Have you prepared your business for the year ahead? As contractors, the beginning of the year is often reserved for laying the groundwork for the remainder of the year. While the past year has disrupted normal business planning sessions, it is important to make sure those pieces do not fall through the cracks. To make it simple, we’ve developed a checklist of the top business items you need to complete and focus on for the upcoming year. The Contractor’s Business Checklist 1. Refresh Your Strategic Goals and Business Plan Update your strategic goals so they reflect your business’s progress from the past year and new opportunities for the future. It was a tough year, how has that impacted your strategic goals? Start by revisiting and reevaluating your previous goals to see if they still align with your vision and current position. After your strategic plan is updated, you need to develop your 2021 business plan. Outline what you want to accomplish this upcoming year and how you are going to get there. This includes planning your budget, resources, and benchmarks. Your business plan should be a direct step to getting closer to your long-term strategic goals. 2. Complete Your Annual Minutes After you’ve held your annual business meeting, you need to formally document the meeting by developing your annual company minutes. These are legal records that show your business is operating as its own entity, particularly showing you are not commingling funds, and therefore protecting your business. Complete our convenient and quick annual company minutes intake form, and we will do all the heavy lifting for you. 3. Update Your Partnership Agreement Assess your current partnership agreement to make sure all the important information is outlined, such as roles and responsibilities of each partner, buy and sell agreements are in place, and operating agreements are finalized. Partners should also discuss and agree on the value of the business for the next year. Having these conversations and updating your partnership agreement is a standard practice of keeping each partner aligned and accountable, and starts the year off on the right track. 4. Evaluate Your Employee vs Subcontractor Statuses The Minnesota Wage Theft Prevention Act has severely disrupted how contractors operate their business. Since the act was implemented in 2019, contractors have noticed a significant shift in the construction industry on how contractors identify employees and subcontractors, resulting in hefty fines and liability charges. The act changes the criteria for employment often claiming subcontractors are being misclassified and should be considered employees, therefore, receiving the benefits and treatment of an employee. As a contractor, you need to be critical about how you are classifying your team so it aligns with the Wage Theft Prevention Acts’ guidelines, or you risk serious consequences. 5. Complete Your Continuing Education Courses For residential contractors, to renew your construction contractors license you need to complete your continuing education (CE) training. With the deadline just around the corner, March 31st, it’s critical for you to attend and complete your training to avoid setbacks in renewing your license and completing your projects. In the past year because of social distancing regulations, in-person CE courses are no longer being offered or are very limited. We recommend looking into Contractor University through Housing First Minnesota. They are offering a great catalog of on-demand and live webinar choices that will fulfill your CE training requirements. Is your business ready for 2021? The above checklist outlines which items you need to complete to be fully prepared for the upcoming year. Think of your business as a construction project, it needs to be properly planned in order to have a successful outcome. If you have questions about the checklist items, please reach out to our team.