Wow, it’s hard to believe that 2015 is half over already! Now that we’ve crossed the mid-year mark, it’s time to see if we’re on track to hit our 2015 goals. In order to do that, we need to see if we’ve met our mid-year milestones.
Managing By Milestones
A milestone, in project management terms, is simply a specific point or event along a project timeline. It’s marked so that project managers recognize when a set portion of the project has been completed. In business terms, we can use milestones to see how we’re faring toward our financial goals.
Assuming our business is not seasonal, we should have earned at least half of our target revenues for 2015 as of the June 30th income statement. If we’re falling short, we can recognize this and perhaps add some sales or promotions to spike revenues so that we can correct course before the year has ended. If we’re ahead of the game, we can identify what’s working and continue to replicate it.
Either way, with milestones, we can be more proactive in reaching or surpassing our goals.
By the Numbers
Some critical numbers you may include in your milestones review include:
- Revenue to date
- Expenses
- Profit to date
- Assets acquired or sold
- Debt paid down or debt taken on
- Number of employees added, lost or both
- Number of clients added, lost or both
- Accounts receivable aging
Project Performance
Milestones don’t always have to be numeric. You can also use milestones to determine if you’re on track with internal projects. Perhaps for 2015, your goal was to replace five computers and convert your shopping cart system. You can set milestones to monitor specific phases of these internal projects or just monitor when you start and complete them.
Mid-Year Milestone Report
Document your accomplishments in a mid-year milestones report. It feels good to record them, plus you’ll have a history of how much you’ve accomplished as well as what worked.
The report can include the milestones as well as a narrative explaining the performance to date. Using LivePlan makes this especially easy. If you’d like our help creating this report, please feel free to contact us.
Accounting for milestones can help you become more proactive toward reaching your business goals. Plus, it’s great to see how far you’ve come since the beginning of the year.
