Reflecting on 2024: 10 Questions for Business Growth in 2025.

2024 is almost in the rearview mirror, and it’s time to reflect, celebrate, and plan for a thriving 2025! In this episode, I dive into the why and how of year-end business reflections. Whether you’re wrapping up a year full of wins or navigating some bumps in the road, this episode will help you approach the new year with clarity, focus, and confidence. I’m sharing 10 powerful questions to guide your reflections, actionable steps for setting 2025 intentions, and tips for creating a vision board that will keep you inspired all year long. Let’s make 2025 your best year yet!

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

1. Why Reflection is Crucial for Business Growth:
   • Understand how reviewing the past year helps you build a roadmap for future success.
2. The Power of Data:
   • How to analyze what worked, what didn’t, and why using real numbers (not just gut feelings) matters.
3. Celebrating Your Wins:
   • Why taking the time to acknowledge your achievements (big or small) can fuel motivation and momentum.
4. 10 Guided Reflection Questions:
   • Thought-provoking prompts to help you uncover insights, learn from challenges, and set clear priorities for 2025.
5. Vision Board Magic:
   • How to create a vision board that inspires action and keeps your goals top of mind.
6. Refining, Not Overloading:
   • Why it’s better to enhance what’s already working instead of overwhelming yourself with new projects.
7. The Guiding Question for 2025:
   • Learn how one simple question can help you stay aligned with your goals throughout the year.
8. Building Community and Connection:
   • Tips on celebrating your wins with others and engaging with a network for growth and support.

Key Takeaways:

• Reflection isn’t just about looking back; it’s about moving forward with purpose.
• Celebrating your achievements is as important as learning from your challenges.
• Use data and thoughtful reflection to refine your business strategies for 2025.
• Setting intentions and creating a vision board will help keep you focused and motivated.
• A guiding question can act as your North Star for staying on track all year.

Grab your list of 10 questions here.

Join the Product Business Growth Club here. 

Transcript

 Welcome to the Lot Co Business podcast, a show all about helping you as a retailer, brand, or creative, understand the actual business side of running your business. I offer straightforward, practical advice about the nitty gritty of making money from your creative passion. We will be covering bite-sized business and marketing lessons, as well as interviews with experts in trailblazers in the fashion homewares and design industries.

My name is Melissa Robbins. I'm a business coach, color loving, non-coffee drinking melburnian. Let's get into it.

Hello, and welcome to today's episode. Just finish running a vision board and goal setting exercise for 2025. If you want to get access to that, just let me know. It's part of my membership, which I'm super excited to relaunch properly in 2025, and it's all about helping product businesses grow and scale and understand the sales and marketing aspects of their business and to provide support in that area.

What a lot of my clients have said is that there is a lot of e-commerce. Help out there. There's a lot of people who work on e-commerce, but no one who does all the different things related to product businesses. So that's what it's all about. The product Business Growth Club is, um, launching officially in January.

You can get access right now and it is available as a bonus extra month as well, so you get that for free. Super excited to share that. I can't wait to continue to support all the product businesses who need that. Ongoing, like where do I go? What do I do next? How do I actually, where do I focus? What do I do with my time?

Where do I spend the money that I have available? Um, where should I invest it? Is this a good place to prioritize or not? So if you want access to that, just head to my Instagram and dm me the word future or vision, and you'll be able to get access to that vision and board exercise, which is so much fun.

And I'm starting to see them come through, which is great. Alright, let's get back to the episode. Share with you this episode. All about reflecting on your previous year. So whether you do this right now, when the episode drops, whether you do it in a week, two weeks, ideally you do it before the start of January, but you can do it also in that first week of January as well if you've got a lot of other stuff going on, which is often the case with product businesses where you've just gone so hard towards the end of the year, making sure that you get all your product out.

You've had as many sales as you possibly can, as well as if you're a retail store. Clearly you are peaking right up until Christmas time and potentially on because you have, you know, a location or area that has visitors and lots of people coming over Christmas as well. Wherever you are at in your business depends on what sort of product business you have.

Ideally, you would do this reflection, um, at some stage before you kick off for 2025. So let's get into why you should do this and what sort of things that you, questions you can ask yourself to reflect on the previous year. First of all, just let's tap into why reflection is essential for business growth.

It is such an important thing to go back and review, and you don't wanna spend too much time in the past, you know, dwelling on things that have gone wrong, but it's such a great opportunity to realize how much you've achieved, what things worked really well, what things didn't work well, and what lessons you've taken from them.

Because if you haven't taken that lesson from them, or maybe you're just gonna repeat those same mistakes again and again as well. So it's really important to look at what you've learned, what things were great, what worked really well, what things you can definitely you don't wanna do again, what things you could do again, but you would do differently, and how can we, you know, bring that into our next year and continue to grow, continue to evolve, and continue to get better at business.

To improve the way you do things, manage your time better, manage your business expenses better, all the different things that go into running a business. I really encourage you to not just, um, you know, look at what worked, but what didn't work. Look at what you actually did achieve. I want you to encourage to pause, to look back, to study what all the different things you've done.

That may mean going back on your camera roll, checking out each month and actually looking at some highlights or some low lights, or, you know, looking at your data, reviewing your numbers, understanding what's happening in your business. It gives you that such a great opportunity to then plan ahead for the next year with much greater, you know, information and insight and to not make the same mistakes again, because we don't wanna be doing that.

So, starting off, ideally you'd do, you would list out everything that worked. Maybe that means going back and looking at all your numbers. What does your data tell you? Where were your sales coming from? What worked really well in your business? What were your expenses this year? Were they what you expected?

Did you reach your targets? Did you have goals that you set? Does that look like, you know, the first quarter? Yes. The second quarter? No. Overall, you know, you are ahead and this is something that I know a few clients of mine have, um, looked back on and when we've actually dived into each particular quarter, they're like, actually.

It's better than what I thought. Real what than I, what I realized last year. It's just that maybe their expenses were up and so they feel like they don't have enough money, so they feel like their sales were down, but actually they weren't. It's just that their expenses have changed or maybe their cost to acquire that customer has changed as well.

And then looking at, you know, where the numbers have coming from. Maybe you've had. More sales, but they've come from different sources, so the margin hasn't been quite the same every time as well. So really looking through all your data, reviewing what's worked, reviewing what's, um, you've, you've loved about the business, reviewing what you wanna keep doing, reviewing where your growth has come from, potentially reviewing what particular marketing strategies worked was that the Eco Labs did really well.

Was it that you, you can see that all your traffics, you know, come from these three sources of, of people who coming to your website. Maybe it's that you picked up, you know, 30 new stocks and the particular type of store that is, you know, X, Y, Z was the ones that just kept getting you getting reorders and reorders and reorders.

What did it look like in your business? What did you love doing? What worked? How can you see if they cross over and they combine? What is it about your business that, um. You loved. All right, so list everything that did work. Then while you're doing that, you're probably gonna pick up trends. You're probably gonna notice things as well and look at everything that didn't work.

Maybe it's that you, you know, had a slump after your sales that you, you know, you had a particular sale period and that you had a huge slump afterwards. How can you plan your year out in a different way to make sure that you've got. Consistent activity, marketing activities going on. Maybe it's, you know, one month you have a CoLab, the next month you have a promo.

Um, the next month you have, you know, a trade show that you may be get huge wholesale orders. How can you plan out your year? So it's a little bit more consistent in where your sales are coming from. And or your sales are coming from different streams so that it's not relying on one source of, um, sales as well.

So listing out everything that did not work, that may mean looking at the staff that you had, maybe it's looking at the hours that you worked, maybe it's looking at, um, you know, your reliance on particular people or you were the bottleneck for things getting done. What didn't work in your business, how can you then list that out?

Review again, check your data. Maybe you ordered too much of a particular color. Maybe you, you ordered your sizes consistently, but you're only really sold, I don't know. I'm just saying women's fashion. You only really sold it, you know, 8, 10, 12, whatever it might have been. How can you really go through and look at.

The way you've run your business, what did work, what didn't? Did you have a huge amount of particular stock left over? If you did, how can you then review and change the way that you either order in the first place and buy in the first place? Or how can you have a strategy in place that if that doesn't, um, you know, have the, have the sales that you're expecting?

What does it look like? So really, how can we do that? What can we do differently? What might you repeat? If you're looking at your numbers and you look at your data and you see that you have huge peaks, maybe that's when you had an email campaigns going out. Maybe you actually focused on using email marketing in your business, and it really helped to drive that consistent, you know, reorders from your current customers.

It really increased your lifetime value, and so it offset some of the costs that you may have used to acquire those customers in advertising or a CoLab or an influencer. So how can you look at that and repeat things that might have actually worked, and what do you know now in hindsight that could have helped you along the way?

If you look back and actually go, Hmm, okay. I can see now that that's what happened and now that I know that I would do these things differently to really make sure that you take the opportunity to go back and reflect. You take back, take that opportunity to go back and list what did and didn't work.

And really dive into your numbers, dive into your data. Don't look at it as a overall year because sometimes it may not reflect what truly took place in individual months or quarters. So really try and get that information to help you move forward for next year. And, you know, um, step into a different phase for the 20, 25 year as well along the way, always making sure that you're celebrating your wins as well.

As entrepreneurs, as business owners, you are always looking for the next best thing. You're always looking for what's next? What else do I have to achieve? It's never done. You're never finished. It's never stopped. What you can, you do though to stop and celebrate wins along the way so that you do enjoy that journey as well, and you do enjoy the process of getting to that particular achievement.

Maybe you've got a, even at the start of this year coming up, maybe you'll go through and look at, okay, when I get to this, when I get to this milestone, or I achieve this KPI, or I'm, you know, track these particular numbers, this is what I'm gonna do, this is how I'm actually gonna celebrate that. So don't forget to stop and do that as well because we're always so busy.

Just go and go. Go. Never stopping to look back and go, wow, I actually picked up another 50 stockers this year, or, I increased my sales in that sales period by 20%. That's a huge achievement. Or I increased my subscribers to buy, you know, another thousand this year. What did you actually do? Did you increase your average order value?

Did you get more traffic to your website? Like, go ahead and celebrate the wins that you have and ponder that question. What am are you most proud of this year? What has been one of your biggest achievements? Make sure you acknowledge them. Make sure that you. Look at them, share them, and celebrate them with, you know, your community or your programs that you're inside of.

Having those opportunities to share with other fellow business owners is so important as well, because it is so easy just to go along and keep. Trudging along. When you are running your own business and you are a solo or small team that you have, make sure you celebrate the wins along the way. And ideally you'd have a community to do that with.

So who is yours? If you don't have one, make sure you try and, you know, build that community around you so you've got people to celebrate your wins with. Who cheer you on and love you and are passion about it, who aren't judging, you know, particular things, and they understand that. Let's say you had a million dollar year, awesome, that's amazing.

But I, we all know in business that it doesn't mean you've got a million dollars in your bank, whereas other people you know, who may be not in business don't quite understand what that concept means. So celebrating wins within your community of people who understand can really make a big difference as well.

Obviously we, as we are going through these different activities, we're listing them all out. You're gonna pick up all those lessons that you might have learned. So I try and identify them separately and think about, you know, what were the challenges that I had? How did I overcome it? What would I do differently next time?

What are some things to remember so that if it comes up again, I know that I can use these tools that I learned to get over it faster. What can I do and what lessons have I learned to help me move forward next time as well? All right. So once we've done that, I'm gonna give you a list of whole 10 questions to go through towards the end as well.

But once we've done that, we want a little. We wanna then have a think about, you know, how can we then plan and use those insights for reflection for 2025 to set the intentions for 2025? What actual steps can we put in place based on those lessons that we learned? What will we keep doing for 2025? What will you stop doing?

What were you gonna say no to? Saying no to Things can often lead you to more room to say yes to other things. So what are you gonna say no to in 2025? What new products might you add to your mix? What new thing? What things might you delete? You may have too many products already and that may be something that, you know, looking at your numbers and your data, like my, my.

My sales are spread too far over too many different categories. I need to consolidate a little bit more, and I often find that as an entrepreneur, we're always adding new products and I am totally guilty of that because I'm doing that all the time as well. So that is my intention for 2025, really refining the amazing offers that I know that I have in place already, and making sure more people know about them more.

More people understand what's available, more people know how to, you know, it can help them grow their business as well. So for anyone who has a product business, what can you do to refine the products you have? Maybe you're gonna drop some colors that didn't work. Maybe you're gonna drop some categories that you just think they're taking too much of my cash flow.

They're not actually bringing in the money that I thought that they were. I need to drop them even though maybe they're personal or passionate about them. Really, it's not a great bus business decision for me to go forward with that. I know one of my clients in my mastermind, that's something that we worked on where it's like, I know that she loved this product, but it just was not bringing in the income and it just was not working for her cash flow and for attracting the right, right people.

She was having to mix up her marketing message. It was all a little bit too confusing, so she had to make the decision to drop a particular category because it was the best thing for the business moving forward. Another area that it's great to have a look at is think about you as a person as well, and as your business, but where did you grow in 2024?

What did you step into? What did you do differently? Did you start journaling? Did you start outsourcing more? Did you stop using negative self-talk using or working through your limiting beliefs about, you know, the way that you worked in your business? What did you do differently? Who are you? How are you different to what you were in 2024?

What does that look like for you? It's gonna be different for everyone, but what battles did you conquer in 2024? What are you proud of that you've done and overcome? What did you let go of? Expectations of others, judgment of others? Did you show up on video more or put yourself out there more without thinking about or worrying about other people?

You, how did you grow in 2025 and how has that impacted your business? What are some personal development? Things that you wanna work on or add to your business and to your life in 2025, have a little think about where you grew, you know, what thought processes do you have that are different from when, this time, 12 months ago?

What way do you show up in yourself, in your business, in your, you know, the way that you manage your time? How is that different to 2025? Sorry. How is that different to 2024? What are you gonna do differently in 2025? Were you in integrity more in the way that you kept promises to yourself in what you went, what you followed through on?

Did you allow yourself to have more time to, and actually use the freedom that you wanted to build in your business in 2024? How did. If freedom is one of your key values, if it's one of the reasons that you run your business, how did you input that in 2024? How did you actually use that and step away from your computer every so often, made sure that you showed up where you said you were going to for your kids or your family or your partners?

How did you actually use that in your business? And if you reflect on your values and what's important to you, how will you put that into 2025 as well? What does that look like for you? Is it that you're gonna work four days a week? Is it you're gonna start at nine 30 and finish at three? What are you gonna do differently in 2025 that is really important to you and is part of your true values and the reason, and a big part of your why, why you started your business in the first place.

It's really important to think about that. Have a look at that and how that can help you move forward for 2025 as well. And then thinking about that, like what is a guiding question? That you can use in your business every day to keep your attention on what you are focusing on for 2025. Is there a particular question?

Recently I just did a vision board exercise with my, within my membership program and I invited lots of other people to come in and join that program where I encouraged everyone to. Reflect on the 2024 and then we're building a vision board for what 2025 looks like. If you'd like more information about that, just comment, vision, um, on my DM or in my stories, and I will be able to share with you all the information about how to do that vision board exercise, such a valuable exercise.

What that does, or it helps you think about like, what is my focus, what do I wanna achieve in 2025? Therefore. What should I be focusing on each day in my business or how, what, where should my attention be to get me to those goals too? We came up with a great chat, GBT prompt two as well that you can use.

So let me know in the comments, um, afterwards in, on Instagram if you wanna get access to those prompts because it can be so valuable for helping you set up how you run your day to day in 2025 as well. When you go back and reflect on what's happened and you go back and look at your achievements, you go back and check what you've actually done, whether it's through your camera roll, whether it's through the emails that you sent.

Whether it's through looking at your Facebook highlights, whatever it might be, your Instagram, have a look at and reflect on what you've actually achieved. It really gives you that gratitude and respect for what you've done, because it just showcases. 'cause you've, we often forget, even in 12 months, you're like, seriously?

Was that only 12 months ago that I actually did all those things? I can't believe that's what I've achieved. I can't believe what I've got to experience this year. I'm so grateful for the people I've got to spend time with, the people I've been able to spend time with, the business that I have that has allowed me to spend time with family when it was needed.

Making sure that you go back and reflect so that you actually can. It helps you see, and what it does is it, it provides so much gratitude and you actually step into that. Wow, I'm so grateful for what I've actually been able to do. I'm so surprised at what I've actually been able to achieve. So make sure you do do that to actually give gratitude for that, you know, years journey that you've been on.

You're here, you're doing amazing things, and I'm so grateful for you as a listener to be able to provide this information and to give you any strategy, any tips, any help. That maybe open your eyes up to things that you're not already currently doing in your business. So I really encourage you to do that.

Go back and review your 2024. Go back and reflect. Have a little think about what's happened. Have a look at what your numbers are. Have a look at your data. Go back and reflect on your years journey. It's such an amazing process. All right, so now 10 questions. To help you reflect on your year that you've had.

All right. Number one is what am I most proud of achieving in 2024? Number two, what were my top selling products and or categories, and why do I think they performed well as well? Number three, what new strategy or tool had the biggest impact on my business in 2024? Number four, what challenges did I face and.

What challenges did I face and how did I address them? Number five, were there opportunities I missed and why? Number six is what feedback did I receive from customers that was most helpful, and what can I do to implement that and make that easy for my customer's journey in 2025 as well? Number seven is what Marketing channel gave me the best ROI and how can I double down on that for 2025 for next year?

Number eight is how did I manage my time and what can I improve in terms of productivity for 2024? Oh, 20, 25. Number nine is what was my biggest aha moment of the year. And number 10 is what is one thing that I wanna do differently in 2025? And you know, because I always like to do this. I would love to encourage you to pick a, to pick a word and pick a focus for what to war.

One word is for 2025 as well. And to print it out, put it up, list it out, have something visual in front of you. I personally am a visual learner. I love to have something visually in front of me. Whether that's your vision board, whether that's your list of, you know, what you wanna focus on, whether it's that guiding question that I talked about earlier.

Have something visual in front of you so that you get to see it every day. Have your vision board as a wallpaper on your phone or on your computer. Where can you look at it? How can you see it all the time and know what your focus is? So every day it's, you know, that guiding light for you. Alright, I hope these questions have helped.

I hope that's given you a little bit of insight into how you can. Use the reflection of 2024 to make it even better. 20, 25. Now, if you wanna get the list of 10 questions, I'll put them in the show notes, the link for it, so you can just grab those straight away. And if you want guidance on creating your vision board and see how we've created it and some of the ones that, um, people are sharing and what they're sending through, just go onto my Instagram and comment, vision or future.

And are we able to send that through to you straight away? Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for listening. I'm gonna go back and reflect on some top episodes and which ones I are and re-share those onto the podcast, so I can't wait to share more. And I look forward to jumping into 2025 with you, and I'll speak to you soon.

Thank you so much for listening to the Lock Co Business podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure you subscribe to receive future episodes as they are released, and I'd be so, so grateful for a review on Apple Podcast. If you would like a copy of the show notes or any of the links mentioned today, please jump onto my website@thelotco.com au slash podcast.

Have an amazing week and I look forward to chatting to you again soon.