Slingshot End of Year Review
A structured year-end review workbook built around the Slingshot Framework's 7 interconnected business areas. This half-day exercise helps you confront the brutal facts about what actually happened in your business—not just glance at revenue and move on. Includes a metrics dashboard for year-over-year comparison, reflection questions for each area, "uncomfortable questions" that push past surface-level analysis, and space to capture lessons and set goals using lead measures that drive results.
Download the Free 7-Area Year-End Review Workbook and Discover the Patterns, Blind Spots, and Opportunities Hiding in Your Business
Most e-commerce founders do one of two things at year-end: nothing at all (too busy, too tired), or a quick glance at revenue before jumping into January fires. Neither tells you anything useful. LEGO went 10 years without knowing which products actually made money—until a proper review revealed what had been invisible.
What if you could systematically assess every area of your business—products, customers, marketing, operations, growth—and walk away knowing exactly where to focus next year?
The Real Reason Year-End Reviews Don't Work
You know you should review the year properly. But where do you actually start?
- "I'll just look at the revenue numbers" — But revenue doesn't tell you which products are draining resources, which channels are vulnerable, or where customers are dropping off.
- "I don't have time for a full review" — But skipping it means repeating the same mistakes and missing opportunities that were right in front of you.
- "We had a good year, so we're fine" — But good years create the Genius Trap—cherry-picking wins and explaining away losses instead of learning what actually worked.
Without a structured way to assess your business, you end up either:
- Running so fast you never see what's actually happening
- Setting goals based on lag measures (results) instead of lead measures (activities you control)
- Missing blind spots that would be obvious if you stopped to look
The founders who win aren't working harder—they're stopping long enough to confront the brutal facts, with a spirit of faith that the future will be different.
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<div class="problem-section">
<h2>The Real Reason Year-End Reviews Don't Work</h2>
<p>You know you should review the year properly. But where do you actually start?</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>"I'll just look at the revenue numbers"</strong> — But revenue doesn't tell you which products are draining resources, which channels are vulnerable, or where customers are dropping off.</li>
<li><strong>"I don't have time for a full review"</strong> — But skipping it means repeating the same mistakes and missing opportunities that were right in front of you.</li>
<li><strong>"We had a good year, so we're fine"</strong> — But good years create the Genius Trap—cherry-picking wins and explaining away losses instead of learning what actually worked.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Without a structured way to assess your business, you end up either:</h4>
<ul>
<li>Running so fast you never see what's actually happening</li>
<li>Setting goals based on lag measures (results) instead of lead measures (activities you control)</li>
<li>Missing blind spots that would be obvious if you stopped to look</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>The founders who win aren't working harder—they're stopping long enough to confront the brutal facts, with a spirit of faith that the future will be different.</strong></p>
</div>What You Get: The Complete 7-Area Year-End Review Workbook
Key Metrics Dashboard
Track the numbers that actually matter—financial health (gross margin, net margin, working capital ratio), customer metrics (CAC, CLV, LTV:CAC ratio, AOV, conversion rate, repeat purchase rate), and traffic data. Includes healthy benchmarks and space to compare year-over-year so patterns emerge over time.
7-Area Slingshot Framework Review
Structured questions for each interconnected area: Sell (products), Story (brand & customer understanding), Tech Stack, Marketing, Optimise (conversion), Experience (post-purchase), and Growth. For each area, you'll capture what worked, what didn't, and most importantly—what you learned.
"Uncomfortable Questions" for Each Area
The questions most founders avoid—like "If your main marketing channel disappeared tomorrow, would your business survive?" and "Which products are you emotionally attached to that aren't actually making money?" These push you past surface-level analysis into genuine insight.
Lead vs Lag Measures Framework
Everything in your review is a lag measure—results that are already fixed. This section helps you translate insights into lead measures: the specific activities you control that will drive next year's results. Includes examples and space to define your own.
Goals & Accountability Section
Space to capture your top 3 wins, top 3 lessons, and top 3 priorities for next year. Plus guidance on quarterly check-ins and finding accountability partners—because research shows accountability increases goal achievement from 10% to 95%.
How This Changes Your Planning for Next Year
Instead of glancing at revenue and hoping for the best, you'll have a clear picture of what actually happened across every area of your business—and specific, activity-based goals for what to do differently. The workbook helps you move from guesswork to pattern recognition, from lag measures to lead measures, from working harder to working smarter.
Perfect for:
- E-commerce businesses (£500K–£3M) wanting to understand what's actually driving results—not just revenue
- Founders who know they should review the year but aren't sure where to start or what questions to ask
- Teams looking for a structured framework to align on priorities for next year
- Anyone tired of setting goals they don't hit because they're measuring the wrong things
What makes this different: This isn't a simple revenue review or a generic goal-setting template. It's built on the Slingshot Framework—7 interconnected areas that cover your entire business—with specific questions designed to surface the insights you'd otherwise miss. The LEGO case study proves what's possible when you confront the brutal facts properly.
Download Your Free 7-Area Year-End Review Workbook
Block half a day. Treat it like a board meeting with yourself. You'll walk away knowing exactly what worked, what didn't, what you learned—and the specific activities that will drive results next year.
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Related Episode
Dive deeper into this topic with this podcast episode
The Year-End Review Most eCommerce Founders Skip (And Why It's Costing Them)
In 2003, LEGO discovered they hadn't generated economic profit for over a decade. Nobody knew. The company was $800 million in debt before a thorough review revealed what had remained hidden. This is the trap most eCommerce founders fall into — running so fast they never stop to look at what's actually happening. Matt Edmundson shares the 7-area Slingshot framework for meaningful year-end reviews, the specific metrics worth tracking, and why accountability partners increase goal achievement by 95%. Whether your year was brutal or brilliant, the review process matters more than you think.