It’s that time of year again—you’ve hopefully enjoyed your Christmas break, and now it’s a new year and you’re getting back into the swing of things. Of course, being a business owner, you’re also doing some reflection.
How did 2017 go for you? The start of the year is a good time to take stock of what worked well for your business and what mistakes may have been made. It’s also the ideal time to look to the year ahead and decide on some resolutions and goals for what you’d like to accomplish.
Here we suggest our top 5 resolutions for business owners in 2018:
1. Learn how to manage my cash flow more effectively.
Cash flow is the lifeblood of any small business. In fact, many startups and small businesses fail due to poor cash flow management. According to The Balance, “This is a great resolution for small business owners who have drastic ebbs and flows in their cash flow, have been unable to create enough capital to invest back into the business or those who don’t really understand the day-to-day finances of the business.”
2. Improve your online presence
If it’s been more than a year since your site has been updated, if you haven’t taken action to make your online presence mobile-friendly, if you still haven’t created an email marketing list or if digital isn’t part of your marketing strategy at all, it’s time to add this to your new year’s resolutions. Remember that quality fresh content on your site is a sure-fire way to boost traffic to your site and therefore your SEO. Plan a content strategy that ensures you will always have something new to add to your site whilst providing you with something to share online via your social media. You could even take a step further than mobile-friendly and use a mobile-first approach to your digital presence.
3. Charge what you are worth.
Do you feel that your product or service is undervalued? If so, then it might be time to raise your rates to correspond with the value you bring to the table. We all do it from time to time; we reduce our prices to fear of losing the sale, but it’s not always the best way to go. You might be thinking that raising your prices will alienate certain people from becoming a customer. That could be the case, but you can’t be all things to all people. “Your target market will pay what the marketplace has proved it will pay”, says Entrepreneur. Make sure you are fully aware of the pricing conventions within your marketplace and if you can demonstrate ROI. This will shift the emphasis from cost to value and enable to charge more.
4. Stay Focused
Clear out your clutter, streamline your processes and clarify your vision for your business.
A company with a quality product and a clear mission, whilst not getting easily side-tracked on the latest trends is on the right path. Understand what it is you ultimately want to achieve as a business for 2018, it might be growth, consolidation or diversification; whatever it is, keep clear focus on your main objective and ensure your way of working on a daily basis is designed to reach this goal.
5. Promote your business regularly and consistently
Perhaps the most important of all your resolutions should be to focus on sales. Too often the task of promoting your small business slips to the bottom of the to-do list in the press of urgent tasks. If you want to attract new customers, you have to make promotion a priority. If sales is not your forte, consider outsourcing to a professional sales firm. This will free up your time without neglecting the growth of your business