Pro Tips (episode #9) - The Balance Sheet

How to evaluate a professional year?

Welcome to the ninth episode of Pro Tips, in partnership with Mélanie, author of the blog Les Pies Bavardes.

A new year has begun. But before turning the page for good, it's time to take stock of the past year. Not a balance sheet, but a more detailed one.

In this new video, Melanie defines the balance sheet as an objective self-evaluation of her creative business in terms of numbers but also in personal terms. It can be the balance sheet of the past 12 months, the last semester or the last quarter... It all depends on your organization.
And it's not just about establishing the financial health of your business. It's about being aware of your strengths and weaknesses, your abilities and skills, your opportunities and motivations in order to set up future actions to improve yourself and your company.
It is a humbling exercise because it is about questioning yourself, asking the right questions about your objectives, successes and results, but also about your mistakes, failures and difficult moments (no need to be too hard on yourself!).
It may sound like a lot of work, but taking stock of your creative business is an important step in knowing where you are and where you want to go.

What about you? Did you achieve your goals this year? If not, don't take it as a failure.
On the contrary! Weigh up what worked and what didn't in order to keep the best of the previous year and be more efficient the following year.

how to make a balance sheet?

A balance sheet is made up of numbers, of course. But they are also perceptions, feelings, emotions, highs and lows... This is why, in order to make a good assessment, you must take into account different points.

1. The financial balance sheet

There are different ways to establish a financial balance sheet:

• it can be global: that is to say that we take the turnover for the whole year and we compare it with that of other years.
• it can be monthly: we compare the 12 months of the year (was April a better month than September?) or compare the same month from one year to the next (was January more profitable than January of last year?). To do this, make a small graph (or a table, or a pie chart, depending on the method you prefer), it will be much clearer.
• it can be done by type of creation: two methods, either we examine by the turnover of each creation or the number of pieces sold of each creation.
• it can be established according to the offers you have made during the year. If one of them did not work, should it be deleted or improved?

2. Communication assessment

This involves measuring and evaluating the communication actions you have carried out: what has worked? What can be optimized?
This is the time to take stock of your blog, to improve the table of publications. Perhaps you need to review your communication and sales organization?

This assessment will allow you to choose your tools (or reinforce them): which social network works best? Is it better to focus on Instagram or Facebook? To find out, look at the number of likes and comments under statuses. This will give you a good indication.

3. Organizational and functional assessment

This step will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses in the daily organization of your work, in the face of difficulties you have encountered, in the face of unexpected events: in what have you been efficient or inefficient? This assessment will help you to consolidate your achievements and to improve what remains to be done.

4. The personal assessment

Here, it is no longer a question of numbers, but of making an honest self-assessment of yourself. List the highlights of the year and list the positives (the successes: what went well?) and the negatives (the failures: what went poorly?). What personal challenges have you overcome? And those that failed? What did you enjoy doing? What did you get excited about?
This may be one of the most difficult things to establish. But once you do, you will have a record of the positive things to focus on and the negative things to discard.

5. The regulatory review

Regulations and legal requirements can change from year to year. It is important to keep yourself informed, and especially up to date, to sell your creations with peace of mind: Are you up to date on regulations? On the standards? On the legal obligations? In the slightest doubt, do not hesitate to contact the Customs Office of the department in which you carry out your activity.

We also take the opportunity to question the reliability of our suppliers. At Perles & co, we offer you pre-tests on the raw materials you bought outside Europe to check that they do not contain elements forbidden in Europe.

6. The qualitative assessment

It is said that everything can be improved. So, your brand image has to match the quality of the work. And there are surely things you can still improve: add personalized charms to your creations, create certificates of authenticity, find new packaging, make new cards to better explain your creative process, make more attractive business cards... Take stock and take action!