June 30th marks 6 months of 2024 complete. We are now halfway through the year, which is a great time to take stock of your yearly projections for your business. Do you know what your revenue and net income sales per month are? Are you on track to meet or exceed your goals for the end of the year? If not, it may be time to adjust your plans and change your approaches to get where you need to be.

The easiest way to make a projection for the end of the year is to take your revenue and double it. This can work well if you have steady, regular revenue throughout the year. Sometimes this approach is a bit too general, however. For example, I took off two months of work to take care of my newborn grandchild, which affected my company’s revenue for the first half of the year. (Note my priorities in terms of my work/life balance.) Since I’m not planning on doing that again in the fall, doubling my revenue would be inaccurate, and a more granular approach is needed.

This more granular approach involves anticipating your sales for the rest of the year, and taking account of all your expected expenses as well. Keep in mind that if your salespeople are paid commissions, if your sales increase, your commissions will also increase. Sometimes your expenses will be the same as the start of the year, such as the rent, or the monthly retainer fee for a lawyer. But sometimes the expenses are a bit more irregular. In the next six months, are you planning on going to a trade show, or traveling to visit clients? If so, make note of that in your projections for the rest of the year.

I have been doing a lot of travel to visit clients lately, and if you are as well, make sure that you are tracking your mileage. There are a number of methods to do that, such as a spreadsheet, or a mile tracking app, such as Mile IQ. Also, make sure that you are using the business credit card on your trip and accounting for networking expenses. Not everything is taxable anymore, such as golf club memberships and only 50% of meals with clients are tax deductible, and it is still important to keep track of it from an accounting AND a tax perspective. Make sure that you are keeping your receipts, using software (or even a manual folder)! There are a number of apps and programs such as quickbooks to make it as easy as possible.

You should evaluate your projection again in the 4th quarter, around October, November and December, and make sure that you are talking to your tax accountant about your financial situation. You do not want any year-end surprises, and it’s important that your tax accountants are apprised of your financial situation so that they know how best to file your taxes for the coming year.