The new year provides entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs alike with an opportunity to start anew, and forget the misgivings of the previous year. While being able to forgive and forget is a crucial element of progress in the business world, the ability to critical analyze your previous year from a rational perspective is equally important, allowing you determine exactly what areas need improvement. Maybe you could have communicated with team members better or perhaps you just need to improve your work-life ratio. Whatever it is, being able to find the right balance between forgiveness and level-headed self-reflection can work wonders for your business.

Here are some important questions that startup CEOs at different stages in their careers are asking themselves as they begin the new year.

1. What Are Our Objectives

I think it’s important to come into the new year with three key objectives you need to achieve, with a clear vision as to how they will get you to your next milestone. It’s not only important for founders but also to re-energize your team.

- Tessa Court, IntelligenceBank

2. How Can We Improve

How can we improve?

There’s a reason every job interview asks the applicant what their greatest weaknesses are, and that is because identifying shortcomings and improving on them is a trait not everyone possesses. The best way to realize the weakness is considering it as an opportunity and consistently working on the opportunity to make it better everyday.

- Muneeb Mushtaq, AskforTask

3. What Will Our Customers Expect

The most important question to ask is what will your customers be expecting from 2015?

- Amos Ahola, Collaboration Objects

4. How Can We Contribute To Society

How can I contribute to the buildup of the sustainable global society?

- Matthias Muller, Sustainability Compass

5. How Can Small Changes Yield Big Results

In the past year, what is the smallest change your company made that had the largest positive results? What was it about that small change that produced the large return?

- Tim Nichols, ExactDrive

6. What Role Does The Team Play

We are asking how to improve upon areas of frustration and weakness across 2014. In order to achieve this we all met to ask the question as a team, resulting in approximately 10 key areas and initiatives to put in place in 2015. A New Year is a good opportunity to re-evaluate and make some changes based on past experience.

- Robert Sturt, VPLS VPN Expert