With the New Year just around the corner, now is a perfect time to plan to try something new in your business. Here are a few options to try out to ensure 2017 gets off to a good start:
Delegate more often
Plenty of business owners struggle with letting go of some responsibilities. Your business is your creation and to let someone else take the reins for a bit can be daunting. However, this is what you should be doing and doing more of.
You simply can’t do everything all at once and as the owner/director of a company, this shouldn’t be your aim anyway. You should aim to create a system that works without your constant care so you can essentially make money in your sleep.
Your job as a director is already stressful and busy enough. You need to be surrounding yourself with people who you can trust to help you steer your business in the right direction.
Create a marketing plan
You should make sure that your marketing efforts are consistently strong. If you haven’t already, plan your marketing strategy over the next few months with clear and realistic goals.
Make sure you’re taking public holidays and current events into consideration. This might mean having a marketing plan to coincide with Christmas, for example. While it’s good to plan ahead, always leave room for you to be able to address and react to news stories as they pop up.
Learn a new skill
Why not use the New Year to learn a new skill? This could be something that you enjoy in your own time to help you wind day from a day of work or it could be something that affects your business.
You might feel like your knowledge or skills is lacking in some area, making it harder to run the business. Learning a new skill could end up adding value to your company or make it easier to manage your team.
Give back
Increasingly, businesses are making an effort to give back to the community. It’s a good way to build a positive reputation and it’s also just nice to give something back to the community you’re making money from.
You could volunteer your time as an individual and become a business mentor or make donations as a company to a local charity.
Start a blog
If you don’t already have a blog on your business website, then you should join in and start one. It’s good for SEO purposes because search engines will see your website being updated with regular, quality content and bump it up the rankings. This means you’re more visible online and likely to make more conversions.
Having a blog about your industry helps you make your mark as industry experts which then inspires trust. A blog can also help you get attention on social media if you’re out there sharing blog posts with an online community.
Rethink your work-life balance
This is something that keeps turning up in business blogs all over the internet and for good reason. Nowadays employers are under more pressure to ensure that their employees feel happy and supported.
Having a good work-life balance means you can attract top talent to your company, keep them happy and also benefit from a more productive workforce as a result. You’re more likely to retain employees if you’re more flexible about work schedules.
It all starts with you. Make sure you don’t forget about your own work-life balance. You need to take time off in order to recharge and maintain efficiency when it comes to running your business.
Invest time or money
Make a move to expand your business and your potential for profits in the New Year by investing. You could invest in a wider product range, office space or recruit new employees. If you need to apply for funding or attract investors, draw up a new business plan to show where the new cash injection will fit into your plans for growth.
With the new Apprenticeship Levy coming into play, you might think about investing your time in training an apprentice. For minimal cost to your business, you can get a fresh worker who you can train from the ground up.
Have you made any New Year plans for your business yet? Share your plans and thoughts in the comments below!