Top Five Actions for Business Owners before Year End

As the year draws to a close, business owners should take strategic actions to wrap up effectively and set the stage for the coming year. Here are five essential steps to consider:

1. Comprehensive Financial and Tax Review: The end of the year is an ideal time for a thorough financial assessment. Analyze financial statements to identify growth areas, cost-saving opportunities, and patterns that may need attention. This review should go hand in hand with tax planning. Consult with your accountant to understand your tax liabilities and discuss strategies to maximize tax benefits, such as making year-end charitable contributions or deferring income.

2. Strategic Planning and Goal Setting: Reflect on the past year’s achievements and setbacks. Include your leadership team, at Intertech, each member of the leadership team completes a comprehensive survey that we use in our strategic planning. This insight is invaluable for setting realistic and ambitious goals for the upcoming year. Whether it’s expanding into new markets, increasing revenue, or enhancing customer satisfaction, clear goals provide direction and motivation. Align these goals with a revised budget, ensuring it supports your strategic objectives and includes contingencies for unexpected challenges.

3. Technology and Operational Audit: Questions around technology are included in our strategic planning session survey. Are systems and processes as efficient and secure as they can be? What technology upgrades are must haves or nice to haves.

4. Team Engagement and Development: Your team is your most valuable asset. End the year by acknowledging their hard work – a simple gesture of appreciation can boost morale significantly. Also, assess your team’s development needs. Investing in training and skill development not only enhances productivity but also fosters a culture of growth and learning. At Intertech, as team members are defining their goals for the upcoming year, one of the goals is a learning goal.

5. Networking and Personal Growth: Finally, focus on strengthening your business network. Solid relationships can lead to new opportunities and collaborations. Also, invest in your personal growth. Whether it’s a leadership seminar or a course in a new technology, enhancing your skills ensures you remain a dynamic and effective leader.

These steps are more than just year-end chores; they are investments in your business’s future. By taking these actions, you position your business for success in the new year and beyond.

Free Consult

For you that follow “The 100” or my past books, I’d be happy to provide a free hour of consulting on whatever area or need you may have in your business (as the joke goes, if it’s not valuable, I’ll give you 100% back).

Just send me a request on this site’s contact form and give me an idea of what you’d like to discuss.

Let’s hang in there together.

May You Live in Interesting Times

The exponential rate of change and response to the virus, or lack thereof on some fronts, has created an environment of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Over the past few weeks, I’ve had many socially-distanced discussions on measures to keep business moving forward and employees informed. Here’s a re-cap.

  • If you don’t have a plan that addresses all aspects of the organization, from classifying top customers by risk level to cash flow projections to potential opportunities in the current environment (think acquisitions of competitors, hiring from distressed industries like travel, or targeting industries going up in the current environment like mortgage brokers), do so.
  • When you have a plan, communicate it with the organization. We’re all overwhelmed with the 24/7 news cycle. People are craving answers and direction.
  • If there are actions you’re considering down the road when some triggering event happens, do it now. From employees on the bubble who need to be humanely let go or the customer whose account is overdue and needs a call, act. Don’t wait.
  • There are tons of articles on how to effectively work-from-home along with how to live well, find some and share with your crew.
  • With teams working remotely and social distancing, remember we are social creatures. Encourage teams to be connected throughout the day with Microsoft Team, Skype, or other platforms.
  • Encourage employees to work through this together. For example, in our company weekly newsletter, we have a new section. In this section, everyone is free to contribute thoughts around dealing with the current situation. Ideas range from tips on staying healthy to Audible’s free offering for kids under 18 to using Target curbside pickup and Amazon Fresh to get household essentials without human interaction.

Stay safe and if I can help you, please let me know.

Top 2018 Posts, Articles, and Resources

Below are my top five resources and posts for 2018:

The 100 Downloads:  A set of 30 templates, checklists, and other tools that support ideas in my book The 100.

Software Development: Being Agile:  Written as a part of a series on software development, this piece covers the benefits of Agile and Scrum.

Father’s Day:  On Father’s Day this year, I wrote a testament to my dad as a father and man.

Getting Curious Gets Results:  Inspired by a Harvard Business Review article, here are thoughts on how curiosity can improve our business and our lives.

How CEOs Manage Time:  Also inspired by a Harvard Business Review article, I share my $0.02 on how to effectively manage time/life.

Below are my top five articles in other publications for 2018:

Strategic philanthropy: Giving back means paying it forward in ways that matter, Minnesota Business Magazine

How to cultivate a work culture that works for everyone, The Business Journals

How to cultivate winning client-consultant relationships, Upsize Magazine

5 ways to increase workplace flow — and happiness, The Business Journals

How to focus your resources on achieving your goals, The Business Journals

Father’s Day

There’s been a lot of talk in Minnesota and the country about “inappropriate behavior” by high-profile men that many of us previously admired for their leadership, creativity and contributions to our culture or government. But when the “icky” news began to break, we suddenly thought about those men differently. Their legacies will not make their children proud.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my dad recently. Maybe it’s because of the recent Father’s Day or the fact that dad’s been gone for seven years. He never met my children, the eldest of whom is named for him. Sometimes it’s frustrating because I can’t ask dad for advice or share my proud papa stories with him. Although my mom is always there — and I appreciate that immensely – there’s just something about the father/son relationship that mothers and sons cannot replicate.

My dad, Theodore Salonek, was not a high-profile guy. And he certainly was not the sort of man who ever would have made headlines for inappropriate behavior. But the older I get, the more I realize how much I learned from watching him – and what a first class man he was.

Theodore was a hardworking farmer with five kids. Like many small family farmers, we had some tough times during the ‘80s. That didn’t stop dad from helping others in small and big ways. For example, I remember him “rounding up” when paying hired hands that he knew were down on their luck, giving food to people in need (including a divorced man, which was considered shocking at the time) and continually taking the time to visit an alcoholic who was struggling in rehab. Even when this man let dad down, dad continued to help him and give him opportunities to make good.

I learned a lot about being a person and a father from observing how dad treated others. On holidays, our home was always a place for “stragglers” who lacked a place to go. He and mom would set extra plates on the table at Christmas and Easter for people without family.  As a kid, I didn’t really appreciate these people being with us on holidays. But now, looking back, I can see what a powerful lesson we received about kindness and generosity.

My dad didn’t believe in making a fuss about his acts of kindness. He just did things because he felt they were the right things to do. While the “Bachelor Farmer” is the name of a restaurant today, dad regularly drove two local bachelor farmers who were older and couldn’t drive to countless doctor appointments. And when my grandpa (dad’s father-in-law) had colon cancer and was bed ridden, dad somehow found the money to purchase a washer and dryer so grandma could wash grandpa’s garments. Little things I suppose by today’s standards, but their impact was substantial for the people who benefitted from his generosity. They made a huge impact on me.

One of the best things I ever did was invite my dad to join me for annual weeklong fishing trips before he died in a farming accident in late 2010. I learned more about him on those trips than I did in 18 years of growing up on the farm. His unfailing ability to see the best in others and in difficult situations was remarkable. He looked for the positives in life and he loved people. When we would travel, dad liked to chat it up with people we’d meet along the way. It was rare to see him talk to someone for any period of time and not see them smiling or laughing and patting him on the back.

Now we live in a time when so many men, in public life anyway, seem to be the polar opposite of men like my dad. Humility is out and grandiosity is in. Kindness is naive and personal greed is king. Caring for family, neighbors and friends is a quaint relic of previous generations. Men who are known for their callous treatment of women and disregard for business associates and constituents have been elevated to the highest levels of society.

I hope my son and daughter are too young to notice these men. I hope my efforts to follow my dad’s example (and the parenting by their wonderful mother!) will be enough to offset the corrosive effect of growing up in a world so different from the one my parents created for me.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad.  You may be gone, but your proud legacy never will be forgotten.