Budget, Bottlenecks, and Goals: September Is Your Leadership Check-In

Every year around the end of September to the beginning of December we try to remind business owners to take some time away from clients, emails, and their busy calendars. Why? Because just after the summer rush, and before the winter holidays this is the last time most of us have to gain space to think clearly about our businesses. 

This isn’t about mapping out 2026 or drafting a vision board. It’s about looking directly at the year you’ve already had—your numbers, your team, your leadership—and asking: What happened?

The companies that finish strong don’t wait for January resets. They figure out the plan now.

Budget vs. Actual: Numbers That Tell the Truth

Start simple: put your 2025 budget next to your actual results.

What shifted?

• Did revenue hold steady, but margins slide?

• Did payroll creep higher than planned?

• Did an investment not perform the way you thought it would?

This isn’t about wins or failures—it’s about patterns. Numbers are the clearest reflection of how your decisions played out. And once you see the patterns, you can decide what needs adjusting before Q4 gets rolling.

Leadership Bottlenecks: Are You Still in the Way?

Numbers show the what. But leadership reveals the why.

Ask yourself:

• What approvals still wait on my desk?

• What processes slow down when I’m gone?

• What tasks am I still holding that my team could own?

This stage of business—three to seven years in—is often when owners accidentally become bottlenecks. You’ve built a capable team, but out of habit, you still keep too much on your plate.

Donna Lim, our founder, learned this the hard way. For years, she ran every monthly review herself, convinced leadership meant keeping her hands directly on the numbers. When she finally let her team take over, she discovered they didn’t just handle it—they spotted insights she missed. Delegating wasn’t a risk. It was an advancement.

Strategic vs. Reactive Time

Even with delegation, your own calendar tells another story. If your week feels packed but progress feels slow, odds are you’re spending most of your time reacting.

Try this: for five days, track what you’re doing every half hour. Sort it into three categories:

• Strategic: Long-term planning, growth, leadership development

• Necessary: Client delivery, ops, finances

• Replaceable: Admin, email, scheduling, troubleshooting

Most owners find their strategic time is the smallest slice. Not because they don’t value it, but because everything else fills the space first. Seeing it on paper is often the push needed to restructure the week around what truly drives the business forward.

Revisit Your 2025 Goals

Your goals from January still matter—but some may not matter equally.

Pull them out and ask:

• Which are done? (Celebrate those.)

• Which no longer fit? (Let them go.)

• Which deserve one last Q4 push?

Pick two. Just two. Then set one clear milestone for each before December 31st.

This isn’t about trimming ambition. It’s about protecting focus. Simplicity is what gives you momentum heading into the final stretch of the year.

We’d Love to Hear from You

What goals have you already knocked out this year? Which ones are still on your list for 2025? We’d love to hear what’s working, what’s shifting, and where you’re putting your energy for Q4.