It really is the most wonderful time of year. The finish line is now in sight, Christmas is just around the corner and that long overdue break is nearly yours.
While the end of year is an exciting time, it’s also the most distracting time of the year. The last 12 months have been a slog and now that you’re on the home stretch it’s important to finish strong.
Here are five tips to keep staff and your business on track to close out a great 2014:
- Keep it simple: what are your core tasks or objectives that you need to get across the line before you close shop? At this time of year it’s important to keep a single minded focus on your essential tasks. Anything that sits outside of the ‘must have’ box can be left until next year.
- Ownership is a must: you may know what you want to achieve over the coming weeks, but how switched on are your staff? Do your objectives meet theirs and who is best suited to own these tasks? Your list is meaningless until you communicate and assign the roles and responsibilities to your staff.
- Stay up to date: I’m sure you already host weekly WIPs but your WIPs, much like your tasks, need to become focused solely on the agreed jobs. Your staff needs to provide weekly updates on the how they have progressed as well as note any issues that may arise in completing these tasks.
- Don’t get distracted: if a client walks through your door but does not meet your ideal client profile, what do you do? Unfortunately now is not the time to be stretching yourself and the team. Push new business opportunities to the New Year to ensure the team is not distracted from achieving your end of year goals.
- Provide some flexibility: the sun is beaming and the festivities are abound which means you’re going to have staff members looking to spend time with key clients, friends and family. If you have communicated your essential tasks to round out the year, I’d suggest not standing in their way. You need to be flexible during this time and trust your teams are on track.
Vanessa Stoykov is the founder of No More Practice, and creator of the 30 Day Business Challenge. If you are interested in finding out more information, please visit the 30 Day Business Challenge.
