Start by Breaking Things Down: How to Identify What's Working in Your Business - and What's Not Working
December 17, 2025 - JUDY WHALEN
Start by Breaking Things Down:
How to Identify What's Working in Your Business - and What's Not Working
Reflecting on the past - and planning intentionally for the future - are powerful ways to set goals you can actually achieve and sustain.
When you take time to understand the choices, behaviors, and habits that brought you to where you are today, you gain insight that helps you make better decisions moving forward. Reflection isn’t about dwelling on mistakes; it’s about learning what to carry forward and what to leave behind.
If your results haven’t matched your expectations, looking back can help you identify what isn’t working. Just as important, reflection also reveals what is working. Life—and business—is complex. Even when we miss the mark in some areas, we’re often making meaningful progress in others. Knowing the difference is key.
How Do You Know What Is—and Isn’t—Working?
You may already be aware of certain habits or thought patterns that help or hinder you. But many influences operate quietly in the background, shaping outcomes without your awareness.
That’s why intentional reflection matters. When you purposefully review past experiences, patterns begin to emerge—patterns that can inform smarter, more aligned decisions going forward.
Start by Breaking Things Down:
How to Identify What’s Working in Your Business—and What’s Not
Whether you are reassessing your entire business or focusing on one specific area, the first step is to break things down into manageable parts.
For example, let’s say your goal is to increase revenue.
Instead of immediately adding new marketing tactics or offers, start by reviewing what you’ve already been doing. Look at where your revenue has come from over the past several months.
Which products or services generate the most income? Which require the most time and energy? Are there clear patterns in when sales occur—or when they stall?
Next, go deeper. Examine the decisions, habits, and assumptions behind those results. Are you consistently promoting your highest-value services? Are your prices aligned with the value you deliver? Have you continued offering certain services simply because they are familiar, even if they no longer support your goals?
This kind of intentional review brings clarity. It helps you separate effort from effectiveness and activity from results. When you can clearly see what is driving progress—and what is draining it—you are in a much stronger position to make strategic decisions.
Strategic growth begins when you separate effort from effectiveness.
That clarity naturally leads to the next step: continuing what works and letting go of what doesn't.
Keep Doing What Works
Reflection often uncovers strengths you may have overlooked. When something works—keep it.
Celebrate areas where you feel capable and successful. Recognizing your strengths builds confidence and momentum, which you can then apply to areas you want to improve. No matter the situation, there is always something positive you can leverage.
When you consistently build on what works—and stop spending time and energy on what doesn’t—you create the clarity and focus needed for sustainable business growth.
Stop Doing What Doesn't Work
When you identify habits or mindsets that don’t serve you, it’s time to make thoughtful changes.
Some changes are relatively easy. For example, recognizing that a particular service generates little revenue but consumes significant time may lead you to refine, reprice, or retire it altogether.
Other changes require deeper work. Continuing to underprice your services, avoid visibility, or say yes to the wrong opportunities often has more to do with mindset and past experience than with strategy alone.
Either way, reflecting on the past helps you identify what no longer works—and opens the door to replacing old patterns with choices that better support your goals.
Ready to Turn Reflection into Strategic Action?
Reflection creates awareness—but strategic planning turns that awareness into results.
When you understand what’s working in your business and what’s holding you back, you can make intentional decisions instead of reacting to what feels urgent. That’s exactly what strategic planning is designed to support.
👉 Accelerate Your Business Growth Using Strategic Planning (DIY Course)
Accelerate Your Business Growth Using Strategic Planning™ is more than an online course. It is a hands-on, interactive program that combines online video sessions with Take Action Activities to help you create a strategic plan for your business...and your life. Judy Whalen guides you through each step of the process. If you do the suggested activities, you will create a strategic plan to guide your business... and your life ... through 2026 and beyond.
Hi! I'm Judy
I've been in business 30+ years serving business owners and nonprofit leaders. They hire me to guide them in developing growth strategies, gain clarity about their priorities, take consistent action, and measure their progress. I also offer Executive Coaching and online programs.
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