From: http://www.bizjournals.com/

If you’re like me, you often find yourself hopelessly wishing, “If only there were an extra hour in the day.” This year, we all have an opportunity to cash in on that wish. We get a bonus 24 hours on Feb. 29.

As a small-business owner with limited extra resources, it would be easy to treat leap year day like another ordinary Monday. Instead, consider using the extra day to break from the daily grind by planning a day-long retreat to reflect on the business.

Especially with tax day just around the corner, it’s a good time of year to take stock of the company’s financials and sketch out a plan for the year ahead.

But it’s equally important to reflect on the big picture: What were the major successes of the past year? What were the challenges? Where are the major roadblocks this year?

Who’s In?

Should this be a day of self-reflection, or do you solicit the input of others? In determining what kind of “retreat” you should schedule, consider who is affected by (and a part of) the major issues you’ll be examining.

The more key decision makers are involved in discussions, the more effective the outcomes are likely to be. Decisions made by a team consensus can often be easier for employees to digest, and execution will likely be smoother than decisions made by an individual.

Reserve at least part of the day for staff education and soliciting input on planning and improvements. Doing so can help you achieve buy-in for major strategic decisions, or at the very least, increase your staff’s understanding of what’s driving the difficult decisions the company must make. Employees often take more ownership and show accountability when they’re aware of the big picture and feel their opinions are heard.

Tackle the Hard Stuff

The day’s agenda should block out time for you to think about the difficult questions facing your business, which likely require time and space to work through. For example, my yoga studio business was in growth mode last year — I expanded the space, opened a retail shop and revamped my website. The down side: cash flow was tight. It’s tough to separate emotions from rational business decisions when you’re close to employees, and I needed time to do some hard analysis from a distance to determine what could be weighing down the health of the business when the studio was growing.

Getting out from under the day-to-day business management mindset is hard, but it’s crucial in order to help make big decisions. Ultimately, as business owners, we sometimes have to make unpopular choices to protect the company and, hopefully, the team overall. Whether that means rethinking how we’re stocking inventory or taking to heart the pushback we’ve received from employees, it’s a challenging exercise. It requires a balance between toughness and sensitivity.

Despite the difficulty, it’s important stuff to consider, not just for the financial health of the business, but also to prevent burnout in the long run.

Give a Round of Applause

Retreats don’t have to be all business. A little celebration and fun is a welcome energy boost for teams. Financial successes are important, but often it isn’t what matters most for employees. The latest Gallup poll found that nearly 52 percent of U.S. employees are not engaged at work, and nearly 16 percent were “actively disengaged.” A big pay raise may get some people to leave a job, but employees need to feel engaged and committed to the company they work for. How do you do that?

Celebrating the small wins can help. Employees want to be recognized for their achievements and feel like they make an important contribution to the company’s overall achievements. It’s important to find ways — big or small — to acknowledge that. For example, at the yoga studio I run, we field a yearly snap survey to our customers asking them for feedback on their experience and instructors. Our team reviews the responses and recognizes the top instructors with various voter’s choice awards at our annual offsite. The approach gives accolades to important internal contributors, helps underscore our values and increases employee awareness about how they can achieve similar results.

However, smaller efforts can be equally rewarding to employees, such as a note from a boss acknowledging the extra care an employee put into a certain task. Take some time to think through how you can acknowledge employee efforts and help them feel connected to the big picture.

Why Bother?

Carving time out to re-focus on the big issues can be difficult to do, but it’s critical to ensuring your business can achieve its long-term goals and remain cash positive. There will always be a laundry list of excuses and demands that prevent you from breaking away.

So, think of leap year as a bonus day for your business. Use the time wisely to get ahead of the game early in the year, instead of finding yourself with a frantic feeling in June that half of the year has suddenly flown by.