This time of year, you’ve got a fresh slate, a clean canvas. What you do with this year is entirely up to you. You can keep your head down and keep working in your business, rather than on it (if you don’t get that reference, go buy
Here’s a list of resolutions to get you started.
#1. I Will Market My Business, Even When I’m Busy
I’m guilty of not doing this. When business is pouring in, it’s difficult to set aside time to find new customers, but it’s essential. Keep updating your profiles on social media. Keep blogging. Keep networking. Even if you don’t need the business right now, you will later.
Here are resources to maximize the time you spend on marketing:
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And my tip: use Hootsuite to schedule social updates and manage multiple profiles
#2. I Will Digitize My Processes
If you think about it, why do you really need paper? It’s a waste of trees, and it takes up space. With so many great applications and software available, you can actually be more productive by taking those activities to your computer or mobile device, for everything from employee schedules to document processing. Here are my favorite ways to go digital:
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Google Docs: share documents for editing and make it easier to keep track of revisions.
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ScheduleBase: create digital employee schedules and automatically email them to employees to save time and cut down on calls from them.
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Insightly: keep track of customers and take notes on interactions. Share with your team to manage the sales pipeline.
#3. I Will Spend More Time Focused on Strategy
Going back to my “working in your business” comment: if you only handle the day-to-day and don’t work on strategically building your business, you can’t expect it to grow. When’s the last time you wrote or revised your business plan? It could probably stand to have the dust blown off of it. Here are resources to help:
#4. I Will Measure My Goals
When you create resolutions (or call ‘em goals, if you prefer), the key is to make them measurable and actionable. Don’t just say you want to increase sales. How much do you want to increase them? See where they were last year, and get a dollar amount you want to hit in 2014. Break that down by quarter to make it easier to track how successful you are throughout the year. Then set up tasks you can do to achieve your goal. Want more sales? Hire more salespeople.
You are responsible for your business’ success. Make it a great year in 2014 by setting up resolutions and then working to accomplish them.
Images: ”A road sign indicating New Year’s Resolution / Shutterstock.com“
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