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Are you sure that you have covered your tracks? Is your business ready for this year? Are you sure that with your current plan, your company will grow? It is a great time to contemplate and think about your future plans. These plans should be congruent with your company and how they can improve operations for the year. Auditing it, may it be informally, allows you to see where your business is going, what problems you may encounter and what contingencies you can use to solve these roadblocks.

It may be easier said than done. To make your auditing streamlined, here are some areas you need to focus on and what you need to do to improve your situation, according to Bloomberg Businessweek .

Have you looked into your inventory and operations?

By looking into your operations, you can discover where you can cut your expenses and try to improve the way your business operates. You don’t have to do this on your own. You can hire a company to do this or you can close your shop for a day and have your employees do the inventory. Be sure that you assign different people to do certain types of inventory. You can also spare yourself the hassle of the yearly inventory check by purchasing barcode systems to track your supplies and the likes automatically. These systems need not be that complicated. As long as this new tracking device is compatible with your current systems,  you are good to go.

How about your financials?

Depending on where your business is now in its life cycle, you need to analyze your projections as well as forecast your financial assessment. For example, if your business is new, you might need more revenues which entails having more people, and more competitive marketing strategies. If your company is already mature, it is best to tidy up your books so when the time comes to sell, it would be easy. If your company is not new or long established, your focus is on the financials. You want to increase sales, and at the same time reduce expenses.

As you prepare for the coming year, it’s a good idea to review your financial situation, search for ways to improve your operations and focus on the big picture. “Take yourself out of the process of being involved in all the critical decisions day to day and start to work on your business growth, your long-term strategy, and things like finding cost savings,” said Roger Murphy of Murphy Business & Financial Corp.”

Have you thought about the risks involved in your business?

Just because that the economy is now seeing light at the end of the recession tunnel, it does not mean that you, the business owner, will have to take a back seat. Now is the perfect time to assess what your business weak points are and remedy that. Check where fraud might be taking place and make the necessary precautions. Check your taxes,if these are updated and such. You also have to take note of your employees’ work status. Are they contractual? Part-time? Be sure that you classify them according to avoid tax penalties.

Have you updated your strategy to suit the ever-changing market?

You should. Connect with your client and your market in general. You just cannot generate ideas when you don’t know what your customers need.

Is your business now ready to move ahead?

Photo by: 401(K) 2013