Is your business ready for the new year?
2013 is quickly approaching and a common talking point at this time of year is what resolutions are you setting for yourself? Most people come back with responses like, losing weight, starting an exercise program, not eating candy, the usual things that only approximately 10% of people actually follow through with. This year, take a different approach to your New Year’s resolutions. What resolutions do you have for your business in 2013 and what do you plan to do to ensure you are successful in meeting them?
I looked in the dictionary for the official definition of resolution. Here is what I found, “the act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc.” With this in mind, it is time to start planning what your business goals are for this year, both long and short term, and determining what your best course of action is to achieve these goals. Here are some tips in setting goals and for giving your business the jump start it needs for the new year.
- Set Your Goals – When setting business goals, it is very important that you set up a strategy to meet these goals. Not having a workable strategy in place will ensure that your goals will not be met.
- Reality Check – Make sure the goals you set are realistic – if you say, I want to make $1,000,000 and you can’t back it up with a realistic strategy, then it probably isn’t the best goal to set for this year. Plus, setting goals that are not obtainable will only lead to disappointment or a feeling of failure for yourself.
- Build a Budgeting Process – If you already have a budgeting process in place, look back at 2012 and see if your process supports your company’s vision. If it does not, it’s time to create a process that will support your vision.
- Develop a Customer Strategy – Ensure that the services or products you are providing your customers with are exceeding their expectations. Not only will this bring customers back but it will provide recommendations bringing new customers in.
- Define Success – Not only should you define what would make you successful long term, but what do you consider as daily successes? Write these down and each day you will be one step closer to meeting your true definition of success.
With the above tips, it’s time to sit down and plan your business resolutions for 2013. Not only will they prepare your mind as we enter into the New Year, but it will give you some realistic goals and the strategies to achieve them bringing you closer to success.