Quarterly Business Review - My Real Life Example

I’m sharing my real-life quarterly business review because I believe it’s helpful to see examples from the real world instead of blank templates. If you love going behind the scenes in business, you’re in the right place as I take you backstage in my business with this review.

This quarterly review of my business is for the time period of 1st July 2023 - 30th September 2023 which is my financial year end. 

It’s an interesting quarter to review because it includes school summer holidays where I tend to work fewer hours than normal. I was also on a real push to end my year with increased profits.

What makes a good quarterly business review?

For a solopreneur, I believe it’s important to look at the financials alongside personal metrics to gauge how the business is doing.

I started this business for the lifestyle benefits that are meant to come with being an entrepreneur and it’s important for me to stay true to this goal. It’s not just about the money.

To create a quarterly business review that gives you useful information, I recommend coming back to your bigger goals for the business and monitoring what’s working and what’s not working in terms of getting you to that goal.

For me, my quarterly review needs to look at my financial goals but also the lifestyle goals and how I’m feeling.

I’m not in business to make a load of money at the expense of my health, creativity and family life - key core values of mine.

What questions should a quarterly business review include?

I use these 7 questions for my quarterly business review to help me assess the past quarter and prepare for the one ahead:

1. What went well this quarter?

2. Did I hit my revenue target?

3. If I didn’t hit the target, why not? 

4. What didn't go so well?

5. How is my mindset?

6. Did I do some self-care?

7. What am I changing in the next quarter?

Because my business is not at all separate from my life - I ask business and life questions in my quarterly review.

I like to remind my ambitious self that I run this business for the lifestyle as well as a way to get paid! It’s equally important to me to check how I feel alongside checking the financials. 

Let’s dive in… 

My quarterly business review for July 2023 - September 2023

What went well this quarter?

• September was amazing for sales. I introduced a Q4 Strategy Session which was popular.

• I launched The Spark and it sold SO WELL! Then the Spark 6 month pass converted at 20% of existing subscribers. It also attracted new clients. I’ve written a blog with all the details about how I launched The Spark as my very first subscription service.

• The Productivity Pod sold well with no sales page. It was super quick to get live and make sales.

• I had two week-long holidays where I didn’t work!

• I signed a perfect fit 1-1 client for 3 months - a dream to collaborate with.

• 50% of my masterminders stayed in for the new cohort.

• My masterclasses (I did 2) to sell the mastermind converted well.

• I finished my BOOK! #positivelyproductive

• I found my groove mixing up my work location to include Costa - I get SO much done working there.

• I recorded some great guest expert podcast episodes.

• Creating all the promo assets for Pod launch meant it could go live while I was on holiday and make sales without me doing anything other than the occasional Instagram story. 

Did I hit my revenue target?

Yes! The motivation of my impending year end meant I cracked on with sales in September. Now I need to adopt this energy and focus more evenly throughout the year.

What didn't go so well this quarter?

• I spent time and energy on leads who perhaps weren’t the best fit to work with. 

• Ending the financial year with a big push to make money. I need to spread this out more evenly.

• FOMO from not being able to attend in-person events because of my parenting commitments. 

• Falling behind with communications with some of my biz connections as at points I began to feel overwhelmed and had to step back. If you’ve gone off track with your business, take a look at this post: 3 Ways To Get Your Business Back On Track For Financial Growth And Time Freedom

• My Summer Bootcamp offer didn’t sell as well as I wanted it to.

• Launching the mastermind in September was not good timing. The online business world is too noisy in September. 

• I booked podcast interviews for evenings in August thinking it would work. It didn’t and I had to move them all to September.

• Live streams as a guest expert into Facebook groups. Mostly crickets and only a handful of people watching. 

How is my mindset?

• Overall very good! 

• I invested in a finance mentor to help me get to grips with my money and this felt empowering.

• I created a mind movie with inspiring photos and affirmations. This was fun and I like to look at the lifestyle goals from time to time. More holidays, please.

• I switched up my daily gratitude practice over to financial gratitude to support with the finance mentoring. 

Here’s more detail on how to balance work and rest as an entrepreneur - I don’t always get it 100% right!

Did I do some self-care? Of course! It looked like this:

• Family holiday to Croatia where I did zero work other than promoting the Pod on stories

• Adam and I had a spa date night

• I was pretty consistent with the gym

• I took a lot of August off for school holidays

• I read more fiction books than usual

• We went camping in the Lakes and I did no work at all

• I had days out with Penny and friends in the holidays

You can read more about my self-care practice, which I call the Every Day Holiday, here.

What am I changing in the next quarter?

• I will sell fewer things! I’ve been testing new low ticket and group offers. Now I know what works, I will rinse and repeat.

• I’m committing more time to creative writing now that the book is done. I want to write more.

• I will focus on my sales goal more evenly throughout the quarter instead of a big push in month 3

• I want to do more yoga

• I want to pick up the guitar again!

• I was inconsistent with my morning routine. I keep choosing to sleep in. I think I need to change this. 

Conclusion - My Quarterly Business Review in Summary

By reflecting on business, financial and personal metrics in my quarterly review, I stay tuned into both how my business is performing and how I feel about it. For me, this is essential to my success because alongside earning good money, I want to feel great!

Assessing both what went well and what didn’t go well allows me to do more of what’s working and adopt a growth mindset to make changes based on data of what’s not working.

In terms of revenue targets for the quarter, I break these down into monthly targets and then check metrics for my marketing plan, lead generation and sales activity. I review this activity weekly.

I didn’t hit my revenue target in the last quarter that I blogged about here. 

You can also have a watertight business plan and marketing strategy but if you lack the mindset to implement it, it’s all wasted.

This is why I think assessing how we are feeling as entrepreneurs should be included in a quarterly business review. This will highlight the internal work you need to do to be performing at your best.

We can’t show up to implement and do a good job for ourselves and our clients if we don’t have our health. This is why I also check in every quarter with my self-care activities.

I have evidence to show that when I “push through” with work, the results aren’t as good as when I feel awesome in myself.

Taking the time to reflect and report in a quarterly business review should produce a list of things you will change in the next quarter.

I like to approach this as lessons learned and even failures in business have so much to teach us. If we aren’t tracking the failures and making changes, we can’t improve.

What stood out for you in this quarterly business review?

If you’ve never planned ahead in quarters, I highly recommend it. You get enough time to plan out meaty projects and review data from the business. Yet it’s not quite as mammoth as planning out an entire year.

I’ve been running 1-1 Quarterly Strategy Sessions. If you’re interested in doing one of these for your business to give you a clear goal and plan to get there, comment below with STRATEGY or DM me via one of the channels listed below and I’ll send you the details.

Thanks for being here and allowing me to share this quarterly business review with you.

Kelly

Useful Links

🔗If you missed my quarterly review from April 2023, you can read it here.

🔗 If you want a quarterly plan for your business, DM me with the word “STRATEGY” on Instagram @cheerupmarketing, LinkedIn or Facebook.

🔗My self-care practice, the Every Day Holiday

🔗How to balance work and rest as an entrepreneur

🔗 3 Ways To Get Your Business Back On Track For Financial Growth And Time Freedom