Year End Business Reflection: Goal Setting Sheet

Feeling a bit overwhelmed as the year draws to a close? MEEEE TOOO. Grab a goal setting sheet and let’s dive into a simple, yet effective year-end review.

This year was a tough one for me — I can’t even tell you how many times that I’ve told myself that the biggest growth happens when we’re the most uncomfortable! We’ve had lots of changes happening, both personally and in our team, offers, and messaging… which can take up a lot of mental space and can be difficult to navigate. But I can already see that these shifts have been for the best! 💪

Taking some time to reflect on the last year is a powerful tool for setting yourself up for success in the next… and November / December are particularly great times for doing that!

For this year, we’ll keep it really simple — but I’ll also share some of my favourite goal-setting resources if you want to dive a little deeper. This isn’t about beating yourself up if it didn’t go quite as planned (does it ever?!). It’s about celebrating your wins, learning from your challenges, and being intentional about what’s down the pipeline for you!

Ready?

Part 1: Reflect on the Past Year

Here are six questions you have to ask yourself before you dive into a goal setting session. Yes, these questions are super simple, but they’re SHOCKINGLY great for really taking a good, honest look at how the last year has gone.

1. Jot down 10 of your favourite moments, both personal and professional.

2. Next, let’s talk about your biggest business accomplishments. List your top 5 proudest business achievements.

3. Take a minute to appreciate the positive aspects of your business. What are 5 reasons that you’re grateful for your business?

4. Reflect on the challenges you faced. List 5 invaluable lessons you’ve learned from difficult experiences.

5. If you could go back and change anything from the last year, what would it be?

6. What do you want to do less of next year? More of?

If you want this goal setting sheet in a Google doc, here you are!

Part 2 — Vision for the future

Now that you’ve gotten some REAL perspective, it’s time to sit down and take a look at where you’re going. These are the parts of your business you should be looking at AT LEAST yearly, to make sure you’re still headed in the right direction!

Long Term Vision

Paint a picture of where you’d like your business to be in 3-5 years. What are your goals?

Core Values

Define 3-5 values that will guide your business decisions and actions. What kind of spirit or culture do you want to foster? (This is important, even if it’s just you!)

If you run stuck, here are ours:

• Life first
• Keep it “knap” — simple, clever, sophisticated
• Learn every day
• Do the right thing

Bonus: We posted them on social media, so we could take our community along for the ride. Click through to see the whole post! (And post yours, too, when you get that far!)

Impact Goals

Identify the specific areas where you want to make a difference.

For us, it’s client satisfaction / retention, revenue growth, and team morale / productivity. Once you start writing, it’s pretty hard NOT to come up with a list of action items to make the rubber hit the road!

Improvement Areas

Think about how you can elevate:

• Client experience
• Systems & operations
• Financials
• Marketing

And of course, if there are any other goals you’d like to set, go for it!

Personally, I’m big on having kind of a general picture for the whole year and then really getting into the nitty gritty on a quarterly and even monthly basis — it really helps to keep us on track! (Can you tell that I’m a huge nerd about this stuff? Is it obvious? 🤣)

Quarterly Check In Questions

The Big Picture

What do we do, why do we do it, and HOW do we do it?

These questions always feel like basic review questions, and they ALSO always feel like a good refresher for your vision and goals. Take 5 minutes and run through this goal setting sheet every quarter!

Highs, Lows, and Goals

Most of these questions are geared towards working with a team, but it’s a good idea to review these items even if you’re a team of one! Write them down — there’s something about this process that is intensely clarifying and rejuvenating.

Each team member shares one highlight and one challenge that they’re currently facing, that’s related to their work. We take these, compile them into this quarter’s company highs and lows, and come up with a unified company goal for the next quarter!

Then, share schedules, vacations, and milestones. This is also a great time to shout out and give public recognition to specific team members for their contributions and hard work! Life first.

This next part is going to look different depending on the way that your company and offers are structured, but we go through all of the projects we have on the go or have completed in the last quarter and define:

• What’s working
• To improve
• Action items (key!!)

This will give you a really good starting point for your priorities next quarter!

Monthly Check In Questions — YOUR LIFE

1. Rate 1-10 your last month using the Life Balance Wheel. You’re looking at the following categories:

• Health & fitness
• Business & career
• Finance
• Personal development
• Relationship & romance
• Family & friends
• Fun & recreation
• Spiritual

2. List a few memorable moments from this month.

3. What gave you energy? What drained you?

4. What challenges or frustrations are you dealing with right now?

5. What lesson, thought, or insight have you gained this month?

6. What steps can you take to make your Life Balance Wheel better this month? How will you embody your word of the year, if you have one?

7. What tasks do you want to check off this month?

8. What boundaries will you set for yourself this month?

9. List three small, positive ways you can carve out time for self care.

Get these in a Google doc right here (no opt-in required!) — or download the fancy pants and AMAZING goal setting sheet below.

👉 If you have a hard time prioritizing rest in a world where productivity reigns, this post is for you!

Monthly Check In Questions — YOUR BUSINESS

1. Rate 1-10 your last month using the Business Health Wheel. These are the categories:

• Networking / community
• Revenue
• Profit
• Marketing / lead generation
• Systems / operations
• Time management
• Client satisfaction
• Team

2. What was successful this month?

3. What did you struggle with this month?

4. On a scale of 1-5, how are you performing as a company? What would get it to the next level?

5. What goals do you have for the upcoming month?

6. What do you need to let go of this month?

7. What steps can you take to make your Business Health Wheel better this month? How will you embody your word of the year, if you have one?

8. What tasks do you want to check off this month?

By taking the time to reflect and set intentions, you’ll be better equipped to navigate the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Download the monthly goal setting sheets by clicking the image below.

Download the Goal Setting Sheets

Want all of these questions in Google Doc / PDFs instead of a blog post? Here we go:

Full year — reflection & vision casting (google doc because easy, no opt in required) [LINK]

Monthly goal setting sheets / workbook (printable PDF because you get to colour in the circles and it’s fun) [LINK]

And my personal fave, NON-Knap Creative Plan Your Year Workbook from Susannah Conway