The Mid-Year Reality Check for service providers who want to hit their ambitious annual goals

6 months down. 6 months to go. You have officially reached the mid-year point and this is the mid-year reality check for service providers who want to hit their ambitious annual goals. Because let’s be honest, not every service provider sets goals at the beginning of the year and of those who did set goals, the majority wouldn’t have set ambitious goals. But you are different. You started the year determined to make it a great one and right now, at the mid-year point, it’s time to stop and have an honest assessment of how the first six months have gone so you can ensure that as the year ends, you are celebrating have achieved your big goals. Keep on reading to see the full mid-year reality check for service providers who want to hit their ambitious annual goals.

 

 

This page may include affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. The content of CharelleGriffith.com is for informational and educational purposes and should not be construed as financial advice.

 

THE MID-YEAR REALITY CHECK FOR SERVICE PROVIDERS WHO WANT TO HIT THEIR AMBITIOUS ANNUAL GOALS

 

 

 

Why the mid-year point really matters

It’s easy to set ambitious goals at the beginning of the year and it’s easy to have the motivation to work towards them for the first few months. But once that initial motivation has worn off, it’s easy to not keep moving forward at the same pace. You stop pushing yourself and fall back into your old ways of work. You get busy working in your business and stop making the time to work on your business.

 

The halfway point is your moment to reset. It’s the moment to have a hard look at what has happened over the last six months and work out what needs to be done to ensure you actually do hit your ambitious goals by the end of the year. A lot can happen in six months. There is still enough time now, but you have to act now and not wait until the final few months.

 

Check your progress towards your annual goals

 

The first part of your mid-year reality check is doing a proper assessment of your annual goals. For each goal, you need to ask yourself “Am I on track, ahead or behind?”.

 

If you have a goal where you are behind, it’s important to understand why. Have you been following your plan and not getting results and so it’s time to make a shift? Or have you not been taking the actions you originally intended on and if so, what needs to happen so you start actively working towards that goal?

 

When assessing your goals, you’ll want to use as much data as possible. If you haven’t been keeping track each month in your monthly CEO session, this is the time to gather that data.

 

Take an honest look at the business

 

Now I don’t know your precise annual goals, but having worked with hundreds of service providers, I know the key areas that need to be looked at when you are growing a business, so these should form part of your mid-year reality check, whether they are directly related to one of your annual goals or not.

 

FINANCES

 

Let’s not beat around the bush and start with the most important thing – the money. Hopefully, you set a clear revenue goal at the beginning of the year and you may have gone even further and set what I class as the 3 key financial goals (revenue, profit and personal take-home). (You can read more about the 3 financial goals every solopreneur and small business owner should have here). Sit down and see how you are doing in all three areas and if you are where you should be.

 

Because of seasonality, being where you should be with any of the financial metrics does not mean you are expecting to be at the 50% mark. For example, your business might experience seasonality where Q4 usually accounts for 40% of your annual revenue. If other than that, the other 3 quarters are equal then rather than expecting the business to be at 50% because you think it’s the halfway point it actually should be at 40% of the annual figure (because 20% for Q1, 20% for Q2 and then you are expecting 20% in Q3 and 40% in Q4).

 

GET ONE-TO-ONE MENTORING FOR THE LAST SIX MONTHS OF THE YEAR SO YOU CAN SMASH YOUR GOALS. I provide one-to-one mentoring to a small number of business owners each year to help them strategically grow, or scale, their business and achieve their goals. You’ll have be by your side for 6 months ensuring you have the right strategy, support and accountability to take your business to the next level. For all the details and to apply click here.

 

 

MARKETING

 

The next area to look at is your marketing. Hopefully, your marketing is resulting in enough leads and sales, and if it is then it’s easy to think ‘marketing is fine’ and move onto the next thing. However, you set yourself ambitious goals so you can’t get complacent. You need to dive deeper into what is and isn’t working so you aren’t wasting time, energy or money.

Look at where your sales are coming in and assess whether based on the time, energy and money you are putting into each marketing channel is it generating acceptable results? Once you are running multi-channel marketing it is vital to look at how each channel is going. It might be that you identify a channel that is underperforming and you need to do some work to strengthen. Or you might find a channel is really performing and double down.

The aim is to feel confident that if your marketing continues as it is you’ll still be able to hit your annual sales and financial goals. And if not, you want to revise your strategy so you get to the point where you are confident.

 

TIME

As a service provider, time is your most precious asset but not everyone treats it that way. Hopefully you’ve been tracking your time (and if you haven’t, start doing so now I use the app Toggl) but rather than just tracking it’s time to have a honest look at how you’ve been spending your time.

Look at how much time you’ve been spending working in your business versus working on your business. How much time are you spending on income-generating activities and things you have to be doing, and how much time have you been spending on admin or other areas that someone else could do?

Do you feel the results you’ve gotten in the business are fair based on how much time you’ve spent working in each area?

And are there any changes you need to make to how much time you work in total, and how you are dividing your time up moving forward?

 

SUPPORT

 

Success is not achieved alone and ensuring you have the right support around you is vital.

Looking at the goals you are working towards do you need more support to ensure you hit them by the end of the year?

 

There are two main types of support you need to look at.

 

1. Support inside for the business

 

You just had a proper look at how you are spending your time. You might realise you need more support inside the business. Do you need to hire someone to help you with admin, marketing, sales, customer service so that you have more time back to focus on client delivery and being the CEO.

 

2. Support for you as the business owner

 

Achieving ambitious goals is going to stretch you as a business owner and this is where getting a business mentor or coach who will provide business expertise, support and accountability can be  invaluable. Ask yourself ‘What do I need to ensure I am making the right decision fast, continue to move in the right direction and ensure I am pushing myself out my comfort zone so the business continues to grow?”

 

GET ONE-TO-ONE MENTORING FOR THE LAST SIX MONTHS OF THE YEAR SO YOU CAN SMASH YOUR GOALS. I provide one-to-one mentoring to a small number of business owners each year to help them strategically grow, or scale, their business and achieve their goals. You’ll have be by your side for 6 months ensuring you have the right strategy, support and accountability to take your business to the next level. For all the details and to apply click here.

 

 

That’s it. That was the mid-year reality check for service providers with ambitious annual goals.

 

Ambitious annual goals don’t just happen by themselves. Anyone can sit down and write an ambitious goal, but to achieve them you have to do the necessary work and I don’t just mean head down ‘work work work’. A mid-year reality check is part of that work. Look at the data to understand exactly where your business is now and then be brutally honest about what needs to happen over the next 6 months so you can achieve your ambitious annual goals, because I know you can achieve them.

 

If you’ve found this blog post useful please do let me know over on Instagram or LinkedIn.

 

And if you are a service-based business owner and you want to grow your business this year I’d love to help you. As I’ve already said a lot can happen in 6 months, especially with the right support.

 

That’s why I run one-to-one mentoring where I help service providers to achieve their growth goals. Whether you are aiming for more income, more impact or both, I can help.

 

GET ONE-TO-ONE MENTORING FOR THE LAST SIX MONTHS OF THE YEAR SO YOU CAN SMASH YOUR GOALS. I provide one-to-one mentoring to a small number of business owners each year to help them strategically grow, or scale, their business and achieve their goals. You’ll have be by your side for 6 months ensuring you have the right strategy, support and accountability to take your business to the next level. For all the details and to apply click here.