Recently I shared about how I took a week off to conduct a full business audit, today I’m sharing what to look for when conducting a business audit. When I worked in retail, we had to conduct audits every few months. Whether it was sales audit, loss prevention audit, paperwork audit, cash audit, etc. they were usually very stressful but they provided us insight into what was working, what wasn’t and where we could improve as a whole. As your business evolves and grows, it becomes more and more important to do audits as a way for you to check your business, see what’s working, what isn’t and where you can improve.

When I did my own audit, it gave me so much insight into my business and ultimately, I believe it made me a better business owner. Most business audits are deep dives into your financial statements, mine was a more holistic look into your business. This included looking at all parts from clarity, ideal clients, website, content, marketing strategy, tools, etc. It’s a bit more comprehensive and allowed me to build a stronger brand + business moving forward! So, what should you be looking for?

Here’s the main 3 things to look for when conducting a business audit:

1. Consistency

First things first, consistency across your brand is crucial for success. People don’t want to be confused when they look at one part of your brand and see something completely different somewhere else. That makes potential consumers lose trust in your brand. This can be as small of a detail as having all your social profiles have the same profile image. It’s those little details that ultimately separate your brand from less established looking brands. A few more examples could be consistent branding including use of colors, logos, submarks, copy + messaging. It all has to make sense and work across the board. 

So as you go through your business audit, continue to ask yourself if things are consistent.

2. Alignment to your vision

Your vision for your business is important and it’s important that your current business, how it functions, what you offer, your messaging, your ideal client, what you sell, etc. all align with the vision you have for your business. Start your audit by writing down your businesses vision + goals in order to have a point of reference to continuously refer to as you go through your audit. As our businesses grow and evolve, messaging gets muddled, visions get a little blurry and this is your opportunity to realign with the vision you have for your business at every single point. 

3. Serving Your Goals

Answer the question, is this still serving my business + the goals I’m trying to reach? Again this can refer to your brand identity, your website, your messaging, your social profiles, your services, your products, etc. If something is, then you keep it. If it isn’t, then you get rid of it.

This is also the opportunity to look through your analytics and financial data and find out what is working for your business. What platforms are bringing in the most clients and traffic. What products are bringing in the most revenue. What lead magnet has brought in the most email subscribers. Whether there is a return on investment on your business tool investments. If you don’t have the analytics or financial data, it’s an even better opportunity to put those systems + documents in place so you can have the information moving forward.

On top of a business audit being important to making sure your financial books are all set up properly and that all the money that’s supposed to be there, is actually there, a more holistic audit allows you to gain much better insights into every touchpoint of your business. If I’m being honest, this was the first time I ever conducted an audit of my business in the past few years, but now I fully intend to go through one every year. 

DON’T FORGET TO

PIN YOUR FAVORITE