Q2 Prep: Spring Clean Your Business - Where to Start, What to Keep and What to Add or Accelerate

This time of the year has most of us are on edge for the impending summer, and fully entrenched in the day-to-day execution of the 2016 plan.When we look back at Q1 and how we are pacing towards our goals, we are usually forced to make changes and adjustments to ensure we get where we need to be later in the year. It's normal -- everything just can't go perfectly, can it?So, when thinking about where to cut, add, accelerate, or change our strategy, it’s important that we don't cut too deep or course-correct too soon as our plans may just be taking longer to produce the expected outcomes. Here’s how to ‘spring clean’’ your business to ensure you simply clean up and not destroy the 2016 plan.Where to start?Start with what's going right, not wrong.We tend to look at the bad and overreact. Start looking at the good first, so you can see what is working, and if it can be throttled in case other issues come up.These are things that you can push the envelope on to drive more of similar production levels, hopefully, and continue to overperform. This way, if something goes amiss in the future, or you find that you missed something on another project, you can make up for it with over production from another marketing channel or business unit, depending on the area of deficiency.What to keep?Focus on the big picture, but be ok with going back to the drawing board. There is still enough time in the year to fix almost any revenue or department misalignment to reach your goals for the year. Adopting an attitude of agility early on will help you identify what’s failing, underperforming or has the wrong leadership attached so you can address it quickly and fight the urge to simply “hope it works out.” Keep your brilliant plan on track by focusing on big goals and eliminating small problems on the way. The key is not to disrupt of cut too deep with changes that can divert the entire plan.What to accelerate or add?Similar to the first point, find what’s working and pour gas on it to greatly accelerate growth. Additionally, think bigger! What outside bandwidth could you add -- consultants or hires -- that could help you tackle challenges later on so you could really crush your Q3/Q4 numbers? Why not start on those now and grow faster? Time is short, and when you have the budget it would be silly to not push the pedal when there’s tremendous momentum.Lastly, add one to two great people in key areas. As a CEO, my number one job is putting together the right team. You have to make sure you are dedicating enough time to recruiting and making it a personal goal to bring in one to two rockstars to your company per quarter. Whether it's an executive leader or front line manager who is a top performer, it doesn't matter. In two year from now, you will have eight to 16 new MVPs in key positions to drive your most strategic long-term initiatives.The key to "clean up" is as much knowing what not to change as what to change. Start with what’s going right and think about how you can invest more time, bandwidth and money to accelerate those areas. Sure, you must address any issues derailing your plan or causing other major setbacks internally, but make sure you really understand the difference between issues that need more time to blossom than expected and those that need a rewrite.The good news is that at this time of year almost all problems can be corrected to get you to your larger goals in 2016 if you know where to start, what to keep, and what to add and accelerate. What big initiatives do you want to amplify?_ _About Jake:Jake Dunlap is a senior-level sales executive and entrepreneur with 12 years of experience working with global 2000 and start-up companies. Jake is the CEO and founder of Skaled, a consulting firm that accelerates sales organization growth by examining fundamental sales processes and using cutting edge technology to enable clients to optimize, modernize, and thrive in the constantly evolving world of SMB & Enterprise sales.