The end of the year is a great time to reflect on your business and set actionable goals. Whether you’re a retail, specialty, or compounding pharmacy, reflecting on your achievements and misfires can help you organize your thoughts and create more successful goals for the new year.

End-of-Year Reflections

One of the best ways to review the past year is to ask yourself a few questions about this year’s accomplishments, challenges, and lessons learned. This will help you reflect on how you can continue to grow your pharmacy’s business moving forward. 

Here are six questions to ask yourself:  

1. What was the most important goal my business achieved this year? 
2. What business mistakes did I make and how did I respond to them?
3. How did I overcome my biggest obstacles this year and what did I learn?
4. What do I want more of next year?
5. What do I want less of next year?
6. If I could travel back to the beginning of the year, what advice would I give myself?

Measuring Your Annual Success

Another vital part of business reflection and goal setting is measuring results. Metrics, or methods of measurement, help you verify your biggest successes and worst mistakes, and offer insight into what will work best for you down the road. Keep in mind that metrics will look a bit different, depending on what type of pharmacy you run.

Here are a few common metrics to track throughout the year:

• Annual revenue
• Most and least popular products sold (for retail pharmacies)
• Most and least profitable patient care services (retail and specialty)
• In-person and phone or IVR prescription refills
• Digital prescription refills
• Inbound calls

It’s also important to keep track of marketing metrics, which can tell you what strategies are most profitable and save you money by helping you invest your resources wisely.

Marketing metrics to track include:

• New social media or website leads
• New referrals or leads through review sites
• Activity and engagement of social media ads
• Unique website visitors and session length
• Website traffic sources

You’ll want to keep track of your success by measuring these metrics regularly, ideally every quarter, half-year, and year. With specific marketing strategies, like social media ads, keep track of the data from each campaign so you can determine what will work best for you moving forward. 

At Digital Pharmacist, we offer a digital marketing package that includes resources and tools to help you boost your business and measure success so you know exactly what’s working and what isn’t.

Setting Those New Year Goals

Once you have a clear idea of what you’d like your business to accomplish over the next year, it’s time to turn those ideas into actionable goals. The SMART goal system is a great way to define your goals, so they are easier to measure and commit to.

• Specific: What do you want to accomplish and what actions will you take?
• Measurable: How will you measure success? What metrics do you plan to use?
• Achievable: Is this a realistic goal? Do you have the time, skills, and resources to accomplish it?
• Relevant: How does this goal help me achieve bigger business goals? Where does fit into your overall plan?
• Time-bound: What is the timeline for this goal?

Writing SMART goals can take practice, so here’s a Hubspot guide with examples and a template to get you started. Need help picking goals or business new year’s resolutions? Here’re a few ideas.

To learn more about how Digital Pharmacist can support your pharmacy and help you achieve your new year’s business goals, get in touch with us today.