How to plan a productive Q1 2026: Preparing your business for the new year

A year-end review gives London businesses a clear starting point for planning. It shows how the organisation performed, where pressure points appeared, and what supported growth. This step works best when the review is structured and consistent across departments.

Financial performance – Identify what truly drove outcomes

London businesses deal with higher operating costs, tighter margins, and frequent changes in demand. A surface-level financial summary won’t give enough clarity.

The review should answer two practical questions:

• Which activities genuinely produced value this year?
• Which costs increased without improving performance?

Focus the review on:

• Revenue streams that strengthened or weakened for identifiable reasons
• Cost categories that consistently pressured cash flow
• How inflation, salaries, and office space cost movements in Central London affected margins (1)
• Contracted services or subscriptions that no longer justify their cost

This approach moves the conversation from “What happened?” to “What should we stop, start, or recalibrate?” – the decisions leadership teams struggle with most.

Operational efficiency: Expose bottlenecks early

Operational issues rarely appear in monthly reports, but they shape the entire year.

London teams often face:

• Processes that grew heavier as workload increased
• Technology gaps that forced manual work or slowed output
• Underutilised team capacity in some months and overstretched capacity in others
• Vendor relationships that no longer match the speed or reliability required

Highlight where operational friction genuinely limited performance. These insights help answer the bigger planning questions:

Do we need different systems? More automation? A shift in roles? A better partner?

Customer understanding: Translate customer behaviour into next-year priorities

In a competitive market like London, customer behaviour often signals change earlier than financials do. Businesses that ignore these signals tend to plan reactively.

Your review should focus on:

• Why customers chose you this year — and why they didn’t
• Where expectations rose, especially around service speed and flexibility
• How location-specific factors (Fitzrovia footfall, local competition, hybrid working) shaped demand
• Which customer groups are growing and which are becoming harder to retain

These insights guide next-year strategy: product direction, pricing, service levels, workspace needs, and investment priorities.

Connecting the review to real decisions

A strong year-end review gives leadership three things:

• Clarity on what is actually driving performance instead of relying on assumptions
• Confidence to prioritise, especially when budgets are tight or external pressures rise

A shared understanding across teams, making next-year planning more aligned and far easier to execute

This step sets the tone for the entire planning process. Without it, teams risk carrying the same problems into another year – only with less room to manoeuvre

London’s business environment changes quickly, so leaders need to plan with forward-looking data rather than headlines. Start with the indicators that directly affect operations and investment:

• Workplace demand: Review recent letting patterns and any office market report relevant to your sector (2). Central areas like Fitzrovia continue to show active office demand, particularly for refurbished and well-located buildings, while older space sees slower interest (3). These patterns guide decisions on renewal, relocation, or early negotiations.
• Cost pressures: Monitor movements in commercial rent, business rates revaluations, insurance, and energy. These shifts influence cash flow and determine whether expansion, consolidation, or refurbishment is viable.
• Customer and sector behaviour: Study how your clients responded to economic uncertainty this year. Many London sectors are prioritising stability, shorter commitments, and flexible service models.

Insights from these signals help businesses plan with conditions they are likely to face, not assumptions from the previous year.

Strategy turns insight into a small set of decisions that guide the year ahead. To make this clearer, imagine a business based in Fitzrovia reviewing its position:

• Workspace costs are rising.
• A core client group has become more cautious with spending.
• Employee feedback shows the team wants more structure and clearer expectations.

A useful strategic direction for this business could be:

• Protect margin: Prioritise efficiency projects and renegotiate supplier agreements before considering expansion.
• Stabilise revenue: Focus on clients with reliable demand rather than chasing broader, lower-value markets.
• Strengthen delivery: Improve internal processes and define clearer performance expectations to reduce rework and delays.

This example shows how strategy works in practice: choose what matters most, commit to it, and remove distractions. The direction should be concise enough that every team can use it to guide next year’s decisions.

Annual goals should turn your strategy into something people can work toward day-to-day. The best goals are simple, measurable, and based on what the business can realistically influence next year.

For London companies, rising costs, shifting client expectations, and changing workspace needs often shape what those goals look like.

Here’s an example to make it easier to visualise:

If a Fitzrovia firm wants to improve reliability and strengthen client relationships, its goals might look like this:

• Quicker delivery: Shorten the average turnaround time for client work so teams can take on more projects without extra cost.
• More stable revenue: Build stronger routines with existing clients so the pipeline feels less unpredictable.
• A workspace that supports how people actually work: Decide whether to renew, resize, or refurbish the office based on how the team used the space this year (4).

These goals give teams direction without overwhelming them.

Year-end is the moment to tighten your financial position and prepare for upcoming UK tax obligations. For London businesses, the cost base is higher and the margin for error is smaller, so planning needs to be deliberate.

Start by confirming what must be settled before 31 March, the end of the UK corporation tax year for most companies. This includes reviewing profits against the current Corporation Tax rates, which now range from 19% to 25% depending on taxable profit. If you expect to fall into the higher band, consider whether planned investments or allowable expenses should be brought forward.

If your business upgraded equipment, software, or workspace this year, check whether the Full Expensing allowances apply – these can significantly reduce your tax bill when used correctly.

In Fitzrovia and across London, many firms are also preparing for changes to business rates, so include next year’s estimated liability in your cash-flow planning to avoid surprises.

Finally, tidy up outstanding invoices and supplier payments. A clear year-end ledger makes forecasting more accurate and budgeting far easier.

Operational planning is often where London businesses find their biggest efficiency gains. Year-end is the ideal moment to review where work slowed, where costs grew, and where better systems could ease pressure next year.

Start with your core processes. Identify tasks that regularly stalled projects or required manual workarounds. These patterns usually point to the systems that need updating. Many firms are now replacing older tools to meet new expectations around speed, reporting, and compliance – especially with the UK’s increasing emphasis on data protection (UK GDPR) and secure record-keeping.\

Next, assess your technology stack. Look at what your teams actually used this year and what sat idle. This helps decide whether to upgrade, consolidate, or remove licences. If you’re considering automation or AI-led tools, check how they integrate with existing platforms rather than adding new complexity.

Workforce planning sets the rhythm for the year ahead. London businesses must align their teams with both strategic priorities and upcoming UK employment changes. This is not just an HR exercise – it directly affects cost control, productivity, and the ability to deliver on next year’s goals.

Start with a focused review of your workforce:

• Capacity: Where teams struggled to meet demand and where there is underutilised talent.
• Skills: Roles that need upskilling due to technology changes or new service expectations.
• Leadership: Managers who need clearer training, coaching support, or succession planning.

Next, take account of UK employment standards coming into effect:

• From April 2026, the National Living Wage (for those 21 and over) increases to £12.71 per hour, rising from the current £12.21 rate (since April 2025)\
• Holiday pay reforms, particularly for irregular-hours workers.

• New flexible working rules, which allow employees to request flexibility from day one.

Hybrid working remains central in London. Review how often teams used your Fitzrovia space, which days carried the most activity, and whether the layout still supports collaboration.
Finally, confirm what roles are genuinely essential. This helps businesses avoid reactive hiring and focus on building a workforce that matches their strategic direction.

An annual business plan should turn your insights, strategic direction, and goals into a clear document that guides decisions across the year. London companies benefit from keeping this plan concise. It should be easy for teams to understand and simple for leadership to update as conditions shift.

Start by bringing the essentials together:

Priorities: The three or four areas the business will focus on next year.

• Goals: The measurable outcomes linked to those priorities.
• Resources: The people, budget, and workspace needed to deliver them.
• Risks: The external factors that could disrupt progress, such as rate changes, supply pressures, or shifts in local demand.

Next, create a timeline. Quarterly checkpoints help teams adjust quickly, especially when operating costs or client behaviour in London can change faster than national trends.

Finally, confirm ownership. Each goal should have someone accountable for progress and for raising issues early. This structure keeps the plan active rather than sitting unused.