Celebrate Your Business Anniversary: Reflect, Appreciate & Plan Ahead

All too often, entrepreneurs get so sucked into the endless cycle of doing that they forget to take time to celebrate their business anniversary and all that has transpired since the beginning.

Business owners, take a moment to pause and appreciate all that you have accomplished.

Statistics show that less than 50% of business owners make it until their fifth year of business. All too often, what starts off as a great business with a plan and with plenty of support can go sideways for a number of reasons. Sometimes there isn’t sufficient cash flow to sustain the expenses. Other times, the owner has a tough time delegating, let alone hiring the right people.

Here are some tips to look back and appreciate where you started and where you came from.

#1 Recognize You Are on A Journey

Each year is like a mile on a bus ride. There are many, many stops and starts, right turns and left turns – and sometimes, some U-turns and turnarounds.

Rarely is entrepreneurship a straight line forward.

#2:  Review Your Team and Gross Revenues by Year

Quick snapshots of your yearly progression can be a great way to remind yourself how far you’ve come. Maybe at day zero, you just started off by yourself as the entrepreneur / CEO. One year in, perhaps you had eight people. By year two, you had 13. By year three, you’ve had 18. And year by 4, you had 24. Just these numbers alone can help you see the growth that has occurred.

While we definitely want a business to be profitable, sometimes the bottom line numbers can be a bit scary and less promising. Sometimes it helps to take a look at the gross revenues and see the progression through the years. Perhaps knowing the profitability margin is much lower than you want it to be gives you the focus to make your next year focused on profitability.

Whether you see a lot of growth or little, appreciate the changes and the elements that all contribute toward your journey forward.

#3: Be Grateful for The Systems and Processes You Do Have

We often want to have every part of our business systematized and running smoothly with our team leading the way. Anniversary dates are a great time to take a pause and simply appreciate what has been built and the parts that are working well.

You might be surprised to see how many little things are getting done, even though you want it to be better. Take a moment to show your team appreciation for these moments and their contributions.

#4: Feel Blessed to Work with Great People

A key part to the entrepreneurial journey is working with great people and knowing they’re helping build something special. Take this time to feel blessed for those around you who support you, encourage you, inspire you, and challenge you to be better and to do better.

As my friend Molly McGrath show shares in her newest book, Fix My Boss, “our goal should be to work on forming human relationships with our team”.  That means taking the time to listen, to connect, to observe, to appreciate and work on understanding other people’s perspectives. 

Each person on your team has positive elements to share, or they wouldn’t be on your team.  So take a moment to appreciate the people around you and if needed, commit to making those relationships stronger starting now.

5: Celebrate Attracting More of Your Ideal Clients

Whether that “A+ Client” constitutes 10% of your current client load or 95% of your client load, we can all take the time to take a moment and feel fortunate to work with people that need and want what we have. Welcome the notion that over time, you will attract more and more of your ideal clients – but for today, appreciate where you are.

Overall, use your business anniversaries as a time to take inventory of how far you have come and get curious about how awesome the next chapter in your journey will be.