How to Do a Quarterly Business Review: Reflecting on Wins, Work, & Lessons Learned

At Ellevated Outcomes we often say: we don’t tell people what to think. We teach them how to think – like small business CEOs. This looks like tactical actions like: completing monthly CEO Scorecards, doing employee 1-1s, and focusing more on the beneath-the-surface 90%. So as we close the quarter this week, it’s time for me to present to you another CEO action that moves from tactical to strategic: the quarterly business review (QBR).

Though QBR is an Office Space-esque acronym, I promise you that a great quarterly business review is anything but a TPS report ; ) Done well, it’s so colorful, dynamic, and engaging. It’s an opportunity to reflect on progress, celebrate wins, and continuously refine your vision and actions for the future. Whether you’re a solopreneur conducting a self-evaluation or a small business owner with a team, a well-structured QBR helps you see and feel the progress within the process.

Why a Quarterly Business Review Matters

Taking time every three months to step back from the daily grind, allows you to:

• Celebrate accomplishments and build momentum
• Identify areas of improvement before they become larger issues
• Re-align your team (or yourself) around key priorities
• Ensure your financial health and business strategy are on track
• Evolve as a leader, by reflecting on your growth

Here’s a simple outline to guide your quarterly business review. And I will preface this by saying: I’m not as strict about these as I am monthly 1-1s. QBRs are great, and I do believe that every business should do them, from solopreneur to Fortune 500 companies. BUT it’s more than fine to start small. If you do regular annual planning, step one is to simply add a QBR 6 months after that. Then, you can grow the frequency, bit by bit.

1. Revisit Your Mission, Vision, and Values

Start with re-grounding, in why your business exists.

• Mission: The core purpose of your business: What do you do? For whom? How?
• Vision: The future you’re working toward. You can think about it as: How do you want to be perceived? How do you want people talking about you, five or ten years from now?
• Values: The guiding principles that shape how you do your work.

Team Discussion or Personal Reflection:

For each value, what’s an example from the last quarter, of how you, a team member, a client, or a vendor has demonstrated one?

2. Celebrate Wins and Progress

Before diving into challenges, take a moment to acknowledge successes.

• Key accomplishments from the past quarter
• Milestones hit (sales goals, projects completed, new hires, partnerships, etc.)
• Celebrations of individuals or projects who made a big impact

Team Discussion or Personal Reflection:

If you have employees, invite them to share a personal win, team win, or someone else on the team whose efforts they want to celebrate and why. Not only does this set a positive tone and foster a culture of appreciation; it’s also an incredible way for everyone to get visibility into the invisible things. Especially as your business grows, you won’t be able to see everything (this is a good thing). So as a leader, hearing others’ observations are incredible intel.

3. Financial Results and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Financial health is the foundation of a sustainable business. This one can be a little tricky and is often scary for someone with a team. It’s important to do an honest assessment of your team’s understanding of the finances and ensure you’re sharing the right amount of information with the right amount of context. Remember: for humans, financials aren’t logical; they’re emotional. People need to tie the big picture numbers to: how does my job tie into this?

• Revenue v. Goal (received money)
• Projected Cash Flow v. Goal (booked projects/sales that mean cash is secured for the future)
• Pipeline
• Key Metrics specific to your business

Team Discussion or Personal Reflection:

What is the story our numbers tell? Are we moving in the right direction, or do we need to adjust? What questions does the story push us to ask?

4. Assess the Completed Work and Lessons Learned

Look at the projects and initiatives from the past quarter:

• What worked well?
• What didn’t go as planned?
• What unexpected opportunities or challenges arose?
• What lessons should be carried forward?

Team Discussion or Personal Reflection:

If you didn’t meet a goal, what contributed to the shortfall? Was it an unrealistic expectation? A resource gap? Unrealized assumption? Broken process?

5. Closing the Gaps: Course Correction & Action Steps

Now, it’s time to translate this to: what’s next?

• Adjust goals and expectations if needed (without abandoning ambition)
• Make process updates, upskill, or tweak your technology to remove roadblocks
• Align priorities for the next quarter to ensure focus

Team Discussion or Personal Reflection:

What do you need to be successful next quarter within our current resources? (I’ve learned that it’s important to name this constraint as a starting point; otherwise, people will default to adding more “stuff” that doesn’t actually solve the root of the problem).

6. Bring in Some Fun

QBRs don’t have to be dry. Add an engaging element like a:

• Team-building exercise
• Fun “most surprising lesson learned” or “best mistake” award
• Video
• Share of each person’s favorite moment from the quarter
• Theme or engaging storyline that runs throughout the QBR

Example:

I’ve used a variety of themes and storylines over the years, from Warren Buffet’s investment principles (fun to me, ha), to Pantone’s color of the year, to the new flagship Tiffany & Co building in NYC. Get creative here!

7. Looking Ahead: Action Plan for the Next Quarter

Wrap up with clarity on:

• The top 3-5 priorities for the next quarter
• How success will be measured
• Immediate next steps, to get momentum rolling

Team Discussion or Personal Reflection:

Make sure everyone leaves the QBR with a clear understanding of their role in achieving the next quarter’s goals. Does everyone have a “just do it” action, to start the quarter strong? Also: end on an energizing note. Remind yourself and your team of the bigger picture, the progress made, and the exciting opportunities ahead.

5 Tips & Tricks:

1. Set a recurring date and time each quarter; also, schedule the recurring time to do the prep too.
2. Keep a QBR journal to track themes over time.
3. If you’re a team leader, ask the team discussion questions for constant engagement with the material; then, be quiet while others talk.
4. Keep it simple, especially when it comes to numbers; focus on metrics that others care about and “touch.”
5. If you’re a team leader, ask for feedback on the QBR process (#3 & #4 come from our team’s recent feedback).

QBRs Will Help Grow Your Business

Whether you’re running a one-person creative business or leading a small team, a quarterly business review is a powerful way to stay intentional and evolve as a CEO. I have to admit: each quarter when I sit down to prepare for our QBRs, I whine to myself: “Do I have to?” Between prep and presentation, it’s ~1.5 days a quarter for me. But each and every time, I lean on this quote from the E-Myth to pull myself out of complaint land:

A big business is a small business that did the right things.