It’s Carnival time here in Trinidad and Tobago and one of the first activities that signals that we are in the Carnival Season is the erection of vendor booths around part of the Queen’s Park Savannah.

I started to think about the vendors, and whether they actually make money, or turn a profit, selling from these booths.

The way I see it, apart from those vendors who are selling their craft, the others selling drinks and food are all basically offering the same thing. Depending on where you are, and when that thirst for a drink hits you, I would imagine that you’d simply walk to the nearest booth and purchase something. There is no differentiation whatsoever.

Now I can’t say precisely when the erection of these booths started but I want to hazard a guess that from year to year, there is no real analysis as to this idea’s viability. Perhaps it worked the first time and many times after that but now most Carnival bands are all inclusive, meaning drinks are being provided along with the costume to participate in the festivities. The way I see it, most of these booths providing drinks might break even at best so as a solopreneur, I don’t see the point in the activity. Now I might be wrong but for the purpose of this article, I want you to consider this question:

When was the last time you examined what you were doing and how?

Does it still make sense to invest so much time in proposals that drain you of your knowledge guaranteeing nothing except that those requesting the proposal now have all your ideas and can implement without you? (This example is fresh because it happened to a friend of mine recently.)

Does it still make sense to work one on one when perhaps one to many might be a better fit giving your needs now?

When last did you examine where you are posting your thoughts and ideas? Are these places that your customers hang out or are you just posting there because you should?

When was the last time you examined your earnings for a year? Do you see a pattern? Are there spikes during certain months? Can you identified repeated troughs during certain months? Is there something that you can do to prevent this?

When was the last time you looked at all your tasks and assessed those that you could actually delegate? Time isn’t expanding and so look at your hourly rate and ask yourself if you should really be spending your time on certain tasks? If you hired a part time V.A, it might make better sense – you would have time to attend to those high value activities that only you can do well.

The point is that we all need to jump off of the treadmill and examine what we are doing and why ever so often…if not we may very well be in decay without realizing it…being busy but going nowhere.

Today is a great day to examine all areas of your business. No time like the present for an assessment or audit in one or more of the following areas:

• Vision and strategy
• Leadership and culture
• Financial management
• Operational efficiency
• Customer focus
• Brand reputation
• Sales and Marketing