The Nuts and Bolts of Managing a Professional Organizing Business – January Activity
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Happy New Year!
These are the nuts and bolts of managing a professional organizing business you don’t want to forget to do or put off doing until the last minute. These tasks are not the glamorous part of being an entrepreneur, but they are essential to protect your business.
Since I started my business in January, it is the month where I need to attend to annual activities. Such as:
- Review and renew the business insurance policy
- Renew the State business registration
- Send notice of the annual meeting of the Shareholders and Board of Directors (my business is an S-Corp, and we are required to hold yearly Shareholder and Board of Directors meetings)
- Run P&L and make any necessary corrections to Quickbooks entries
- Renew association memberships (NAPO, ICD, NASMM)
Not attending to these tasks would leave my business vulnerable. So, you better believe I will make sure they get done and on time.
At the beginning of each year, well, really the last week of each year, I review the current year’s business plan. Specifically, I look at the goals and associated objectives I made at the beginning of the year. I decide what to continue based on the met or exceeded goals and look at what to phase-out based on the goals that were not met or fell short. I write my business plan for the upcoming year with those goals in mind and any new goals I want to add. I also review my financials as they are the strongest indicator of where I was successful and where I fell short. I learned early on that having a written business plan and a financial plan are strong drivers for my company’s success.
2020 was certainly one for the books – my business plan at the beginning of the year quickly changed in April. Thankfully, I was able to pivot in a direction that was the correct course, and my business remained on track for another successful year.
I hope this information is helpful to the success of your business.
What are you working on in January to manage your business? Share in the comments below. We can all learn from each other!
Photo © PixelsAway / DepositPhotos
Guessing by the end of the post that this was originally written in 2020? That WAS a crazy year. I think all of our business plans needed some adjusting that year. Managing moves saved me, as did more virtual work.
It’s great to have a time of year to review this fundamentals. My memberships are spread out over the course of the year, but I don’t mind that because it also spreads the financial burden. January is a great time to think about what I might want to accomplish “extra” or “different” in the next year!
Good eye! I edited the text a bit to make it more past than present, but I wanted to include the reference as a reminder of why it’s so important for our plans to be flexible.
On the one hand, running my business (a sole proprietorship, not an S-corp) is a lot easier. The complexity of paperwork policies for city and state business taxes was dramatically reduced somewhere in the middle of the pandemic such than companies having less than like a million dollars in revenue don’t even have to do complex computations anymore. And my state doesn’t have any business registration.
That said, knowing your P&L numbers and really reviewing your game plan for the year gives you so much more control over the direction of your business even when there are unexpected twists (such as in 2020).
That’s so true! Often we think we aren’t bringing in enough to be profitable, but if we examine our expenses closely, there’s usually at least one thing we can eliminate or at least search for more cost-effective options.
Anne is a smart businessperson and shares such wise advice here. I had the joy of working with her on the ICD Board when she was Treasurer. She always made the numbers accessible and understandable to the rest of us with her clear thinking and data review. Reading this post is just one more example of her business acumen.
That must have been a great experience for both of you! When I read Anne’s posts, it makes me realize how much she packed into her training program when she was still offering it.