Mid Year Review

We just closed Q2, and are already more than 50% of the way through 2022. If things are going according to plan, or even better, that’s great. However, if you have encountered some unforeseen issues in the first 6 months of the year, now is a great time to review your annual plan, and check to see if some adjustments are necessary.

Mid-Year reviews are great for a variety of reasons, including:

• Evaluating your original goals and priorities. Things can shift greatly in a year, so examining midway allows you to pivot or adjust your plan with current and timely information.

• Reflect on the year so far, and adjust strategies for the remainder of the year based on the first 6 months of performance. Delaying until year end can cause you to lose valuable growth opportunities. Mid-year reviews offer a chance to get back on track, and reprioritize.

• Mid-year reviews give you, your managers and your employees more room for discussion. Embrace the chance to self-evaluate, get support where it’s needed, to ensure annual goals are achievable.

• Provide future-focused, and actionable feedback through a forward looking lens, and motivate team members to succeed over the next 6 months.

• Address and fix problems now, before year-end.

• Align expectations by communicating if you are meeting, exceeding, or underperforming on your KPI’s.

• Engage with your staff by recognizing achievements, offering new challenges, and seeking ideas and feedback for improvement over the next six months.

A mid year review is also a great opportunity to perform what we like to refer to as a 6+6 forecast, which allows you to evaluate the first six months of actuals and the remaining six months of forecasts. If expectations built into the budget aren’t materializing, then it’s time to recalibrate. With 6 months of actual numbers you’re in a much stronger position to accurately forecast the remainder of the year, and potentially adjust your overall annual budget to account for the first 6 months.

It's also sometimes abundantly clear that your budget-versus-actual performance has diverged so much from your original plan that it doesn’t provide actionable guidance anymore. If that is the unfortunate case you find yourself in, more than likely your targets need to be reset. Some circumstances could include;

• A material event has occurred causing significant interruptions to your normal business operations.

• Your business model assumptions are flawed.

• The worst case is worse

• Cash flow liquidity has deteriorated:

The positive news is we’re only halfway through the year, and you have time to adjust and react if things aren’t going as planned. Continuously reviewing numbers and performance allows you to be more nimble. Don’t wait to make necessary changes. When December rolls around, you'll be glad you did, and grateful you didn’t wait until year end.