As a business owner, you might usually set goals for the New Year, get all excited about some downtime or time to do admin stuff… and, if you’re like me, do a year-end review. Of course, that was pre-2020. Now, the idea of doing a year-end review might make you want to hide.

Even though 2020 has been hard on my fellow health and wellness businesses, I do think a year-end review is valuable. And here’s why: It helps you make a plan for 2021 — and makes it easy for you to see what did go well, so you feel a bit more confident going into the New Year.

Ready to do a year-in-review? Let’s go.

How to complete your year in review

Ok so here’s how I do my year-in-review with my team and myself. We start by asking:

What did we want to do in the last year? What goals did we set?

Usually, this is revenue goals, but it’s also a number of clients or studio sessions booked, growth into a new studio location, adding new team members or services, or even streamlining operations. Going into 2021, me and my team set out a few goals for ourselves: Bring Pilates in the Grove onto digital platforms so people could work with us virtually (look us, being fortune-tellers!), make our studio operations smoother, and hire a couple of new team members.

In our year-in-review, we found that we actually hit all those goals! Of course, the one other goal we did set was for revenue and we didn’t hit that… but hey. We have a LOT of wins under our belt as a team, and starting with that review really helped us look at the revenue goal with new perspective. 

For your 2020 goals, ask yourself: 

1. Which of those goals were met? 
2. If something wasn’t met, what happened? What went wrong there?
3. If something did happen, what went well that support that?

Start to plan for the New Year

Taking everything you just wrote down and thought about, it’s time to look ahead to 2021 or the New Year, if you’re reading this after 2021 starts! Instead of getting upset about those missed goals or milestones, ask yourself: Is there an opportunity here? Is there something new I can do to make this happen in the New Year?

I’ll use revenue as the biggest example here, because I know so many of you are really struggling with this. Let’s think about in-person services like Pilates or physical therapy. You clearly took a hit in 2020 because of regulations preventing you from classes or in-person care. So what can you do to buffer your revenue in the New Year? Is it creating virtual services? Is it productizing your offers, like creating a video series that people can buy, or offering a set number of sessions paid up front? Brainstorm ideas!

Don’t forget the other (and just as important) stuff

I also know that a year-in-review in 2020 is going to be way different from a year-in-review in years past, so I want to also ask you to think about: 

• How has your business grown and evolved? (i.e. team, operations, clients, marketing, etc.)
• How have you grown as a business owner and leader?
• What are you most proud of this year? 
• Who and what are you most thankful for? 

I know that I am so thankful for YOU, and for everyone who I get to know through the work I do. And I am so excited to grow and learn alongside you in 2021. Nobody knows what the future holds, but I know we can do this together.

I’m also creating something very exciting in 2021, so stay tuned... (And maybe get on my newsletter list if you want to be the first to know!)