December 01, 2019 / By kitesurfing
It’s that time of the year once more: your workload has increased from barely manageable to hectic now the Christmas period’s coming up again, and somewhere along the way, you’ve got to try and consider your business goals for the next year. Near-impossible, right?
Maybe you need a little help in your goal planning. Obviously, your own personal goals are specific to you and your business itself, but if you’re looking to grow and develop as a business in general, it’s worth thinking about the winning formula for all-encompassing business success. No matter what your niche may be, there are certain things you should be focusing on if you want to see a real improvement in your sales come the end 2020.
Ready to put pen to paper and get list-writing? Take a look at these 7 new year’s resolutions to put in place for your business in 2020:
Manage your finances more effectively
It takes a very lucky (and most likely #talented) person to genuinely enjoy the financial side of business. Managing your finances is nothing short of a nightmare, but there are ways that you can lift the weight from your back, even just a little.
For a start, if you’re seeing huge dips and increases in your cashflow, which is pretty normal for an emerging business, prepare for this in advance. You want to create enough capital to feel confident in your business’ growth, while minimising stress where you can.
Invest in SEO… ASAP
It goes without saying that for a modern business, SEO is one of the most important investments you can make. If you’re not focusing on SEO in the slightest, you’re missing out on an incredible opportunity to reach out to an entirely new audience that simply hasn’t found you yet.
An SEO expert can help you with everything from improving your searchability on search engines like Google and Bing, to facilitating your PPC, creating content for your site, link building, and managing your social media accounts, all of which drive a bigger audience to your website and ultimately helps you make more money in the long run. Don’t try and do your own SEO if you haven’t got the skills to do so. It just won’t be a valuable use of your time.
Grow your team
Whatever stage of business growth you’re at, it can be all too easy to get overly comfortable with the team you’re currently working with. Which, in short, can lead to stinted growth. Every extra team member you bring in will help you to multiply your sales, your marketing… and eventually, your profits. Don’t be afraid to invest in an additional helping hand or two.
Network, network, network
When business gets busy, the first thing to go out the window is networking. If you’re largely of the opinion that networking is a waste of time, ask yourself this: am I giving it the attention it deserves?
Networking is what you make of it. If you don’t put your very all into your business meetups, you probably won’t get anything out of them. Selling yourself to strangers over a glass of wine takes skill, dedication, people skills, and an awful lot of hard work – but do it properly and you’ll more than reap the benefits.
Make time for rest
Going into the new year, it’s tempting to want to up the ante and rush into 2020 hell-for-leather with everything you’ve got. Newsflash: this is probably going to drain you by mid-January. And suffering a personal burnout has the potential to massively impact on your business’ success.
Making time for rest is essential if you want to see your business make any sort of effective long-term growth. If you give yourself adequate downtime, when you are focusing on the important elements behind your business, you’ll be far more productive in your actions.
Get social
There’s no avoiding social media nowadays, so even if you sort of hate it on a personal level (and there’s no shame in admitting that), it’s unfortunately not an option to ignore it from a business perspective.
Social media offers the fastest and most immediate communication directly from you to your customers, giving you a chance to network, boost your organic visibility, increase traffic to your website, and send your brand across the internet. If it’s too daunting to consider all forms of social media for now, go for the one that will work for your business the most. If words are your thing, go for Twitter. If you’re more visual, give Instagram a try.
Know your worth
When you’re an emerging business still fairly new to your industry, it can be all too tempting to undervalue yourself. Which leads to under-charging. Which is a great way for your clients to also undervalue the work that you do.
Admitting that you’re good enough to be charging the same prices as your competition – maybe even more – is a scary thing to do. We all have self-doubts. You might not feel like you’re there yet, but guess what? You probably are. If you don’t believe in yourself and your product, your clients are going to find it harder to, too.
Categories: New Year’s Resolutions