The end of 2016 is almost here – can you even believe it? This year has seemed to fly by! While the end of the year is a great time to focus on family and friends, it’s also a good time to reflect on how your business if going and the way you’ve progressed over the past year.
Now it’s time to plan how you want your business to develop in the new year! Whether you’re interested in increasing the success of your business in the upcoming year or you want the chance to enjoy the success you’ve achieved more, here are some New Year’s resolutions that are designed to help you do both! These business tips will drive a better work-life balance while also increasing your business success in 2017.
Delegation
Learn how to delegate and do more of it. When running a small business, it’s easy to feel the need to do everything yourself – but that just leaves you exhausted with barely any time to do anything else. If you let someone else take care of some of the tasks on your to-do list, you’d be surprised how much it helps! Delegation is key to creating a healthy balance between your work life and the rest of the things you like to do when not at work.
Promote your Business
In order to attract new customers, it’s important to promote your business regularly and consistently. Embrace social media, start a blog, utilize YouTube… these are juts a few of the ways to do so; all of which Infinite Reach specializes in! If you’d like to create a marketing plan for your business, we’ve got you covered.
Network
There’s nothing like talking to other business owners or other business people to spark new ideas in you, improve old ones, and simply make new connections. Our team personally loves attending our local NAWBO (National Association of Women Business Owners) which really gives us a chance to chat with likeminded leaders in the business world! Try and find a group specifically designed for networking, or another organization or monthly event that takes place and is dedicated to a particular type of business that interests you. Being a part of a group will boost you and your business.
Need Something New?
Is there a piece of equipment in the office that’s hindering your success? Is there something that you lack that’s also making your work life a bit harder? Don’t try to make do; go out and get something new! Maybe it’s buying that new fax machine or hiring a new employee to help lighten the workload. Whatever it may be, don’t put it off if it’s something that you know you need! Let the new year be a new start.
Setting Realistic Goals
There are many benefits of setting goals for your business – just determine that these goals are attainable rather than unrealistic dreams that might be ultimately out of reach. This is a valuable habit to get into, especially for the new year.
Re-Evaluate your Mission Statement
Every so often, especially with the start of the new year, it’s a good idea to look at your mission statement and overall goals and review them. If your business has been around for a few years, chances are things are different now than when you began your business. It’s possible that what you originally set out to do isn’t exactly what ended up with, which is completely okay! That’s why you take sometime to assess these aspects of your business.
Ask for Feedback
Resolve to ask for feedback, and listen to it. Your employees, board members, advisors and clients alike will appreciate that you asked for their feedback on your business and the improvements or changes they think might make you more successful. There’s room for criticism that you may not be prepared for, but all feedback can be good feedback!
Consider customizing your questions to each of your audiences. For instance, your employees’ feedback will help you forecast client growth and troubleshoot and problems inside the office. Board members’ or advisors’ opinions can bring that outside perspective that you need, which can be very valuable to your business as a whole.
Realizing what’s going good and what might not be working for your business can help you see past any challenges and potentially find solutions, and also help you envision long-term fulfillment.
To a Better Year
By making your New Year’s resolutions, you’re giving yourself a goal to achieve. So as long as you aim towards your goal throughout the year, you can consider your New Year’s resolutions a triumph! If you apply these somewhat simple yet effective New Year’s resolutions to your business throughout the new year, you’ll feel better personally and have more energy to put into your business and make it the most successful year you’ve had yet!