After a challenging 2025 refocus and prepare your business for 2026.

For many small and medium-sized enterprises, 2025 has been a year of resilience rather than growth. Economic uncertainty, rising costs, cautious customers, skills shortages, and rapid technological change have tested even the most well-run businesses. If it feels like you spent much of the year reacting instead of leading, you’re not alone.

As we enter January 2026, now is the ideal time to pause, reset, and refocus. Not to dwell on what didn’t go to plan, but to deliberately position your business for a stronger, more controlled year ahead.  Refocusing isn’t about grand strategies or five-year plans. It’s about clarity, priorities, and making sure your limited time and resources are pointed in the right direction.

Why refocusing matters now

After a difficult year, many business owners carry decision fatigue into the new one. You may feel tempted to “just keep going” and hope conditions improve. That’s risky.  Without refocusing, businesses often:

• Continue offering low-margin products or services out of habit
• Chase too many opportunities without clear returns
• Underinvest in systems, people, or marketing
• Stay busy but not profitable

Refocusing gives you back control. It helps you decide what not to do, which is just as important as choosing what to pursue.

 Start with an honest review

Before setting goals for 2026, look back at 2025 with objectivity. Ask yourself:

• What made money this year?
• Which customers or projects drained time with little return?
• Where did we firefight most often?
• What decisions did we avoid making?

This isn’t about criticising yourself. It’s about using information to help guide you. Most SMEs already have the data they need – in invoicing, bank statements, customer feedback, and staff conversations – they just haven’t pulled it together.  A practical tip would be to write down three things that clearly worked in 2025 and three that clearly didn’t. If something sits in the middle, it probably needs rethinking.

Reconfirm your core focus

Challenging years often blur a business’s original purpose. You may have added services, discounts, or exceptions just to keep income flowing.  Going into 2026, reconnect with your core:

• Who is your ideal customer?
• What problem do you solve better than competitors?
• Where do you genuinely add the most value?

If you can’t answer these clearly, neither can your customers.  A practical tip would be to restate who you help and what you help them achieve by doing what you do well.

Review Your Financial Strategy to Protect Cashflow

After a challenging year, many SMEs discover that their biggest issue wasn’t sales – it was cashflow. Profit on paper doesn’t always translate into money in the bank, especially when customers are slow to pay and costs must be covered upfront.

As you refocus for 2026, your financial strategy should actively support cashflow, not just record it.  Key questions to consider:

• How long does it take, on average, to get paid?
• Are you funding customer credit from your own cash?
• Do you have enough working capital to grow without strain?
• Are you relying too heavily on overdrafts or personal funds?

Invoice finance is one tool worth reviewing as part of this process. Rather than waiting 30, 60, or 90 days for customers to pay, invoice finance allows businesses to unlock cash tied up in unpaid invoices, improving liquidity and cashflow stability.  For many SMEs, invoice finance can:

• Smooth cashflow during periods of growth
• Reduce stress caused by late-paying customers
• Provide funding that grows in line with sales
• Remove the need to constantly chase payments

It’s not a solution for every business, but for businesses trading on credit, it can be a great alternative to traditional borrowing.  A practical tip would be to map out your cashflow cycle from sale to payment. If delays are forcing you to pause growth, dip into reserves, or make reactive decisions, it’s a sign your financial strategy may need updating – not just tightening cost control.

Simplify your priorities

Many SMEs enter a new year with long to-do lists and ambitious plans – new markets, new customers, new systems, new products. Whilst this is no bad thing, after a tough year, simplicity usually delivers better results.  Instead of asking, “What more can we do?” ask yourself:

• What should we stop doing?
• What should we improve rather than replace?
• What one or two changes would make the biggest difference?

A practical tip would be to choose three business priorities for the first half of 2026:

1. One financial (e.g. cashflow stability, margin improvement)
2. One operational (e.g. reducing bottlenecks, improving delivery)
3. One growth-related (e.g. marketing consistency, customer retention)

Everything else supports these — or waits.

Get Real About Cash and Capacity

After a challenging year, optimism without realism can hurt cashflow. Be honest about:

• Your cost base
• Your pricing
• Your team’s true capacity

If margins are thin, growth alone won’t fix the problem. Many SMEs need to refocus on profitability and funding structure before expansion. A helpful tip would be to review your top 10 customers or services by profit, not income. Consider where you could:

• Increase prices
• Reduce delivery costs
• Say no to low-value work

Small changes here often outperform major sales pushes.

Refocus your time as a leader

One of the biggest lessons from difficult years is how easily owners get stuck in the business instead of on it.  Going into 2026, ask:

• Where am I spending time that doesn’t require me?
• What decisions am I postponing because they’re uncomfortable?
• What would I work on if I had one clear day a week?

A practical tip would be to block out a monthly “thinking morning” — no meetings, no emails. Use it to review numbers, priorities, and risks.

Build momentum early

January doesn’t need to be dramatic. It needs to be deliberate.  Refocusing early in the year creates momentum:

• Clear direction improves team confidence
• Better cashflow improves decision-making
• Fewer priorities improve execution

2026 doesn’t have to be perfect. It just needs to be intentional.

In summary

 A challenging 2025 may have tested your business, but it also gave you insight. SMEs that take time to refocus now — especially around cashflow and financial strategy – will start 2026 better prepared, more confident, and more resilient than those who simply hope for better conditions.

Read more

How UK SMEs can protect their cashflow