Your staff can shed light on blind spots you may not be paying attention to, while customers can provide feedback on potential new revenue streams-and the reasons why purchases from your business may be down from previous years. Also look to your employees and customers as valuable resources in your quest for answers about why things didn’t work as well as you’d hoped. If your business is losing money, now’s the time to drill down through your numbers and see where the problems lie. Then, it’s time to concentrate on understanding the underlying reasons for these issues. Take an unblinking look at mistakes made and any areas of your business that aren’t performing optimally.

While it can be difficult to acknowledge the things that didn’t work, it’s a necessary step toward correcting patterns and improving future results. This part of the process is probably why you put off a mid-year business review in the first place.

QUESTION 2: What hasn’t been successful in 2021? Writing down the practices that worked, the goals you met, the customers you made happy, and the revenue you created will help you recognize the positive patterns you want to repeat and translate into the next steps for your business. Make a list of your successes so far this year and how you achieved them. After all, if your business is still running, you’re doing something right. It’s always good practice to begin with the positive. QUESTION 1: What’s worked so far this year? If this is the case for you, unclench your teeth and relax as we walk you through three simple questions to assess your business and help you focus on what’s truly important as you head into the second half of the year. For some entrepreneurs, the mid-year business review is as dreaded as a dentist visit.

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