As each year seems to whizz by faster than the last, just like that, we find ourselves in December again. And what a year it’s been. Only a few weeks to go until the great New Zealand shutdown, where the cities empty out and the beaches and lakefronts experience a brief explosion in population. If you’re in business, before you switch off for the year, there are a few practical matters to attend to.
If you haven’t organised these things already, now’s good.
- Shutdown times – is everyone clear when the doors will be closed and when they will be opened again? Not just your team, but your customers too?
- If you have staff, are you clear on their holiday entitlements? If you’re not sure what the rules are, checkout this.
- If you have staff that don’t have enough holiday pay to cover any non-stat days, how will you address this?
- Do you need to have an ‘emergency contact’ or someone on call-out over the holiday period?
- Jan-Feb is often a pinch point for small business cashflow as holiday pay needs to be covered, provisional tax is due, overheads keep rolling in and revenue stops. Do you have enough cash in the till to cover this period? If not, what’s your plan? If you’re not sure, get in contact.
Taking a wider view
2023 has been an interesting year. For some people and businesses, it’s been a bumper year, while for others, higher interest rates have been a tougher pill to swallow. This has been set against a year that has been punctuated by domestic natural disasters and all the while, many of us seem to be working harder without making the corresponding progress.
All this means that at times, it can be hard to see the wood from the trees, difficult to know if you’re on the right track, or have veered off onto the wrong path. So, as we head into a period where many of us will have time to mentally decompress, this is a great time to set aside some time for reflection.
Why reflect I hear you ask? This article from Harvard Business Review sums it up pretty well, the cliff notes are: self reflection makes you better at whatever you do, period. Not sure how to start? Here are some questions to help you get started:
- What do you like about life the most right now? What about life do you dislike the most right now?
- What gives you the utmost fulfilment?
- What are the top three things that give you the greatest feeling of accomplishment?
- Do you have the right work life balance?
- Considering the effort and capability you have, are your earnings fair?
- What do you think your future self would want you to do right now?
- If you could guarantee one thing in your future, what would it be?
- What are your fears that hold you back? How can you overcome these?
There is a near infinite number of questions you can ask yourself. And as you mull these over, they will help steer the decisions you’ll make for the coming year – and if you keep the practice up – beyond.
Not sure you’re on the right track? Get in contact.
Speaking of holiday hours
Like the rest of the country, we’ll be packing up and heading off to the beach for a few days. We’ll be shut for the first week of January and working very reduced hours for the 2nd week. But if something is urgent, we will be checking emails from time to time.