As small businesses everywhere wrap up Q4 for their business, many are conducting a year-in-review report covering the challenges and successes they faced over the course of 2019.
One area heavily focused on in these reports are the financial records of the business. No matter what kind of year your startup has had, it’s important to keep everything documented so that you can better prepare your business in the year to come.
If this year wasn’t the best year for your startup financially, here are a few things you can do to end on a high note and start the new decade on the best foot for your business.
1. Get organized and tie up loose ends
If you haven’t already begun to organize your records for your reports, get started. Are any changes needed for your payroll or benefits? Will you be offering a bonus this year? What about unpaid invoices or any other bills that haven’t been collected on yet? Will you need to do an inventory count or not?
Use this time to organize expenses and deductions and begin to tie up any other loose financial ends.
2. Make sure your financial report includes all of its key components
What all should be in your startup’s financial report? Make sure the document you’re working on includes the following areas.
- Profit and loss report. This is where you’ll be able to review the gains and losses made throughout the year in order to have a better understanding of how next year will get started.
- Cash flow statement. This covers all of the details behind where the money spent by your business is going with the three major areas focused on including operating, investing, and financial activities.
- Balance sheet. Everything you need to financially expect next year will be covered here.
3. Create a budget
Now that you have a good idea of where the money your business makes is going, you’ll be able to better budget for the coming year and set aside certain sums of money to fulfill goals.
For example, next year you might decide to hire on a larger staff of full-time talented employees which will require a budget to ensure that you can invest in them as well as the other needs of the business.
4. Start setting goals with your team
What would you like to accomplish next year? Using the information in your financial report, meet with your team to put together a big picture plan for the upcoming year including areas such as sales, marketing, finance, development, and tech.
Encourage your team to weigh in with their feedback about the year by conducting one-on-one reviews with each member to share success stories and expectations and opportunities for the year to come.
Additionally, if you met any of your major goals for the year, be sure to celebrate them and congratulate your team for a job well done.