Systemize Success: Your Guide to a Productive Year-End Review

Hello and welcome to the show. Today is going to be my first noisy episode for 2025. And that's because I am at the filling station, just parked off to the side close to the mechanics. And it's a very long story, so I'm not going to bore you with all the details, but just to let you know that this is going to be a long episode. So expect to hear fuel attendance, quarreling in the background, cars driving by and, you know, people selling groundnuts and things like that just moving about in the background.

So today's the 3rd of January 2025, and it's this time of the year that people are talking about new year, new strategies, new tactics. Knew you knew this, knew that, you know, so new year, everybody just assumes that because it's a new year, everything has to be new. So today's episode is going to be focused on how we should be looking at our business in a systemic in a much more wholesome way, because business is actually our systems.

And so because it's a new year, because we've gone from December 31st to January 1st doesn't necessarily mean that something has to change because the calendar has changed, but the business fundamentals have not changed. So if the business fundamentals have not changed, then perhaps there's no reason to just start doing new year, new this, new this new that. So yeah, business is a system. Nothing fundamental has changed.

So you have no reason to change your tactics, no reason to change your strategies just because we have gone from December 31st and now we're in January 1st or rather 3rd of January as the case may be. So, so long as the fundamentals of the business remain the same, the underlying elements are the same, you know, the market is still the same, your product is still the same, consumer trends are still the same, legislation is still the same, the macroeconomics are still the same.

I mean, if everything is the same, then why are you just changing for changing sake? It's not like you have left Nigeria to go and set up the business again in Ghana and then, OK, so it's a new country, it's a new target audience, you know, so you have to change stuff up. It's not as if there's been a change in consumer trends, you know, overnight, you know, in December, people like things one way and then in general people like things another way.

It's not as if the government passed a law overnight and how made it illegal to do things one way or made it much more expedient to do things another way. And it's not as if the economy, you know, change all of a sudden. I mean, last I know, the president didn't wake up again and then go on the airwave and then just make another pronouncement about an IRA notes or fuel or something that would destabilize the economy. So if none of these things have happened, you have absolutely no reason to change your start,

change your strategy and change your tactics. And that's what we're going to be talking about today. So if you'd love to connect, the phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, you can also connect with me on socials, I'm on LinkedIn. I'll shut down the other channels. So LinkedIn is the only place where you're going to be able to find me by the time you get to the end of January.

So summary, the reason why I'm making today's podcast episode is just to tell you guys that look, continue with what is working. Nothing has changed. So this whole new year, new strategy, new tactic, new this new that, it's all BS. So if everything is still the same, continue now this is what you should be doing though on the 3rd of January 2025 is in fact, I think you should have done this in December. You should have a meeting with your team.

If you don't have a team, sit down and talk to your wife, talk to your brother, talk to your boyfriend. Well, by the way, I keep saying you should not be in business with your boyfriend. And you know I'll make a podcast episode about that. But whoever it is that you're doing business with, if you're a solar person, you can sit down on mumsy and popsy or sit down with a mentor or a mentee. Sorry, a mentor. You know, someone whose opinions that you respect.

And you guys should be asking some hard questions and you should be troubling troubleshooting a bunch of things. So we are in January of 2025. I think this should have happened in December. If you didn't do it in November, December, then no problem. You can't do it right now. Now is the time to do it. OK, today's a Friday. OK, No, you should be flexing because today is Friday. So Monday the 8th, Abhi, No, if it is third, Monday will be fifth.

OK, yes, so Monday the 5th. Sit down with your team and then you guys ask yourself some questions, start trying to figure out what did we do in 2024 that worked. The reason why we want to find out what worked in 2024 is so that we can double down on that in 2025. So if you tried some new Instagram advertising thing and it seemed to bring in lots of revenue in 2024, there's no point in waking up in 2025 because the calendar has changed.

And so I was the new tactic. It's not a matter of where I was the new tactic. What worked well in 2025, we are going to sorry, in 2024. We're going to continue that in this new year. You, you also need to try and figure out what it is that didn't work last year. The reason why you need to know what didn't work last year and write those things down is so that nobody in the business, none of your teammates, none of your partners, none of your selling partners, nobody you work with will make the mistake of trying to do that thing again.

If it didn't work last year and the fundamentals are still the same, there's absolutely no reason why the same thing should work this year. Except of course, you know, we try and take feedback. Why did it fail and then make some adjustments. But bottom line, you should be sitting down with your team in January. If you didn't do it in December, try and figure out what didn't work last year. Let's not repeat it. What worked last year?

Let us double down on it, but summary, what I'm trying to say here is do not feel the pressure to change anything because this is a new year. I'm already seeing it on LinkedIn and all the other places, you know, new year, new you, new tactics to consider, blah blah blah. Look, please, all of that is absolute rubbish. Now let's look at some things in more detail, you know, because like I said, the only thing that you should do is have a meeting with your team, figure out what worked last year, what didn't work.

Let's see what we should ignore. Let's see what we should double down on. So in some more detail, the things that you should be considering when you talk to your team or talk to Mumsy and Popsy or to your business partner or to your mentor or whoever, you should be considering some things. Try and review your financial performance. How much profit did you guys make last year? So how much revenue did you guys make last year?

And then how much profit did you guys make? Now in the simple, everyday simple common man definition, revenue just means how much business did the how much money did the business make? Then profit. My own definition of profit is how much money entered your pocket. Now, of course, if you've studied accounting, you have to, you know, the definitions are much more nuanced. But for now, let's just keep it simple revenue. How much money did the business make and then profit.

How much money is one that entered your pocket? So if your business did 5 million last year, and that looks like it's a good number, that's not the only thing you should be looking at. Because if your business did 5 million last year, but let's say the one that entered your pocket, the one that you enjoyed was only 500 K, then how will I put it? Well, it's a better way to look at the whole picture because it's not just how much did the business make, but how much money do they actually keep.

Then you can also look at the customer lifetime value. So the customers that you have, on average, how long have they spent with you guys? How many times did they purchase? You know, how much money did you make on each particular customer? It's just a nice number to know because remember that when it comes to increasing your sales, there are some levers that we can tweak. One of them is we're trying to get new people to come and do business with us.

Then of the people that do business with us, we're trying to make sure that a high number of them stay. Because if we had 100 customers in 2024, but then now that we've moved into 2025, let's say half the customers leave. It's a sign that there's a problem. You know if half your customers are disappearing because it's a sign that there's a huge problem. So we're trying to trying to figure out how we get new people to buy with us or the people that buy with us.

We're trying to see how many of them remain. Then of those that remain, we're trying to see how we can increase the average order size. So let's say you run a shop, you know, people come and buy bread, they come and buy eggs, you know, things like that. One of the way that you can get your business to grow is if you make sure that every time people come and buy from you, they spend an average of maybe 7K. If you are to, if you're able to increase the average spend.

So instead of when people come in, they spend 7 K, they're now spending maybe 96. The difference between 7K and 96, it's just two six. It doesn't look like it's much when you consider that people are coming to your shop every week for 52 weeks of the year. If you just do the math, you'll see that even that small increase that somebody spent 2006 more can lead to significantly more revenues and profits at the end of the year.

So we should be looking at those sorts of things. We should be asking ourselves these questions. How many people came throughout the year? How many people disappeared? What was the average amount of money that people spent? How can we get them to spend more money when they do business with us? Then of course, also talk to your mentor, especially don't talk to me about this one because I don't know how to do cash flow.

But yeah, you should be looking at cash flows. What was the monthly income like? What was the monthly outflows like? Because these things are really, really important. Because there are some businesses that are profitable, but the reason why they suffer is because the cash flow thing doesn't quite work out and so they suffer. But financial performance, sit down with your husband, with your wife, with your business partner, with your mentor, with Mumsy and Popsy, with your pastor, with your whoever, with your a mum.

Sit down and have this conversation. Look at financial performance for 2025 and then take dressing on what you can improve in 20, sorry, 2024 and then take dressing for the new year. Also look at your sales and marketing channels. So what was activity like offline? What about activity online? How much money did you make in direct sales? Was it mostly through Instagram? People are finding you or was it from the Flyers that you sent out?

You know, what were the channels that generated the highest amount of ROI? ROI is just returned on investment. So what is it that you did the most, that got the best yield? So is it the Flyers like that young man who went to my son's school who handed out Flyers? I mean, you need to know these things. So was it the Flyers that brought in the most money, brought in the most customers, or was it the Instagram advertisements?

So you need to know these sorts of things because like I said, it's the things that worked last year that you determine what it is that we do this year. Don't just wake up and start trying to do new things. Then also look at the marketing campaigns. All the money we spent on social media, how did that pan out? What was our best performing post? What was the worst performing post? The money that we spent on e-mail marketing, how did that work?

What lessons can we learn from the things that work or the things that didn't work? Advertising, which advertise advertisement paid off the most? And they also have to look at conversions and engagements. Of all these things that we did online, which one generated the highest level of engagement and which one generated the highest level of conversion? Now engagement just means the number of people that interact with the post.

They see it, they like it, they share it, they bookmark it, they, you know, whatever. But the key thing I should be looking for is conversion. And conversion just means the person that takes the next step. Because when you put up your photos of pyjamas on, on, on Instagram, if you sell Christmas pyjamas, and yes, my wife did buy Christmas pyjamas again, you know, because it's a thing. And I must admit, the longer we do these things, the cuter it becomes this whole Christmas pajama thing.

So if you sell pajamas and you put up stuff on Instagram, it's not just about how many 1000 people liked the image. If you put up the image and then a million people liked it, but only 20 people bought. OK, let me put it this way. If you put up the image 1,000,000 people like it, only 20 people bought. And then you put about another one, only 500 people like it, but then 300 people bought. I mean, which one is better?

Obviously it's not the one that 1,000,000 people liked and only 20 people bought. It actually is the one that 500 people liked but 40 people bought. That's the one that is better performing. So it's not just about the engagement and reach, but it's about conversion. And conversion is when people take that next step. And then of course, the the kind of conversion I like is when people pay me money when they transfer money to the account.

But conversion doesn't always mean transferring money to the account. Sometimes conversion can also mean the people come to the office or they drop their e-mail address or they drop their phone number or, you know, whatever. So let's look at conversions and engagements, then also sit down with Mumsy Popsy, pastor, imam, mentor, business consultant and then look at operations and efficiency. How much money did you guys spend on rents?

How much money did you guys spend on salary? What about inventory? Have you guys been managing your inventory? OK, let's see how much money did you spend on NEPA, AMAK, Local Government Council, you know, blah, blah, blah, all those sorts of things. Take stock because you're going to be able to figure out like, OK, maybe wasted too much money on Napa or you now get a sense of, OK, this is how much we spend in 2024. This is a new year.

So we should expect to spend this exact amount this year. A rough roughly we should expect to spend this amount of money. So now we now know what to plan for. Then also look at how, look at your process efficiency, look at fulfilment. How long did it take for you guys to fulfil orders? So back when I was a wedding photographer, this was a big thing because you know, brides when they don't see their photos or they don't see their albums,

they start getting angry. And the longer it takes, the angrier they get. So if you can't fulfill in two weeks, it's good. If you fulfill in two months, it might be a problem. So these are things you have to look at also in your business. On average, in the last year, how long did it take us to fulfil? Every time that somebody agreed to do business with us and then they sent us the money, how long did it take for us to live up to our own end of the bargain and to deliver?

Did it take us three days or did it take us 3 weeks or did it take us three months? You know, these things are really, really important. So look at your process efficiency there. Let's see what else. OK, Look at your customer service as well. Look at your production timelines. The reason why I said we should look at all these things is we're trying to look for areas of improvement. We're also trying to look for what it is that worked for the things that worked.

We know that that is what we're going to continue doing. Then of course, let's see what else? OK, this is almost 15 minutes. Let me just wrap it up to a close. But I think you guys get the picture of what it is that I'm trying to say. Summary. What I'm trying to say with today's episode is stop this whole thing of new year, new you, new tactics, new strategy, new vitality, new it's, it's absolute rubbish. There is no difference fundamentally between December 31st and January 1st.

It's all the same thing. So if the market is still the same, the customers are still the same, the consumer trends are still the same, the laws are still the same, the economy is still the same, there's absolutely no reason to do anything new. The only thing that I should do different is sit down with your team and discuss a couple of things. For our financial performance, how did we do and what made us the most money, Let's continue doing those things.

For the sales and marketing, which sales things worked? Let's continue doing it. The ones that flopped, let us stop doing it for operations and efficiency. You know, where did we spend money? How quickly were we getting back to customers? You know, things like that, the things that OK, so let's say last year, on average, it took us 3 weeks to to satisfy our customers. OK, let's let me go back to the wedding photography example.

So as a wedding photographer, let's say on average took you 3 weeks, but maybe you heard that your competition now is doing one week on average to get back to brides, you know, to have the album ready. So maybe that might be something you have to look at this year to try and see how you can cut that down because looking at changes in the market, you know, other people are no longer spending three weeks. They're now spending one week.

So now maybe it's something that you have to consider. So something that's what it is. I'm just trying to say with today's episode, so December 31st, January 1st, it's still the same for the metals are still the same. So don't be looking for new for new sake. Sit down with your team, figure out what work last year, continue doing it this year and you know, don't do any drastic changes. The time for drastic changes will come when the big changes come.

So like I said, today is January the 3rd, 2025. So if one week from now President Hinubo gets on the air again and then he says something regarding fuel or regarding cashless economy and something, something, and then money is now scarce to get and then the cost of fuel double S and no blah, blah, blah. Yes, if something drastic like that happens, yeah, of course, then we need to sit down and start looking at, OK, what new thing, what new thing, what new thing.

But until that happens, just keep on doing good business. The same good business you did in 2024 will be sufficient to carry you through in 2025. But of course, you should always be having routine meetings with members of your team and looking at these things, financial performance, sales and marketing performance, operational efficiency, looking at customer feedback so you can double down on what's working. Ignore what it is that doesn't work.

And you know, these are the places where you're going to get your cues about when to do something new. Because truth of matter is, you really have to wait for January 1st to do something new. So if you go through all these reviews that we're talking about, you do this review in December in in January of 2025. And then by March, because you've been doing all these reviews, you figure out that there are some things that have to change, then yeah, go ahead and make that change.

But there's no magic thing that says between December 31st and then January 1st, we just need to need to start doing all these new, new, new stuff. And then let me not be over the points. Let me let you guys go on about your day and let me pay attention to my own issues over here. So thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode. Remember, if you'd love to connect, the phone number is 08064662140.

The country code is +234. If you are not Nigerian and then connect with me on socials, I'm on LinkedIn, the name to look for establish my IED. So I'll catch you guys at the next episode.