Self Assessment for Personal and Small Business Success
As 2025 kicks off it’s time for self-assessment on both personal and business fronts
As a business owner, performing self-assessments are one of the most important keys to sustaining a thriving business. The corner stone of all businesses is their ability to maximize sales, operations and financial operations. With that being said, self-assessment is critical to understanding and making changes and improvements to those key components.
“I am constantly assessing the world around me in order to ascertain what decisions I need to make. There comes a point when some are just more important than others.”
The statement above, are words spoken by Miles A. Slater, a former President and CEO of Salomon Brothers International Ltd., an Investment Bank. Miles was a strong advocate of personal and business self-assessment. He later on in life became a successful sculptor donating the majority of his works to philanthropic organizations.
Among his works was “Rescue”, an interpretation of the fireman carrying a child from the rubble of the bombed Alfred E. Murrah building in Oklahoma City.
In a New York Times article Miles reflected on the piece: ”The strong bronze arms of the fireman cradle the child and echo the abstract form that cradles the granite rock in ”Unfinished Lives,” he said. Synchronicity again? ”I didn’t do it consciously . But I did want to show that men can nurture. The sculpture says, ‘Let me give you my strength,’ ” he said. Mr. Slater left the roughness of the original stone at the bases of both pieces of work untouched. ”They are meant to look as if they were coming up out of the debris,” he said.
Miles’ resignation statement from Salomon Brothers in 1988 supported the following self assessment values:
Self-assessment from a financial point of view in a business occurs monthly.
The process begins after the books are closed on a monthly basis and two questions are asked. The two questions are “how did I do this month and how can I do better?
The first question
The first question is answered by having the accounting processes and controls in place to produce financial statements reflecting monthly and year to date results.
The second question
The second question, “how can I do better,” is where true business self- assessment comes into play. If a company is doing well then the business owner must not take its successes for granted; the process, people and customers that have facilitated the current level of success must be analyzed and questioned.
The reason success must be challenged
The reason success must be challenged is because it could be either partially or completely based off a current set of false pretenses in the marketplace, such as an “economic bubble”. Without the continuous assessment of business success and its relative components, a possible downturn can result in the future. For example, there were many successful retail businesses that were hurt by the internet boom during the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Many took their current level of success for granted and did not conduct the proper self- assessment, such as understanding the viability and future pitfalls of their business that would have enabled them to adapt and make changes.
The successful companies that survived this era of robust technological disruption incorporated changes that helped them adapt and evolve into the internet age, thereby avoiding a financial downturn.
The process of self- assessment for a business must also incorporate mistakes and failures.
It was Bill Gates who said “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning”. The same can be said for learning from employees. The business owner who listens and tries to understand what its customers and employees are saying will be in a better position for evaluation and assessment. You can think of this as an operational assessment.
Finally for any process to be effective it must be structured around proper time frames. While financial review might take place monthly, customer relationship assessment should occur more frequently.
Sales assessment might be quarterly or longer depending on the sales cycle or the industry. If the self-assessment process is properly established, then as Miles Slater said “decisions will be able to be made and the more important decisions will take priority”.
In summary, businesses should:
· Perform monthly self-assessment by asking key questions after the month accounting close.
· Understand that past success is not a guarantee of future success.
· Establish a process of operational self-assessment where a business is reviewing past mistakes and failure with a goal of improvement.
· Establish the proper time frames for self-assessment whether daily, monthly or quarterly.
Related articles:
Small Business Owner Productivity Through Mindfulness
