How to Conduct a Q4 Review and Set Your 2027 Goals

September 29th 2026

For many businesses, the last three months of the year can be critical for survival, especially if your company relies heavily on holiday sales. It’s also the best time of year to take a step back and design how you want 2027 to go. Since we’re nearly done with Q3, now’s a good time to start assessing and planning for next year.

Before the holiday rush begins, take time to review how 2026 has gone so far and start making changes so 2027 is even more successful. Here are five steps to take now.

Review your 2026 revenue numbers

Start by looking at your numbers for the first nine months of the year. They’ll tell you how you’re faring versus the 2026 goals you set last fall, so that you can use the remaining 90 days to change course if need be. And since 42% of women business owners are solopreneurs, according to a QuickBooks survey, you likely have direct access to all of those figures.

These are the numbers you’ll want to pull up and evaluate:

• Revenue to date. Are you on track, ahead, or behind where you wanted to be as of October 1^st?
• Revenue broken down by product, service, or distribution channel. Which line of business is performing the strongest this year? Is that a change from 2025?
• Profit margin. Which of your offerings is generating the highest profit?
• Expenses. Which costs have risen this year? Where are you compared to last year?
• Cash flow. Were there months this year when money was tight? Can you address the cause going forward to eliminate future lean months?

As you look over your year-to-date figures, where do you expect to end up on December 31, 2026, if this quarter goes the way you planned? If it looks like you’ll be behind your revenue or profit targets, you have three months to pivot in pursuit of better results.

Review your client base

At the end of each year, I look back over my list of clients and grade them. I give clients who are a pleasure to work with and pay well an A, and those who take more time and energy than I budgeted for a D or an F. Then I decide who I want to bring into the next year with me; failing clients don’t make the cut. You should perform a similar evaluation.

Make a list of your top 10 or 20 clients. For each one, note:

• How much revenue did that client generate for the business?
• Are they repeat or one-time clients?
• How much time did they require?
• Where did this client come from? Referral, website, social media, public speaking, networking?
• Do you enjoy working with them? This is probably the most important question of all.

You’ll probably start to see patterns right away. Do inquiries through your website yield long-term clients or one-time transactions? Do referrals from clients yield similar higher-profit clients? Where do your failing-grade clients tend to come from?

Decide what to drop

Many business owners are experts at adding things, whether that’s new products and services, new commitments, new technology, or new marketing tactics, to name a few. Few of us are as skilled at dropping things from our to-do lists or from our client roster. But if you keep investing time in serving unpleasant, unprofitable clients, you have less time to devote to generating serious profits.

Now is the time to look for contenders to cut, which might include:

• Low-profit products and services. They need to do more than break even.
• Draining clients. If you can’t fire a client outright without some kind of repercussion, start by hiking your rates and becoming less available to them.
• Low-performing marketing campaigns. As you look over your marketing tactics, which ones don’t seem to result in new business? Stop putting time and money into them.
• Tasks you can hand off. To free up more of your time for client and strategy work, look at tasks currently on your plate that someone else could do just as well, such as scheduling or bookkeeping.

I’m not suggesting you cut all of these simultaneously, but choose at least one item to drop before the end of the year.

Decide what to ramp up

After determining what you should cut to make your business more successful, it’s time to think about what’s working well that you should invest more in. Essentially, do more of what’s working and less of what’s not.

What is:

• Your most profitable product or service? Can you invest more in marketing it? Or create a premium version?
• Your best source of new clients? How can you increase that pipeline? A referral incentive?
• Your ideal client type? Where can you connect with your best prospects? Go there.

When can you roll out these new enhancements or tactics? Get them on your calendar.

Set your goals for 2027

If you’re planning on growing next year, you’re not alone. According to a U.S. Bank survey, 91% of small businesses are investing in growth. To avoid overextending yourself, plan realistically.

• Set no more than five goals. Any more and you’re spreading your attention too thin; nothing will get achieved.
• Quantify your goals. “Grow the business” means nothing. “Increase sales by 15%” or “Add three new major clients” are both measurable.
• Refer back to your review. Use 2026 statistics and decisions to guide where you place your efforts next year.
• Break annual goals into quarterly ones. Then break those down into monthly and even weekly goals, so you regularly check in on your progress.
• Choose your first step. For each goal, decide what your first action item in January will be.

If you take time at the end of each quarter next year to see how things are going, you’ll be able to track your growth and make changes quickly in response to market or business changes.

A quarterly review doesn’t have to be a week-long process. Block two or three hours this week and work through the questions above to see where you stand as you head into Q4, then do it again at the end of December so that you head into January with a running start and an achievable plan for growth next year.