It’s EOY Review Season: Time for the Boss (You) to Have a Talk With Management (Also You)
The funny this about being a business owner is you are the employee, the manager and the CEO. You are also the HR department, which means at the end of the year if anyone is going to sit you down and give you a performance review, it is you. Don't freak out, most of us avoid that conversation like the dentist too.
A lot of us business owners didn’t crawl out of the 9–5 corporate machine just to recreate the same soul-sucking rituals in our own businesses. But let’s be honest: some of the things they do over there actually make sense. Quarterly reviews, or at the very least, an end-of-year review, are one of them! If you’re not tracking your own growth as the CEO/owner/chaos coordinator, then you’re basically running on vibes, not data. And guessing is not a strategy, no matter how allergic you are to anything that resembles “corporate.”
When you work for someone else, annual or quarterly reviews magically appear on your calendar. You do not get a choice. When you work for yourself, you can avoid evaluating your entire year for, well, forever. Which is how so many business owners end up going into January with the same half built systems, the same frustrations and the same habits they swore they would fix last new year.
So let’s do the review you have been pretending you do not need. Right here, right now.
Step One: Be your own manager, even if they are annoying.
If you were sitting across from the boss version of you, what would they say? What questions would they ask? What excuses would they ignore? You need that version today, so show up for yourself.
Start with the basics. And be HONEST:
What did I actually accomplish this year?
What did I avoid because it was uncomfortable?
What drained me so badly I wanted to quit?
What energized me and made me think oh right, I love this?
What did I spend too much time on?
What did I completely ignore?
Where did I accidentally get better?
This is not the time to glamorize your year. This is not your Instagram story. This is a private meeting with yourself, so tell the truth. You cannot improve something you keep sugarcoating.
Step Two: feelings are cute, numbers are facts
Your memory is unreliable. Your numbers are not. If you want a real review, pull actual data. Look at: Revenue by month and by offer, expenses, client churn and retention, how much time you spent on certain tasks, how much time you wasted because a system was messy, any analytics that tell you what is actually working.
Sometimes the data will agree with your feelings. Sometimes the data will call your feelings out. Both are useful.
Step Three: sort everything into working, painful or missing. (make this fun and make up your own measurement titles)
Everything in your business belongs in one of three categories:
Working: Things that run smoothly. Clients you love. Offers that sell easily. Systems that behave.
Painful: Tasks you regularly procrastinate. Workflows that make you sigh out loud. Things you keep doing even though they make your eye twitch.
Missing: Tools you should have bought months ago. SOPs you still have not written. Skills you need to improve. Support you know you cannot keep avoiding.
Your goal is to understand where everything sits so you know what to keep, what to fix and what to finally stop pretending you will get to someday.
Step Four: Set up next year without overcomplicating it.
Let me save you from yourself. You do not need twenty seven goals. You need three to five that matter and are attainable. Here is how to plan the next year without creating a spreadsheet that makes you want to give up:
Choose your priorities.
Turn them into specific measurable goals.
Give each goal a timeline.
Build the systems that support those goals.
Decide how you will track progress weekly or monthly.
Make it realistic. Make it boring if you have to. Your business needs consistency more than it needs grand declarations.
Step Five: Build your review ritual because accountability is not built in.
Since no one is coming to check on you, you need to build check ins for yourself. Try any of the following to help keep your progress consistent:
A monthly self review
A quarterly business audit
A simple dashboard or doc you update
A place to log wins, lessons and problems
A rule that nothing gets changed without looking at the data first
The hard truth I am also guilty of: being your own boss is great until you realize no one is holding you accountable but you, (a common phrase from interviewing fellow business owners in my No gatekeeping series.) No one is reminding you to update SOPs. No one is telling you to stop doing tasks you hate. No one is giving you a gold star. It is just you.
The end of the year is your chance to pause, be honest, tighten your systems and set goals that actually make sense. A real self review is not about judgment. It is about clarity. And clarity is what gives you momentum. So sit down, pull your numbers, answer the uncomfortable questions and set yourself up like a business owner who actually plans to grow next year.
If reading this made you think, “okay fine, I get it, but I don’t actually know where to start,” I’ve got you. I created a free End-of-Year Review Workbook to walk you through this exact process without the blank-page panic or overthinking spiral. It asks the right questions, gives you space to be honest, and helps you turn “wow this year was a lot” into actual clarity and next steps. No corporate jargon, no toxic hustle energy, just a practical reset for business owners who are doing the most with limited time and energy. Grab the free download here and give yourself the review you’ve been avoiding!