Running a successful business requires careful planning and attention to detail. As a small-business owner, you can help ensure your business’s continued growth and success by setting specific goals and holding to key commitments throughout the year.
The early months of a new year present a great opportunity to evaluate your business’s performance over the past 12 months, optimize processes where possible, make adjustments that can improve profitability and even hit the reset button if necessary. In this post, we’ll offer some key business-focused New Year’s resolutions for your consideration.
- Bring your business plan up to date. Your business plan is the guiding light of your business, but that light may be dimming if it doesn’t reflect your business’s response to current events. This may include global conflicts such as those in Ukraine and the Middle East that may affect your supply chain or sales, or rising costs, such as interest rates and higher energy prices, that could significantly increase your operating expenses.
Start the year off right by reviewing your business plan with clear eyes. Evaluate your goals and how much broader economic and societal issues may impact them. Taking a good honest look at your business can help your business weather uncertain times. - Refresh your marketing plan. Are you reaching out to your customers with a message that resonates with them and their needs? Has your customer base evolved (i.e., have you identified new customer segments or seen old ones fade away)? Are there new technologies or services available that could make it easier to reach your customers? These are all questions you may want to ask yourself as you review your marketing efforts. Depending on your answers, you may want to develop and implement new strategies and messaging for your marketing efforts.
- Recommit to your employees. Employees, especially in the small-business space, are an owner’s greatest asset. They are often the front line of your brand, interacting with customers on a daily basis. So, use the beginning of the year to create a stronger bond with every employee. Employee turnover had already started to climb before the pandemic hit and has continued to increase in its wake. That’s why it’s vital to get your employees emotionally invested in your company. Creating ways for them to participate in the growth and success of your company will also keep them connected and less likely to leave.
- Boost your diversity and inclusion hiring efforts. Recent years have demonstrated the power and importance of representation. Creating a workforce that better represents the communities they serve has become an important resolution for many businesses. The rise of remote workers during the pandemic, as well as video conferencing tools such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom, have made it easier to find and hire those with mobility and other limitations.
- Grow your network to grow your business. Networking takes work, especially if, on top of running your business day to day, you’re not a natural extrovert. But it’s worth the effort and worth making a resolution for. A robust network can benefit your business in many ways, from helping you uncover new business leads and opportunities to giving you access to information and resources you might not otherwise be able to find.
Beyond reaching out to your customers and suppliers, local business groups are a great place to connect with others, as are conferences related to your business category. Commit to making one new connection per week and watch your contact list grow. - Level up your online presence. Merely having a website, while a necessity for most businesses, is no longer enough. Customers are looking for more online engagement from companies than ever before. That means ramping up your use of social media to complement your website.
A well-maintained, regularly updated social media presence can drive sales and help grow your business by giving you a place to introduce new products and services to your most loyal customers. It can also create a community of supporters. Finally, when needed, it gives you a platform to address social issues that may be impacting your business or your customers.