Small business health check to start the year
February 17, 2026
(This article was originally published on Business Victoria’s website on 11 Feb 2026)
School has started and business is back in action! Now is the time to do your homework and give your business a health check for a winning 2026.
1. Make finance your friend
Even if your small business is making money, a regular financial health check can uncover ways to boost efficiency, saving you time and increasing profits.
Use your business plan to review your financial goals
Whether you’re just starting out or have been in business for years, every business should have a business plan. A business plan is your vision of success and the actions you’ll take to help you achieve it. It helps you test ideas, set financial goals, and keep your business running smoothly.
Check in on your financial goals to find out how you are tracking and what actions you need to take.
To create a plan, visit: Write a business plan
Are your business finances in order?
Responsibly managing your finances means setting aside money to keep all areas of your business running smoothly.
Review your budget for sales and marketing, staffing and wages, and employee obligations like PAYG and superannuation, to make sure you can keep these covered.
For help with budgeting, visit: Manage business finances
Keep the cash flowing!
With so many moving parts to a business, sometimes it can feel like cash is flowing out the door faster than it’s coming in.
If your cash flow is in the negative, it’s time to take stock and do something about it.
Work out what adjustments you can make to get you back ‘in the black’, by visiting: Improving cash flow
Track business performance
It’s critical to stay on top of your business’s performance, so you can make informed decisions.
Your balance sheets, cash flow statements and profit and loss statements help you identify any issues and trends as they happen. Check that they are being properly produced and undertake regular reviews.
Refresh your bookkeeping skills and find templates by visiting: Understanding basic bookkeeping principles
2. Make your marketing work for you
Marketing is essential for your business. Customers need to know who you are and what you have to offer.
Updating your plan every year is a great way to clearly identify your target market – their needs and preferences – and to refresh your goals.
Forecast more than just the weather
Business forecasting helps you predict your business outcomes, by looking at past and present data to guess what will happen later. This includes costs, sales, profitability, and customers’ habits.
Take the time to predict what the next 3 to 6 months for your business might look like. By putting effective plans in place to deal with any trends or issues, you will be in a better position to stay on track.
For more information, see: 4 ways data science can help your business
Create a marketing plan
If you haven’t clearly defined your business goals and made sure you have a realistic strategy to achieve them, then your marketing efforts and expenses might be wasted.
There’s no point in putting time and effort towards marketing activities that don’t bring in customers, increase your sales, meet your goals or save you money.
Take the time to revisit and document your:
- target market
- producers/services do you/should you sell
- key messages
- channels, tools and activities
- goals, timeframes and budget
Get help by visiting: Write a marketing plan
You will also find information on how to advertise your business and where to find the best statistics to evaluate your marketing.
3. Play it safe by managing and preventing risk
It’s impossible to predict every scenario that might go wrong in your business. But planning for and mitigating common risks will help reduce the things that could have a negative impact on your operations, finances and employee safety and wellbeing.
Adopting a risk management approach in your business is important to make sure you meet your safety obligations. It will help you and your employees make better decisions and be better prepared if something does go wrong.
With contingency and support plans in place, you will be able to respond and recover well.
Identify risk and create a plan
Common areas of risk for any business include people, processes, premises, providers and performance, as well as reputation or brand.
Take a health check on what’s causing risk for your business and create a plan by using the risk management 3-step process:
- Identify – work out what risks your business could face.
- Analyse – find the level of the risks and which ones are most urgent.
- Evaluate – compare the risk against set risk criteria to decide what to do.
Document your risks with the Risk register and treatment plan template
More ways to better your business
Need help with setting your business on the right track for 2026? There are plenty of ways to find support on the Business Victoria website.
- Book a face-to-face session with a business expert on the Small Business Bus.
- Learn from the experts and participate in discussions with our online webinars and in-person workshops.
- Go at your own pace and upskill across a wide range of topics with our online courses or recorded webinars.
- Browse from over 50 tools and templates made for businesses.
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