The six mid-year actions that will boost your business in H2

Is your business where you want it to be mid way through the year?

With June well underway, in only two weeks’ time half of 2024 will be over - and for most firms that’s half of the business year too.

So now is the perfect time to evaluate your year so far - has your business kept on track with the plan for 2024 constructed carefully last Autumn, or has it been more like a series of tough hill climbs or blind corners? 

Whether it’s been a good, bad or indifferent H1, there is still plenty of time to ensure the goals you set for your business this year have the best chance of success – the key is to stand back and review the critical aspects that are vital to supporting this.

A mid-year check-in will enable you to see where your business is performing well or where it could benefit from some adjustment or fresh thinking for H2.

Here are the six areas of your business to examine and the questions to ask, to assess your mid-year business health and help you update your priority action list:

1.       Budget and margin: At the half-way point does your 2024 Budget still look realistic or are you reaching for the calculator to review it? Have you achieved your revenue and margin targets so far and what is the value of your pipeline and unidentified revenue at this point? How much pipeline and unidentified budget revenue you converted in H1 will indicate your ‘run rate’ for H2, with growth above this predictable if you have strategies such as a new service or new senior hires. A classic issue with annual budgeting is over optimism about revenue that will be achieved in the later quarters of the year – so a Q1 budget is often the softest of the year, with the largest set for Q4. This may have felt comfortable in December but at this mid-year point, not so much. Now is the time to make a realistic appraisal, re-forecast your budget if needed, and plan accordingly – for example, reign back spending if revenue is lower than predicted.

2.       New business momentum: How is your lead and pitch pipeline currently, how does it compare to this point six months and a year ago? Do you know how long a lead takes to move through your sales funnel – this should give you an idea of how many opportunities you need to find, to convert enough of them through Q3/4.  What can you do in the key July-September quarter to accelerate building H2 leads or converting current ones? Do you have a plan for new business development for the critical summer holiday period with a lot of the team taking breaks - a strategy to keep pushing forward despite being distracted by keeping ‘business as usual’ on the road can make a lot of difference to your full year result.  

3.       Client satisfaction: ‘A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’ as the saying goes and it’s true for business – an existing client is to be treasured and nurtured as much as possible. How strong are your client relationships at this point? Do you know what’s on their minds regarding the service you’re delivering and what they really want going forward? Are you doing everything you can to protect and grow these valuable existing client relationships?

4.       Marketing effectiveness: How has your marketing strategy performed in H1? Have you measured it against KPIs? Are you confident that you’re focussing on the right messages, content, targets? What should you do to adjust this in H2 to improve its impact?

5.       Pitching excellence: What has your pitch/proposal conversion level been in H1 – was it 1 in 2 (great), 1 in 3 (fair) or 1 in 4 or less (not ideal)? Equally important, do you know why? If your pitching results have been less than you would wish, now is the time to take action to make improvements, so that you are in a stronger position to capitalise on your next opportunities.

6.       People satisfaction: How is your team’s motivation? How has retention been in H1? Do you know what to do about it if there are issues with either aspect? Also reflect on how well your team is set up for success and whether you have delivered everthing you intended to support your people. For example, do your mid and senior team know exactly what you want them to focus on so that their effort is maximised on priorities? Have your new hires bedded in? Are you delivering the training and development you promised in appraisals?  While people matters can often be placed second to clients, your team is your crucial asset. So it’s vital and beneficial at this mid-year point to assess your HR strategy and delivery to your people, to make sure your team is as positive and productive as possible.

Interested to find out more about how I could help you and your business thrive?
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