Prepare, Protect, and Plan for the Year Ahead
Every business owner can use an end-of-year planning checklist. The end of Q4 can catch many of us unawares. Sure, we knew it was coming, but it’s now? Let’s make it easier. The end of the year provides the perfect opportunity to reflect on the year done and to plan for the upcoming year. Some essential steps include reviewing goals, balance bookkeeping and preparing for taxes, making a plan for the next year, making sure you have all types of appropriate business insurance, and paying special attention to your IT sector as well.
Review Goals and Make New Ones
Don’t beat yourself up if you haven’t met all of the goals you set for your business in January. Priorities change, other things come up, and sometimes we just don’t have the time. This could be an opportunity to congratulate yourself for what you did accomplish as well as the time to make new goals going into 2026.
We at SpireTech use SMART goals from the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS). SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. We break our goals into business-wide goals for the year, and then “rocks” every quarter that are the main objectives in a department for that time.
This system has helped us remain focused on the larger picture, provides data points for where what is working and what could use improvement, and give us clear benchmarks to congratulate our team on when they are met.
Try it out! It may be a great fit for your company structure.
Catch up on Bookkeeping and Taxes
Ah, the romance of receipts and spreadsheets. If your idea of a good time is reconciling expenses with bank statements, this is your moment. Otherwise, accept that balanced bookkeeping makes for an easier and speedier tax season. Organize your income and expenses, chase down those missing invoices, and do everything you reasonably can to spare your accountant.
Another crucial step in planning for taxes is making sure you’re taking advantage of all possible deductions and credits that could help your wallet out a little bit. There could be some hidden money somewhere! Better check.
Business Insurance
Business insurance is your safety net—assuming it’s up-to-date and covers everything you need. Review your coverage, making sure it still matches your needs and your business’s evolving risk profile. From liability to property, a quick annual review could be the difference between a hiccup and a catastrophe. If you’ve added new products, services, or locations, update your policy accordingly. Take a look, because “oops” is not a viable business strategy.
IT Checklist for Business
Making sure the IT side of things is covered can be something that’s easily overlooked. Our managed IT clients don’t have to worry about most of this—we’ve got you covered. However, if you are without the security and ease of SpireTech’s services, here are some things to pursue.
Check Your Data Backup
Imagine losing all your business data overnight. Now stop imagining and make sure you’re backing up regularly. Verify that your backup systems work—because, as Murphy’s Law dictates, the only backup that fails is the one you needed most. Test restore processes and ensure offsite copies exist. Your future self will thank you for this moment of paranoia.
Don’t leave your business vulnerable to data loss. Schedule regular backups—daily, if possible—and confirm that each backup completes successfully. Perform test restorations to make sure you can actually recover your data if disaster strikes. Keep at least one backup offsite, whether in the cloud or on secure physical media, to protect against fire or theft. Set reminders to review your backup procedures every quarter, so you’re never caught off guard. Taking these steps now saves you headaches—and possibly your entire business—down the road.
Update Passwords & Review Access
Let’s be honest: “password123” stopped being effective in 2005. Check yours out, are they one of the most popular passwords? Update your passwords and implement multi-factor authentication immediately if you have not already. Make sure your passwords utilize characters, special characters, and numbers to make it harder for brute force attacks to figure it out.
For additional security, audit who has access to what. Remove permissions for anyone who’s moved on or shouldn’t still be peeking behind the digital curtain. Security is only as strong as your weakest point.
Clean Up Data & Devices
Clutter isn’t just about what’s stacked on your desk—your digital world needs to be tidy too. In addition to clearing up space, cleaning up data makes your company data easier to navigate and access for all employees. Archive old files, purge obsolete data, and ensure devices are secure and up to date. For your security, dispose of hardware responsibly, reset to factory settings, and scrub sensitive information before parting ways. How much trash are you holding onto?
Reassess Hardware, Software and Services
Technology is always changing. Are you? Review your current hardware, software, and services. Is there a better option out there? If you don’t have a rockstar IT team behinds you, decide what software to update, outdated hardware to retire, and look into services. Investing in the right tools is how you can future-proof your business—and save yourself trouble down the line.
Be sure to also work with your IT team to plan a budget around your IT expendutures next year.
Cybersecurity Insurance
In an era where data breaches make headlines and hackers have more creativity than most screenwriters, cybersecurity insurance deserves its own spotlight. A “successful” ransomware event or cybersecurity attack could leave your company on the hook for hundreds of thousands of thousands of dollars. Not only could this singlehandedly sink your business, the personal information of your clients, employees, and yourself could be stolen or compromised. Review policy limits, exclusions, and response plans.
One bonus of cybersecurity insurance: following their guidelines to remain in compliance typically follow the IT industry’s best practices for security. Cybersecurity isn’t just an IT issue; it’s needed for your business survival and protection.
Conclusion
As we wrap up the year, let’s remember that real success isn’t just about luck—it’s about planning, perseverance, and thinking about where the future might take you. By looking back at your current processes and ensuring they are the best they could be, you’re doing more than planning another year—you’re setting yourself up for success. Here’s to 2025 and looking forward to 2026.