Just when you thought you could take a break from your small business you realize that July is here and it is time to develop your mid-year plan. Too many small businesses blow off doing any planning during the summer months, believing that they will have more time in the Fall. The problem with this strategy is that once Fall rolls around it is too late to plan for what is already happening in your business. In my experience, women businessowners tend to put off mid-year planning more than their male counterparts. Why? Well, again from my experience, it is often because family responsibilities are increased in the summer months and/or they have not surrounded themselves with competent advisors -- financial advisors, accountants, business consultants -- who initiate the conversation.

The purpose of a mid-year plan is to review where the business is at mid-year and take steps to make sure it is on track to successfully meet the goals set for year end. Savvy businessowners know the ebb and flow of their business and know how the seasons, holidays, and time of year effect the business. By July, the service business has experienced most of the winter months, all of spring and the beginning of summer. The majority of what is considered the holiday season, if an issue for the business, occurs in the second half of the year. On the other hand, food businesses and many retail businesses have experienced what tend to be high revenue generating times such as Valentine's Day, Easter, Passover, Mother's Day, Graduation, Communion and Father's Day and therefore mid-year is a very important time to review, revise and take action to make sure the business is where it needs to be.

Here are 3 tips for your mid-year plan:

(1) Prepare, or have your accountant prepare, an itemized, detailed monthly income and expense statement for last year and this year. If you use quickbooks this is very easy and can be done by just putting in the dates for the month and year (01/01/12 to 7/01/12) and requesting the comparison. This document will tell you where you have increased or decreased spending this year. Write a note next to each line item of expense that has any change as to the reason for the change. If you don't know the answer to why there is a change - FIND OUT by asking the appropriate questions to whomever knows the answer. Now do the same analysis with the income portion of the document. Why have the profits increased or decreased each month in compared to last year? If the profits have increased do you know why? It is just as important to know why your business is succeeding as to know why it is failing.

(2) If you have employees do a mid-year performance review. The purpose of a review is NOT necessarily to give raises, but to get feedback (constructive criticism and comments) from someone in the business who sees things from a different perspective. Have the employee also rate his/her own performance. Empowering employees to submit ideas at mid-year and learning about internal and external issues from their point of view is always an eye-opener. Entrepreneurs often forget that their lens is very different from others working in the business.  If you are not willing to hear or cannot listen to different points of view of what is happening in the business, you are missing out on the opportunity to change course. Sometimes a change of course is the only way to grow the business.

(3) Reviewing and revising your plan at mid-year doesn't do any good unless you are willing to TAKE ACTION. As the businessowner and entrepreneur, you should have a clear vision of your goals and mission and this mid-year review provides you the knowledge you need to move forward for the next 5+ months. Only by taking action will you see results.

If revenues are not where they should be at this point ask yourself: Is it the product, the price, the sales process, the competition, the marketing/advertising? What needs to be changed, altered, or added to get sales moving forward?

If expenses have increased and revenues have not increased at the same pace ask yourself: Where can the business cut back? Can vendors contracts be renegotiated? Is it time to renegotiate the lease? Measure the results of the current marketing - if it isn't working, try something else.

Your small business will only be successful if you are willingly to take a step back, at least twice a year, and review what you are doing to make sure it meets your goals and objectives.

Taking the time to review and plan now will guarantee you a happy and profitable end of 2012.

Need help email me at vicki@vickidonlan.com