Wholeheartedly embrace them or ignore them altogether, it’s new year’s resolutions time! But have you considered making any new year business resolutions?
Setting new year business resolutions doesn’t need to be a daunting task; they are really targets and goals by any other name. When is a better time than new year to get focused and organised for your small business?
Whether its product, service, people, overheads, profits or expansion goals, taking a positive, realistic and proactive mindset to your business ambitions at the start of each calendar year could make all the difference between success and failure.
Looking back to look forward, it’s time to reflect
Your first step is to look back over the past year and ask yourself three important questions:
- What worked really well?
- What worked OK?
- What didn’t work at all?
These questions can be applied to any business activity you want to consider, and can be as specific as you want or need depending, on the stage your business is at.
Taking this approach means you have a good starting point to plan goals for the coming year and by answering these three questions you are building on your previous year’s successes, always moving forward and being better placed to make the most of opportunities that arise.
Likewise, when reviewing business activities that didn’t go so well in the previous year you are building a growing awareness of issues in your business, voicing and reviewing them in detail, with the aim of avoiding making the same mistake again. From a bad process, some good can come.
Time to map out the year ahead
Once you have posed these three questions on business activities of the previou year, you are now in good shape to set goals and ambitions for the upcoming year.
We suggest you create a road map for the year ahead which will help you work out how you will realistically, step by step, achieve your goals.
By breaking down each goal into a step-by-step process, you can work methodically through them throughout the year and hopefully with less fear and trepidation. By making baby steps on a constant basis, you are moving forward all the time and getting one step closer to hitting your targets. This also means if you face any set backs you are not starting from scratch.
To get you motivated to start, why not start with the easy win goals and targets first? Afterall, we all know how hard it can be to maintain momentum with new year’s resolutions – we’ve all been there!
Review your costs
While it is important to increase profitability by increasing sales volume and/or raising your prices, it is also important not to overlook the opportunities within your business by reviewing your costs.
For example, you could change to lower-cost suppliers or switch your utilities provider and save money? Do you need to take on extra staff, or could you do things more efficiently?
Also look at when you are incurring costs because a bit of forward planning could mean greater tax efficiencies can be achieved if costs are incurred at the right time of year.
What’s stopping you from starting right away?
By dedicating the time and energy to focus on the year ahead, you will have a tangible plan to start the new decade with a bang. When is a better time to get started?
If you are looking for support with your business finances, please contact us today to see how we can help. We can help you make 2020 the best year yet for you and your business.
Written by Shaima Todd.
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