five year plan for your business?
  9. Is your business/job meeting your personal needs? If it is you’ll have a sense of personal wellbeing
  10. Where do you go from here? What do you want your business to give you personally over the next 12-18 months?

Once you’ve completed your business/job audit you’ll be in a much better place to decide where you go from here. Trust me, this exercise will be time well spent on your business.

My final question for you is – do you have the confidence to move forward with whatever plans you’ve made as a result of this audit? If not, then perhaps you need a little help to develop your self-confidence.

I no longer offer business or career coaching as the market is saturated with excellent coaches. Now my focus is on helping clients to build the self-confidence to pursue their dreams (personal or professional). If you need a confidence boost then please get in touch or visit my website www.shepherdcreativelearning.co.uk. There you will find details of my self-confidence books, self-confidence home study programmes, coaching and my regular self-confidence blog posts. I publish a self-confidence blog three times a week, and it’s free so please sign up for it.

From one confident business owner to another – lots of luck! I hope your business and self-confidence grow simultaneously.

Liz Tucker (Self-confidence Coach)

If you would like a no-obligation chat please just give me a call (01452 302422/07879 434056), email me (liz@shepherdcreativelearning.co.uk) or connect on LinkedIn or Twitter (liztucker03)