The New-Year Business Checkup (A No-Fluff Look at What’s Working)

Listen to the Podcast Here

If you’re a small business owner, January is the perfect time to stop running on momentum and start running on intention.

Not “new year, new logo.” Not “post more on Facebook.”

A real, honest checkup:

• What’s making money?

• What’s draining money?

• What’s bringing in leads?

• What’s wasting your time?

• What needs to be tightened up before the year gets busy?

This post is the kickoff for an 8-week Small Business Saturdays series designed to help you evaluate your business from the big picture down to the details—without getting overwhelmed.

The mindset: you’re not judging—you’re measuring

A hard look at your business isn’t negative. It’s how you protect what you’ve built.

Think of this like walking through your shop with fresh eyes. You’re not looking for perfection—you’re looking for clarity.

Step 1:

Start with a simple scorecard (30 minutes)

Grab a notebook or open a doc. Create five sections:

1. Marketing

2. Sales

3. Expenses

4. Income / Profit

5. Operations (time, team, systems)

Under each section, give yourself a quick score from 1–10.

Then answer one question:

• Why did I give it that score?

That one question will surface the truth fast.

Step 2:

Marketing — are you getting attention from the right people?

Marketing isn’t “posting.” Marketing is getting in front of the right people with the right message.

Ask yourself:

• Where did your last 10 customers come from?

• What marketing activity brought the most qualified leads?

• What did you spend money on that didn’t move the needle?

• Is your message clear in one sentence?

Quick action:

• Write your one-sentence positioning:

  • We help [who] get [result] with [what you do].

• 
  

If you can’t say it simply, your customers can’t repeat it.

Step 3:

Sales — do you have a repeatable way to turn interest into revenue?

Sales doesn’t have to be pushy. But it does need to be consistent.

Ask:

• Do you respond to leads quickly (same day)?

• Do you have a clear next step (quote, appointment, sample, demo)?

• What are your top 3 most profitable offers?

• Where do deals get stuck?

Quick action:

• Write down your basic sales path:

  1. Lead comes in

  2. Response time goal

  3. Questions you ask every time

  4. How you present pricing

  5. How you follow up

If it’s not written, it’s not consistent.

Step 4:

Expenses — what are you paying for that you forgot you’re paying for?

Expenses don’t usually kill businesses in one big hit. They kill businesses through quiet leaks.

Ask:

• What subscriptions do you have?

• What tools are “nice to have” but not necessary?

• What costs go up when you’re busy (overtime, rush shipping, mistakes)?

• What expenses are fixed vs. variable?

Quick action:

• Print or export the last 3 months of expenses and highlight:

  • Recurring subscriptions

  • “One-off” purchases that happen every month anyway

  • Anything you don’t recognize

Step 5:

Income + profit — are you actually keeping what you earn?

Revenue is vanity. Profit is reality.

Ask:

• What was your average monthly revenue last year?

• What was your average monthly profit?

• Which products/services have the best margins?

• Which ones are high effort, low reward?

Quick action:

• Make a simple “keep/do/kill” list:

  • Keep: profitable + repeatable

  • Do more: profitable but under-marketed

  • Kill or fix: low margin, high stress, constant problems

Step 6:

Operations — where are you losing time?

Time is the hidden expense.

Ask:

• What tasks repeat every week that could be templated?

• What problems keep popping up?

• What’s the #1 bottleneck right now?

• If you disappeared for 3 days, what would break?

Quick action:

• Choose one process to document this week (even a rough checklist).

Step 7:

Pick ONE focus for the next 7 days

This is the part most people skip.

They do the evaluation… and then they try to fix everything.

Don’t.

Pick one:

• One marketing improvement

• One sales improvement

• One expense cut

• One profit move

• One operational fix

Then commit to it for 7 days.

Your Week 1 homework (simple, but powerful)

• Score your business (1–10) in the five categories

• Identify your biggest leak (money, time, or leads)

• Choose one action to take this week

If you want, comment or message us with your scores, and we’ll help you pick the best first move.