100 Things You Can Do Now to Improve the Value of Your Business

A practical, no-excuses checklist. Some of these take five minutes. Some take five months. All of them move the needle on enterprise value. Start anywhere — just start.

Finance & Accounting

• 01 Remove personal expenses from the business
• 02 Track your financials in QuickBooks or similar
• 03 Utilize a bookkeeper
• 04 Create monthly and quarterly financial goals
• 05 Ensure financials for the past five years are accessible and stored correctly
• 06 Ensure tax returns for the past five years are accessible and stored correctly
• 07 Track cash flow on a monthly basis
• 08 Review cash flow on a monthly basis
• 09 Forecast cash flow
• 10 Identify gaps in cash flow
• 11 Ensure you have documentation for all credit notes
• 12 Renegotiate the terms for your credit notes
• 13 Ask your accountant ways to improve your taxes
• 14 Automate client billing
• 15 Incentivize clients who pay faster

Customers & Revenue

• 16 Segment your customers into groups
• 17 Track profitability by customer group
• 18 Develop strategies for each customer group
• 19 Fire customers that are not profitable
• 20 Reduce customer concentration
• 21 Build subscription products
• 22 Start tracking your customer service issues
• 23 Develop a list of action items to improve customer service
• 24 Establish Quarterly Business Reviews with your top clients
• 25 Ensure you have customer agreements set up for each customer
• 26 Regularly send out client newsletters
• 27 Communicate your value proposition to clients
• 28 Communicate to customers more
• 29 Do a face-to-face visit with a client
• 30 Build a referral program
• 31 Understand your value proposition
• 32 Refresh your product line
• 33 Install a CRM
• 34 Use the CRM
• 35 Buy services from a competitor

Operations & Cost

• 36 Develop a list of action items to reduce cost
• 37 Review and question operating expenses with employees
• 38 Bid out vendor contracts to ensure you are getting the best price
• 39 Ask vendors for volume discounts
• 40 Establish Quarterly Business Reviews with your top vendors
• 41 Ensure you have vendor agreements set up for each vendor
• 42 Variablize costs
• 43 Eliminate unnecessary subscriptions
• 44 Eliminate unnecessary retainers
• 45 Categorize your inventory into ABC SKUs
• 46 Challenge your need to keep selling the C SKUs
• 47 Liquidate no-move SKUs
• 48 Develop vendor contingency plans
• 49 Review what the competition is doing

People & Management

• 50 Ensure you have employment agreements in place
• 51 Ensure employees sign privacy policies
• 52 Ensure each employee has a performance review
• 53 Ensure each employee has annual goals
• 54 Track employees against their goals on a quarterly basis
• 55 Reward employees for ideas they bring forward
• 56 Share financials with all employees
• 57 Dedicate budget dollars for training
• 58 Develop a 401k program
• 59 Match employee 401k contributions
• 60 Have a defined vacation policy
• 61 Ensure your employees take vacations
• 62 Ensure you take a vacation
• 63 Reduce employee turnover
• 64 Develop employee contingency plans
• 65 Establish an employee quarterly all-hands

Governance & Process

• 66 Start quarterly board meetings
• 67 Review the financial goals in the quarterly board meeting
• 68 Have an external advisor sit on the board
• 69 Develop SOPs for core business processes
• 70 Develop SOPs for core employee processes
• 71 Ensure SOPs are up to date
• 72 Make SOPs available for all employees
• 73 Have an operating agreement and by-laws
• 74 Create a folder with all your key legal documents
• 75 Ensure your business licenses are up to date
• 76 Ensure your business licenses are stored in a central location
• 77 Ensure your insurance liability agreements are up to date
• 78 Ensure your brand name is registered and renewed with the USPTO

Technology & Data

• 79 Document your tech stack
• 80 Ensure your critical data is backed up
• 81 Create a data warehouse
• 82 Learn how to use a business intelligence tool
• 83 Develop IT contingency plans
• 84 Ensure developer code is backed up in GitHub or similar
• 85 Ensure you are the owner of and have access to the code

Marketing & Brand

• 86 Create a Google Analytics business account
• 87 Add a Google pixel to your website
• 88 Create a Meta business account
• 89 Add a Meta pixel to your website
• 90 Develop a social media strategy
• 91 Create a LinkedIn page
• 92 Update your website
• 93 Ensure your website has up-to-date terms of use
• 94 Ensure your website has an updated privacy policy
• 95 Ensure your website is mobile friendly
• 96 Allow clients to schedule calls directly from your website
• 97 Refresh your logo
• 98 Clean and unclutter your office space
• 99 Give away branded merch to your clients and vendors

The Most Important One

• 100 Ask for help