End of Financial Year Tips for Business Owners

‍What can you do to proactively start off the new financial year strong?

As a business coach, one of the things I help my clients with is to proactively plan their business so the can effectively run their business instead of the business running them. I help them to see the path they're on and identify what needs to happen so they can avoid putting out bush-fires along the way.

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1. Assess Your Business Plan

It's important to continually look at your business plan to see what strategies you set for the year, and see what you can do to improve things going forward. Did you follow through with all your strategies? If not, why? What has held you back, and do you need support to follow through with your strategies? Of the actions you achieved, were they successful? If not, why? What needs to change to achieve your goals?

If you don't have a business plan, I would highly recommend you develop one so you can get a full picture of your business and how to take it to where you want it to be. If you're interested in joining my next 2-day business planning workshop; contact me to find out more.

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2. Revise Your Strategies

Some of the questions I ask my clients are,

"Are you on track for where you wanted to be at this point in time?"

"What worked, what didn't?"

"How can you do things differently next financial year?"

If you're not consistently reviewing the success of your business, you won't know where to tweak going forward so you can do less of what's not working, and more of what is helping you to achieve your goals.

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3. Strategic Planning

Once you're clear on all the strategies available to you, and have tested and measured the success of those strategies, it's important to continually develop new strategies to take your business to the next level. We're always learning and growing in business, so if you stop learning and developing your strategies, you'll fall behind.

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4. Delegate!

As much as you may want to, you can't do it all. As a business owner, it's critical to assess where your time is best spent, to leverage the success of the business. Look at each of your strategies and make sure the most appropriate person is delegated to be responsible for that task. Then, make sure their KPIs are tracked and there is a cadence of accountability to ensure each person acknowledges their responsibilities (and deadlines) to achieve the targets proposed.

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5. Cashflow & Tax Planning

Another vital thing to assess is your financials. So many business owners who approach me don't have an adequate handle of their financial requirements, don't have a cash-flow or budget in place. Before you start another financial year, you should look at what you want to achieve and align this with your budget. If you're looking to recruit new team members, how much do you need to set aside in the budget for them? If you're wanting to grow your business or develop your marketing or other systems, have you budgeted for these strategies? What financial capital is required to achieve your plans?

In terms of cash-flow, what revenue do you need to be turning over each week or each month to break even? What can you do to increase your revenue so that you're not only building your revenue but actually building your profits? Take a look at your cost of sales, your fixed and variable expenses, and see what can be done to improve your bottom line.

If you're unsure about where to go from here, or need some extra guidance, have a conversation with your accountant to plan your tax & make sure you've got the  best structure for your business.

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Top 5 Tips

In Summary, my Top 5 tips heading into the new Financial Year are:

1. Re-assess your business plan and your goals,
2. Identify what's working, and what isn't. What do you need to change?
3. Map out your strategies, clearly and concisely,
4. Delegate each strategy to someone in your team, with a deadline to achieve it by, and
5. Re-do your budget so you're clear on your financial requirements before the new financial year begins.

These are a few simple things you can do to head into the new financial year with laser-vision focus, so you are clear and confident about what you need to do to improve your chances of success.

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Contact Us

If you're still unsure how to step up to the next level in your business, I'd be happy to have a conversation with you. You can contact me on (08) 9207 3069 or email suzzannelaidlaw@actioncoach.com.

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