It is the end of the year, which means many of you are setting goals for 2022. Good for you! But it is also the time to make sure that your internal realities align with those goals. Goal setting is fabulous. Creating new action steps is fun and while reviewing what you have may not sound nearly as exciting, it may be what moves you forward. You need to be aligned or all the pulls and pushes in different directions will slow down progress. That’s why all the engines on a rocket point in the same direction.
Some things are simple. Is your company in good standing with the states in which you are doing business? In other words, did you file an Annual Report this year? How about taxes, unemployment, and insurance? Do you have correct permits and licenses?
Put in a tiny bit more research time and check your subscriptions. Are you paying for things that you no longer need? Or take it a step further, do you know when everything expires or how and when to terminate subscriptions that you may no longer want? Not everything is month-to-month, and you want to know that now, not when you want to cancel.
Others may need a bit more reflection. For example, do you have goals about bringing on investors or having employees become owners? Does your Operating Agreement, Bylaws, or Buy/Sell Agreements support that? For that matter, do they even reflect current reality? Often those capital tables haven’t been updated in quite a while. Now’s the time to check that.
Finally, in case you haven’t noticed, a lot has happened in the world in the past two years. That likely includes how you treat your employees. If you have an employee handbook, does it reflect your current reality? Are you really concerned about footwear if all you see are people’s heads on Zoom?
There is a big movement in the labor market. Perhaps you’ve heard of the Great Resignation. Even if you haven’t heard that phrase, you’ve felt the impact. Do your current practices and policies fit your reality and your goals? How about your compensation and your benefits structure? If your compensation incentivizes one behavior, I don’t care what your 90 day plan says, that incentivized behavior is what you will see.
So let’s make sure your rocket engines are aligned for 2022!