The end of the year is a great time to take stock of your business, assess where you are and where you want to go, and think about the next steps you should take in the New Year. It’s also a good time to evaluate the way things are going overall and eliminate what isn’t working for you. Here are a few tips for year-end cleanup.
Take a look at your financial situation. Run the numbers and figure out how much money came in last year, from which sources—and what you spent the most on in your business. Are there ways you can save? Is your business coming largely from a specific agent, partnership, or area of insurance expertise? Is there a way you can redouble your efforts to drive more business in this area next year? Are there opportunities for you to reduce your expenses? The end of the year is a great time to check up on the financial health of your brokerage.
Look at your goals. Do you want to earn more money in the New Year? Promote a new area of insurance expertise? Get more sophisticated with your marketing? Build a new website? Take a look at large business goals that you might have been putting off—and break them down into small, manageable steps. Plan out your next month in the New Year with small steps you can take each week to get you closer to those goals.
Get rid of distractions. Do you find yourself getting distracted during the work day? It’s easy to waste time at the office—whether it’s socializing with colleagues, doing some extracurricular web surfing, or sorting through disorganized piles of papers. Figure out where your biggest time-sucks are in the office, and give some serious thought to implementing systems or processes that can help you minimize distractions.
Organize your office. Speaking of distractions—physical disorganization is a big problem for a lot of people. Take a look at where you work. If it isn’t regularly clean and organized for optimal efficiency, you could be wasting a lot of time that could be spent earning money. The end of the year is a great time to clean up your office, get a new filing system or take a trip to the Container Store.
Developing a plan for success in the New Year often means taking a look at your big business goals, and breaking these down into a series of manageable steps. Some of them you’ll have to do just once, while others will be repeatable until you start seeing the results you want or reach the end of the project. Getting rid of office distractions and organizing your workspace can do a lot to help you get those goals finished faster, and checking your financials is crucial to ensuring the health of your business.
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