you don’t need a 20-page “year in review.”
i see them everywhere this time of year. the polished carousels, the perfectly designed PDFs, the “here’s everything i accomplished in 2025” posts with color-coded charts and inspirational quotes.
and look, if that’s your thing, great. but that’s never been mine.
my year-end review is messy.
it happens on my couch with my laptop or on the loo in the mornings.
sometimes it’s late. sometimes i procrastinate it for weeks because i’m tired or in a rut or just don’t feel like doing the admin.
but i still do it. every single year since 2017.
because here’s the thing: you don’t need a fancy dashboard or a 47-slide deck to know if your business is working.
you just need to ask yourself one honest question and actually look at the numbers that answer it.
the question that matters
is this business still working for me?
not “am i crushing it?” or “did i 10x my revenue?” or any of that.
just: is this still working?
is it paying me? is it sustainable?
am i doing work i actually want to do, or am i just keeping the lights on?
that’s what my year-end review is for. it’s not a highlight reel. it’s a reality check.
and i’ve been doing it the same way for probably the past 5 years now. it works. it’s simple. and it keeps me from lying to myself about where things actually are.
a quick reality check on my year
before i get into the review itself, let me just set the scene.
i run a branding agency. it’s a real business.
we’re registered, we file taxes, we work with contractors on a project basis. some years are better than others. some projects are great, some are just okay, some are purely “keep the lights on” work.
this year? we had 2 or 3 big projects that genuinely shocked me. like, i still can’t believe we landed gigs that size.
but i’ve also been in a rut for about a month now. being very honest. i haven’t really done anything. just tired. monotonous. doing the same things over and over.
and that’s part of why i’m writing this newsletter instead of just thinking about it.
because even when you’re tired, even when you’re in a rut, you still have a business to run.
and the year-end review is one of those things that helps you see the bigger picture when you’re stuck in the weeds.
what i actually look at: money
the first thing i do is pull up the revenue numbers.
how much did we bill this year compared to last year? compared to the year before that? compared to 2017 when we started?
i’m not looking for some perfect upward trajectory. i’m looking for patterns.
and the pattern i care about most right now is this: average project size.
are we doing less work but getting paid more? or are we doing more work for the same money?
because one of those is sustainable. the other one burns you out.
this year, the average project budget went up. we’re doing fewer projects, but we’re charging more per project. and i feel like we’re almost there.
like we’re almost at the point where we can confidently say, “yes, this is our pricing. this is what we work with. this fills our pipeline and we make decent money doing it.”
that’s the goal. not infinite growth. just: good work, good clients, good money, sustainable pace.
so when i look at the revenue, i’m not just looking at the total. i’m looking at what it tells me about the kind of business we’re building.
are we moving toward the thing we want? or are we just busy?
what i actually look at: expenses
next, i look at expenses.
i’m not trying to cut costs or optimize every dollar. i’m just making sure we’re not bleeding money somewhere i forgot about.
for example, our website has been down for about 15 months now and I found out we still paid for our domain and hosting every month of the past year. I know I have to get on my zoom and get the website up as soon as possible.
more importantly, i’m making sure we don’t owe anyone.
we work with contractors. designers, writers, strategists. they’re the backbone of every project we do.
so part of my year-end review is going through the books and making sure everyone got paid. making sure there’s no outstanding invoices. making sure i didn’t drop the ball on someone who did great work for us.
and honestly, this is also where i check in on relationships.
if you’re interested in working with me in some capacity next year as a contractor, here’s a link to my database.
what i actually look at: people
this is the part i procrastinate the most.
i like to send a couple messages at the end of the year to the contractors we worked with. just to thank them. check in on their business. see how they’re doing. keep the relationship warm.
i didn’t do it last year. i didn’t do it this year either.
but i should. and i will.
because here’s the thing: i’m very introverted.
i don’t love the admin of corporate lingo and “just circling back” emails. but this isn’t that. this is just...
being a decent human and staying connected to people who helped you build something.
and also, strategically, these are people i want to work with again. so keeping those relationships fresh matters.
it’s on my list. i’ll get to it. probably this week. maybe next week. but it’s part of the review, even if it’s the part i drag my feet on.
what i actually look at: direction
the last thing i do is think ahead.
not in a “set 47 goals for Q1” way. just: what do i want more of next year?
what kind of work do we want to do? who do we want to work with? what do we want less of?
this is where the review turns into planning. and it’s also where i start thinking about the 10-month year (which i’ll get into in part 2 of this series).
but for now, the question is simple: based on what happened this year, what do i want to change?
do i want bigger projects? fewer clients? more of a certain type of work? less of the stuff that drains me?
i don’t need a perfect answer. i just need to write it down so future mike has something to work with when january hits and life gets real again.
you don’t need permission to keep it simple
here’s what i want you to take away from this:
your year-end review doesn’t have to be perfect. it doesn’t have to be public. it doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s.
it just has to be honest.
look at your money. look at your energy. look at the work you did and ask yourself: is this still working for me?
if the answer is yes, great. do more of it.
if the answer is no, now you know what to change.
and if the answer is “i don’t know, i’m tired and i’ve been in a rut,” that’s okay too. that’s where i am right now. and i’m still doing the review anyway, because it helps me see that even in a rut, i still ran a real business this year.
that matters.
next up: in part 2, i’ll walk you through why i only plan with 10 months instead of 12, and how i use the last 2 months of the year to dream instead of grind.
but for now, i’m curious: do you do any kind of year-end review for your business or creative work? what do you actually look at?
hit reply and let me know. i’d love to hear how you do it.
Mike