The New Year is inevitably a time for reviewing and organizing both personal and business finances. In addition to your year-end tax preparation, hopefully you are taking time to review your finances and make a plan for a financially successful year ahead.

5 suggestions for a financially successful New Year;

1. Tax Preparation – Organize all of your receivables and payables in order to prepare your annual tax statements ON TIME. Hopefully you’ve been tracking your finances all year, so that in January you can easily prepare a balance sheet and income statement for your CPA.
2. Review –Review your past years expenses and income. Do you know what your largest expense category is? Do you know where the majority of your income is derived from? This should help you determine where to focus your efforts in the New Year.
3. Know Numbers – Do you know what you need to make in order to be profitable? Breakeven? What are you taking for a salary? What are your client acquisition costs? What is your profit margin? What do your gross sales need to be each month in order to make your annual goals?
4. Budget – What will you spend (and how) in order to be successful this year? What are your income projections and how will you use those funds? Be sure to include education, marketing, technology, and support.
   • Education – When was the last time you took a course or training in your field? As you are creating your annual budget, be sure to do some research and include a line item for continuing education.
   • Marketing – How are you spending your marketing budget? Have you measured the return on your investments? Does your marketing line up with your income producing activities and focus on your target market?
   • Technology – Are you working smarter, not harder? Could you invest in any programs, devices, or upgrades that might save you either time or money?
   • Support – Do you have the best people on the job? Don’t waste resources by having less productive or less knowledgeable support.
5. Pay off debt – In both personal and corporate finance, a goal should be to eliminate debt and spend less than you make. A simple rule of thumb is to start by paying higher interest loans and debt, while also focusing on bills with smaller balances first.

Feel free to share your reflections, plans, and questions. Also, check back next week to see our suggestions on marketing reflection and planning.

We wish you a very healthy, happy, successful, and productive New Year!