If you’re a baseball fan than you know that the all-star break is right around the corner. You also know that this game serves as a performance milestone, with most looking at a team’s season in terms of “before the break” and “after the break.”

Well, it’s your all-star break, too. How are you performing at the midway point of 2014?

For many remodelers 2014 is shaping up to be a banner year! People around the country have told me that they have more leads than they can handle and that this summer’s building season is intense.

All good news.

The two big questions to ask yourself now are “how happy are our clients” followed by “are we making money?”

I ask this because in my work with Remodelers Advantage members this spring I’ve seen troubling signs that the promise of success has not necessarily led to actual success – stable customer satisfaction and more money falling to the bottom line.

Now is the PERFECT TIME to take a step back, analyze results from the first half of the year and then plan for increased performance for the second half of the year.

Here’s 6 steps I suggest you take today:

1. First, make sure your balance sheet is RIGHT at June 30th – when the balance sheet numbers are correct the profit/loss bottom line is right TO THE PENNY even if some income/expense has been mis-coded;
2. Make WIP (over/under billings) calculation correct for the end of June – if applicable.
3. Then review your profit/loss actual against your budget for the 6 months on a LINE ITEM basis – don’t just look at the bottom line, look at all the details.
4. Next, re-cast your budget for the six months taking advantage of what you’ve learned through the analysis in #2 above. This is your opportunity to assure yourself year end profitability.
5. Look at job costs reports, estimate vs actuals detail, for a few standard jobs which have been completed during the first six months. Again, review LINE ITEM details to make your estimating more accurate for the jobs in bid.
6. Last, but certainly not least, measure customer satisfaction in detail to be sure that your rating is high and stable (our sponsor GuildQuality is a fantastic resource for this.)

The midway point of the year is your opportunity to see where you stand; what is and isn’t working; and what changes need to be made in order to achieve the goals you set at the beginning of the year. This review is a key element to ensuring you have an all-star year.

Let me know what you think

Post your comments or questions below. Let’s start the conversation!

Wanna get in-depth?

Then check out my Live Telecourses (aka SAGs):

Setting Up Quickbooks Right develop and refine the systems and processes needed so you can understand where you are.

Quickbooks Quickies a series of courses so that you can focus on what’s most important to your company RIGHT NOW!

Fine Tune Your Budget two 90 minute classes that will cover everything you need to know to put together your budget for next year.