Q1 Tasks to Check Off in 2023
If you just wrapped up your year-end tax planning and goal setting for the new year, you know there is much to do this coming year. This year has great potential. The first quarter is one of the most important because it sets up the rest of the year for success.
We’re going to share insights into the things every business should do in Q1 (in 2023 and beyond) to strengthen their operations.
5 Things Every Business Should Do in Q1 2023
1. Start the Year with a Team Bonding Event
Around 75% of employees believe that teamwork is critical. Starting the year off with a team bonding event is an excellent choice for businesses of all sizes. You can go offsite with an event, but it’s not necessary.
A lot of businesses hold in-house team bonding events that:
- Boost productivity
- Improve engagement
- Create a stronger work culture
- Much more
Even virtual team building events are massive successes. You can have:
- Virtual break rooms
- Virtual escape rooms
- Workshops
- In-office challenges
Bonding events can be anything that brings your team closer to start the year and deepens connection and trust.
2. Challenge Your Team
In business, stagnation often arises because teams and owners no longer feel challenged. It’s up to you to begin challenging your team and yourself to start the year. If you or your team are bored or demotivated, it can cause a ripple effect throughout the year.
When your team isn’t challenged, it’s an indication of:
- Business stagnation
- Boredom
- Lack of fulfillment
Growth is always connected to challenges of differing levels. You can challenge your team to attract bigger clients and make bigger sales. Approaching larger businesses can be scary, but it’s a skill that can quickly make an employee invaluable to your business.
Challenge your team to find ways to enhance the services you already offer or find new, exciting ways to improve service.
Automation is one tool that will be huge in 2023 and beyond. If employees can automate tasks and boost productivity, this is a challenge that can improve your business for years to come and free up employees to work on higher-level tasks.
Sit down and ask yourself this single question: are you bored in your position at all? If you have even a tinge of boredom, this is a warning sign that you need to make critical changes to grow both your business and yourself. The same holds true for you employees. Check-in with them and make sure they are being properly challenged.
3. Closing 2022 to Move Forward
The year ahead is an exciting time filled with opportunities for what the next four quarters may bring. You want to spend the next quarter looking toward the future, which means that you’ll need to tie up all of your loose ends from 2022.
You’ll want to:
- Close the books to find out where you ended up. Analyze any unexpected occurrences and determine if they will be a continual trend and something you need to keep in mind going forward.
- Analyze what KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) were met and not met.
- Pay any of the outstanding invoices that you may have that weren’t paid before the end of the year.
- Collect outstanding receivables that are still hanging out there.
You’ll also want to spend this time recording all of your end-of-year expenses and reviewing the contracts that you have. Perhaps certain contract terms need to be updated or are no longer in your favor and must be taken care of promptly.
Finally, you’ll want to have a true “heart-to-heart” when looking at your KPIs. In fact, you should be reviewing these often to have a better understanding of your business’s strengths and where you’re experiencing challenges that you’ve been unable to rectify in the last year.
4. Review Trends and Changes
Trends and changes go loosely with our last point, but they’re very important for you to focus on in Q1. When going over your accounting, KPIs, and final tasks in the last section, you’ll also want to spend time analyzing emerging trends and changes.
For example, you want to look through the data to find:
- Changes in consumer buying preferences throughout the year and spot any downward or upward trends
- Analyze IT changes that may impact your business positively or negatively.
- Pinpoint any changes in the business that you need to address at the start of 2023.
You may even want to find areas where you can begin implementing automation to fill talent gaps or free up time for employees to focus on more critical tasks.
I recommend holding an internal meeting with your managers and supervisors to better identify any trends or changes that they’re seeing that you may have overlooked.
5. Present Your Year-end Recap
Finally, you need everyone to be on the same page, which means presenting your year-end recap. A recap should be created once you’re done with:
- Updating your books
- Reviewing/updating your KPIs
- Meeting and having discussions with management
You need to have a year-end recap with your management team and key employees. If your business is larger, you can have your managers relay the information to their respective teams so that everyone is on the same page.
The recap should include your business’s:
- Strengths
- Weaknesses
- Goals
- Challenges
You’ll want to use charts and graphs that make it easy for everyone to visualize the year to find both “wins” and areas that can be improved upon this coming year. This is also the perfect time to let everyone know how much you appreciate their hard work and commitment this past year and going forward.
There’s a lot of uncertainty heading into 2023. Economists are all over the place, with J.P. Morgan expecting economic growth to slow to 1.6% in 2023 globally. Still, they are cautious about mentioning that the risk of a recession is not imminent.
Other forecasts are grimmer for the start of the year. However, in all cases, business must go on.
If you follow the steps above, we’re confident that you’ll start the year off right and be on your way to weathering the storm if it does come.
To learn more about Q1 tasks your business must complete or to schedule an appointment, click here.