Did You Say "fresh Start"?

What exactly does closing out last year and getting a fresh start this year mean to you?

There are numerous rites of passage we are supposed to and required to participate in. We hedge were we can and otherwise meet our requirements with frowns and sighs, frustration, and sometimes even contempt.

One of the rituals we have a tendency to hedge on is the requirement to hold annual board of officer meetings, or have a companywide end-of-year review and planning meeting. That is extremely unfortunate because they could be your most valuable management tool you would ever use. There are two primary reasons for hedging on these types of meetings. The first is no one ever knows what to do at these occasions. The second reason is the money.

The agenda for the Board of Directors is easy and simple. First and foremost would be to review the Articles of Incorporation to determine if the business is still on track, or to determine if changes should be made. Next, you should review the By-Laws to ascertain if they are still applicable and need to be updated. The third item on the agenda will be department reviews. Here you learn whether the departments are on-point, what were the accomplishments, failings, and goals for the coming year?

These board meetings are important because they keep lines of communication open and everyone on track. Day-to-day mundane activities have a way of clouding the big picture the mission of the business.

Are the mission and goals of the organization and its departments being met? Are the set mission and goals realistic?

The companywide year-end meetings are equally important because if gives management an opportunity to reinforce what the company is about and its goals. If department heads have been carrying dead weight, December and January are the times to clean house. It may sound cold hearted but, can the company afford to continue to support non-productive personnel?

Is it fair to the company and to the productive personnel to maintain the status quo? A company will flourish on loyalty, kindred spirit, and respect. Employees will not show loyalty or respect for a company that does not look out for its best interest.

Cleaning house doesnt just mean eliminating non-productive personnel. It also means replacing equipment that is broken down and hindering. It means reevaluating service organizations and their efficiency and cost effectiveness. Just because a printer has been a good printer does not mean it should not be replaced when it is becoming expensive to maintain. If a service organization has become complacent about delivering goods or services, then perhaps they need an attitude adjustment or to be replaced.

Identify customers who have been particularly demanding and cost bearing. Get to the root of the problem so that you can reduce the negative cost impact. Review your accounts receivables, uncollected income, and decide what can be written off and what can be promptly collected.

Evaluate your inventory. Eliminate the disposable, broken and no longer needed items. Review what departments are consuming, what types of inventory, and the frequency. Redefine asset inventory versus disposable inventory and accessibility.

When you give employees an opportunity to speak openly with department heads you really find out what is going on within your business. When you make employees and department heads feel they are a part of the organization and that their opinion matters, you realize their loyalty and high performance.

This is a wonderful opportunity for everyone to review their job descriptions, to identify whether the descriptions still apply, if the work is being performed correctly, and the consequences, if it is not. This is the familiar Obligation, Responsibility, and Consequences review. Does everyone know what tasks they obligated to perform when they were hired? Do they understand they are responsible for completing the tasks identified and how? There must also be a clear understanding of the consequences for when they do not meet their obligations and responsibilities.

When departments perform well, the company performs well and the employees, department heads, management and the board all benefit.

How and when these meetings are accomplished is crucial and vital. In an office and behind closed doors will seldom show good results. The atmosphere is intimidating, will be unproductive and typically will have everyone on the defensive and offensive. Granted, some of the reviews should and need to be completed in the office, but not all of them.

Be creative when choosing when and where to have your meetings. Think outside the box. You do not have to have a typical week end retreat, rent an expensive conference center or expensive hotel rooms. For example, if you are along a coastal area, you can load your team onto a bus, take them to a cruise ship and go on a week end cruise for as little as $50 a person.

The rate depends, of course, on where you are going and the time of the year, but you get the idea. On the ships, you have access to meeting facilities, entertainment, food, and obviously your shared room. Why would you not do that?

The opportunity to listen to the people you valued enough to hire, and what they have to say, what you can learn, is immeasurable. The money expended will be more than returned by the information learned, decisions made and changes planned during those meetings.

A lot of companies scrounge every year to find extra money to give as bonuses to their management and employees. Truthfully, the money is gone before you get the taxes paid on it and within five minutes of their cashing the checks. Consider instead, take the employee and their spouse or companion to the meeting.

Their opinion of the company will probably improve and you have secured their loyalty and better performance, given them something to talk about all year, and overall, saved money.

What else does December and January mean to us? We collect what money we can and pay the bills we need to. There are taxes that must be paid and accounting records that need to be closed out for the month, quarter, and the year.

We have to file all the tax reports and forms by the county, state and federal deadlines, such as the W-2 and W-3 and 1099s. Year-end reports must be prepared and preparations must be made for audits.

Accounts and software have to be opened, upgraded, and modified to reflect the date change and the personnel and policy approved changes.

A business Fresh Start is very similar to the spring cleaning done at home. At home every spring we clean out and clean up to make the home run more efficiently.

When we do not do the same thing at work, we are simply compounding the problems and failings of the year before into the current year. Can we, can you, afford to do that?

Whether you are a business entrepreneur, or a small, medium or large business owner, when you do not show diligence or remain focused on the mission of your organization you may not succeed. We must openly evaluate our own performance and the example we set if we expect others to be motivated by our ethics and standards.

Identify what you do best and delegate the rest to people you trust and have confidence. That is, after all, why you hired them. Now, it is that time of the year, when you look for that Fresh Start.