10 Questions to Get Your Business Ready for 2026

Before you rush into goal-setting, optimization, or "what's next," there's something more important to do: integrate the year you just lived. In this reflective year-end episode of The Experienced Entrepreneur, Marissa Lawton guides seasoned business owners through 10 powerful questions designed to help you make sense of 2025 and move into 2026 with more clarity, steadiness, and intention. This is not a productivity episode. It's an integration episode — created for entrepreneurs who have been in business long enough to know that insight doesn't come from moving faster, but from listening more closely. Through a series of thoughtful prompts, Marissa invites you to reflect on the ways your business grew beyond revenue, the patterns that repeated themselves throughout the year, and the moments that revealed how much your capacity and maturity have expanded. You'll explore: Where your business quietly grew in resilience, boundaries, and self-trust Patterns in your metrics, energy, or decision-making that shaped your year Wobbles you moved through with more steadiness than in past seasons What you released in 2025 — and how letting go created space for something truer How aligned your business felt with the life you're trying to build What steady growth could look like in 2026 Which parts of your business are asking to be tended to before your next step How you want decision-making to feel in the year ahead What kind of rhythms, boundaries, or structures will support the version of you you're becoming Which wobble you want to catch earlier next year — and what will help you steady it Marissa also shares an invitation to a live, waitlist-only focus group for The Monday Meeting, a new mentorship space designed for experienced entrepreneurs who want a steadier relationship with their business and clearer signals for navigating the year ahead. If you're craving reflection without pressure — and clarity without hustle — this episode offers a grounded place to pause before stepping forward.