With the summer coming to close, and only a few months left in 2016, it’s natural to wonder where the year has gone.

It’s also a great time to ask yourself, how has the company done in achieving the goals we set back in January?

If you’ve come up short, don’t lose heart. It’s August but there is ample time to re-evaluate and turn things around.

Here are some things to think about if you want to close out 2016 strongly:

Your budget:

There could be a number of reasons why your business is not achieving its financial targets: 1) sales are down, either because of a decline in the market or because of competitors 2) margins declined while your costs stayed the same

Is there anything (albeit minor) you can cut from your spending? Can you be charging more for a product or service? Are there additional things you can be selling to existing customers?

Really delve into your financials and figure out what is working and what isn’t.

Consider your assets

Any company’s most important asset is its people. Are yours being heard? Tenured employees can give you a window into the past. It’s important to understand where your business has been to help you create a plan to move forward

Your employees can be one of your best resources in terms of business decisions. Figure out what ideas may have been suppressed and bring them into action

Do you have the right systems?

It could be time to consider if your company is leveraging the right technology to maximize profits. Could it be that your CRM is extremely out of date? Are you losing out on business opportunities because you aren’t leveraging the best systems?

While it can be daunting to research and invest in new technology, and then get an entire company on board with it – new software could be the difference between your business succeeding and failing.

Are your KPIs clear? Measurable?

Make sure each department understands their expectations. Real employee engagement starts with your team members agreeing with “I know what’s expected of me at work”.

Having clear KPIs allow you to manage more objectively and determine areas of improvement.

As a leader you probably already know this, but sometimes KPIs need to be revisited and reworked to match the current business climate.

Share the vision

If your business is under pressure to perform, be transparent with the rest of the company.

Be realistic with your team about what potential pitfalls the company could experience, your time frame for getting things back on track, and what each department should be trying to achieve individually.

By the way, if you are looking for quick tool to help you get your year on track grab our SMART Goals worksheet and leverage it to close out the year strong!