It’s January. People are making commitments to eat healthier, exercise more, break bad habits, and reach new goals. When we have the motivation to stick to them, New Year’s resolutions make life better in general. You’ve certainly been thinking about your personal goals, but what about your New Year business resolutions?
In the new year, think about how new commitments and goals can make your company better. Let’s explore some common New Year’s resolutions for businesses. After that, we can review some questions to get you thinking about your business objectives for the year. Start taking notes. This is important!
15 Common Professional New Year’s Resolutions for Business Owners
Although your goals and objectives will never be the same as someone else’s, knowing what other business owners strive for can be helpful. To get the ideas flowing, here are some general New Year’s resolutions to keep in mind as an entrepreneur.
- Delegate more
- Be more consistent with marketing efforts and branding
- Learn new business tactics (marketing, promotions, etc.)
- Attend more networking events
- Manage cash flow more effectively
- Stop procrastinating on the “small” stuff
- Improve the company’s online presence
- Set a new pricing strategy
- Purchase new equipment
- Find an accountability partner in a professional peer
- Update your business plan
- Protect your intellectual property
- Review legal forms and formalize verbal agreements
- Prepare for annual tax changes
- Conduct a customer service analysis
Do any of these examples sound like they might enhance your business processes over the next 12 months? Great!
Now, make sure you know which goals to prioritize with a quick self-analysis. Here are three questions to ask yourself.
First, What “Bad Habits” Did Your Business Develop Last Year?
Did you put too much focus on certain areas of your business and neglect others? Did you ignore advice you received to implement new systems and processes? Did you overpromise and under-deliver? Every business has bad habits and now is the perfect time to break yours.
Write down some of your less than ideal habits from this past year, then, consider how you might go about breaking them. Even if you can’t think of any, take a look at your business’ data and see if you notice any systemic patterns. See anything strange about your orders or processes? Record your ideas down to improve now.
Next, Are There Certain Business Goals You Want to Set or Records You’d Like to Break?
For some entrepreneurs, they set great intentions but never carry out those ideas in their day-to-day operations. They intend to implement specific sales strategies and break certain records, but they procrastinate or don’t make time to come up with solutions. What plans are sitting at the back of your mind waiting for you to bring them to fruition?
Write your ideas down. Be detailed about the challenges or excuses you have for not taking action so that you can find ways to overcome them. Then you can integrate these thoughts into your 12-month plan.
Now, Do You Need to Modify Operations or Hire More Staff in the New Year?
Especially if you find that your challenges are based on the size of your company or the way your system is set up, growth is crucial. What isn’t working? How can you fix it? And, do you need more help? If so, it’s time to set up a plan.
Use your answers to set New Year’s resolutions that can help you maximize your business income. Be as detailed with your resolution-setting as you were with your business plan – even if you wrote your business plan on a napkin.
Finally, Do You Need Working Capital to Hit Your Business Targets?
Now you have tactical advice to set powerful business resolutions this year. Need more business cash flow to get there? Lendr specializes in providing funding to savvy businesses and inexperienced ones alike. If you need a financial boost to help you meet this year’s goals, apply for working capital today.
