- Know how your practice fits into your local ecosystem. How do you compare to your competitors? Where is most of your business coming from? What are your most popular services?
- Where is your time going? For a week, or more for better data quality, log your activities in a timekeeping tool that will let you assign your tasks to projects or clients. Look for one that has a smartphone app too. At the end of the week, run a report to see where your time went. This will tell you what you prioritized. Were they the right things?
- Ask your staff and clients for feedback. You could do this in person or give the option to complete an anonymous online survey. Either way, use the feedback to feed your own thought process and to keep yourself from spending too much time in your own head.
- Take a deep dive into your numbers. What are your most profitable services and largest expenditures? How much repeat business do you do? When you know exactly how money flows into and out of your business, you can make more powerful strategic decisions about how to grow it.
- Review your tech solutions. Does your accounting software give you the reports and information you need? What does your payroll system require of you or your team each pay period? If any of your solutions aren’t giving you the results you need, figure out why. It could be as simple as learning more about the functionality or it could be time to find a better solution.
- Devote a portion of each week to continuous learning and allow your team to do the same. Encourage them to share helpful articles with each other or give them paid time each week to study and improve their skills. Your clients will notice and feel more confident in your practice.
These will get you started. As you work through each one, you’ll see competency gaps and unexpected successes. You’ll get ideas for other ways to evaluate your business. Most importantly, you’ll learn things that will help you set the right strategies to level up your practice.