The end of year review in spring
You may not know this, but it is almost the New Year. No, I didn’t write this in 2023.
It’s March of 2024, the spring equinox just happened, and that means spring is here. And according to Exodus 12:2 in the Bible, Yahweh tells Moses and Arron that this is the beginning of the year and goes on to give them the instructions of the spring feasts called Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. (And just as a side note, in Exodus 13:3, this month is called Abib. I think that’s cool because the month of Abib is the only one given a name that is not just a number all the way until we get to Solomon’s time.)
So for me, there’s a pretty cool benefit living in the time we do; we get to have two New Years each year. We get the one in January, and then we get the one in Spring during the month of Abib.
At our house and with our company, we have adopted a practice that I would like to share with you that has to do with goal setting. And it starts with something called the End of Year Review.
Now, it’s important to note that we break up our goal planning into two different time frames. When we are getting to the end of the calendar year, we start doing the process I’m about to outline with our business goals. And when we get close to spring, we do our personal goal planning.
We break this up for many reasons. Both personal and business planning are time and focus intensive. It takes a lot to sit down and go through objectively the previous year. And I found that in doing both business and personal at the same time, I often run out of mental energy to complete both. By separating them, I can give each the amount of energy they deserve without getting overwhelmed and burned out. So, let’s get into it:
The End of Year Review, whether personal or business, is meant for you to get an accurate picture of what your current position is so that you can see clearly to set goals for the coming year. I have written to you before about what metrics we are looking for on the business side, but I’ll reiterate some briefly.
On the rental company, we want to see annual things like: What was our total rent revenue. What was our actual cashflow. What our expense factor looked like. What our vacancy rate looked like. How long was our turnover time. How much was our average turnover and things like that.
In the flip company we are looking for similar metrics like: What was our total revenue (both gross and net). What was our average rehab time. What the breakdown of rehab costs per foot was. What were our average marketing costs. We evaluate what market produced leads, how many appointments and which was the best. And we also do an expense analysis to see if we can cut costs anywhere.
On the personal side, it’s a little different. You are still going to take inventory of what all you did last year, but you are going to do it using the seven areas of goal setting as your metrics. And just to remind you they are as follows: 1. Spiritual 2. Health 3. Family 4. Relationships 5. Finance 6. Education 7. Fun.
I put these in a very specific order for myself. Spiritual comes first. Because if I am not seeking Yahweh first like it says in Matthew 6:33, nothing else is going to work well for me. Then comes health so I can show up and be the husband and dad needed for my family.
I don’t recommend changing the order of those first three. But you can play around with the remaining four if it suits you.
Now that you understand the seven areas of goal setting, you want to take each and ask the following questions: Did I have a goal? If yes, did I accomplish it? If not, why? What all did you do in this area? What worked well for you? What didn’t? And what do you need to improve?
Answering these questions takes a lot of time and you need a good notebook to write it all down in. But in doing so, you will get an accurate description of where you are currently in each of the seven areas so that you can be ready to set some S.M.A.R.T. goals.
We are coming to the end of the first quarter in 2024. How are you doing with the
New Year goals you set in January? Are you succeeding business wise? What about personally? I hope you are doing great with both. But if you are lagging in any of the areas above, take the time to start over now. Begin by doing the End of Year Review and get ready to set some new goals. My hope is that this will reinvigorate you and help get you further down the path of success.