10 New Years Resolutions For SME’s
1) Learn to delegate and do more of it
There are so many things to do when you’re running a small business, it’s easy to delude ourselves that we need to do all of them. Delegation is the key to a healthy work-life balance.
2) Promote your business regularly and consistently.
Too often the task of promoting a 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. Make a New Year’s resolution to create a marketing campaign and complement this with a stylish and functional website.
3) Make business planning a weekly event.
Planning is vital if you want a healthy, growing business. This lets you take stock of what worked and what didn’t work, and helps you set new directions or adjust old goals. Not only will this help you avoid costly mistakes and stay on track, but you’ll feel more focused and relaxed.
4) Learn something new.
Learning something new will add to your skills and add a new dimension of interest to your life – another important part of achieving a healthy work-life balance.
5) Join a new business organization or networking group.
There’s nothing like talking to other business people for sparking new ideas, refining old ones, and making contacts. Integrating social media and forums to your website will streamline such activity.
6) Put time for you on your calendar.
All work and no play is a recipe for mental and physical disaster. So if you have trouble freeing up time to do the things you enjoy, write time regularly into your schedule to “meet with yourself” and stick to that commitment. If you won’t invest in yourself, who will?
8) Set realistic goals.
Goal setting is a valuable exercise – if the goals lead to success rather than distress. Make a New Year’s resolution that the goals you set will be goals that are achievable, rather than unrealistic pipe dreams that are so far out of reach they only lead to frustration.
9) Drop what’s not working for you and move on.
All products aren’t going to be super sellers, all sales methods aren’t going to work for everyone, and all suppliers or contractors aren’t going to be ideally suited to your business. If a technique or a product or a business relationship isn’t working for you, stop using it. Don’t invest a lot of energy into trying to make the unworkable workable. Move on. Once you find this put your efforts in promoting this online and putting into place systems that will allow you to maintain focus and maximise ROI.
10) Purchase a CRM system to streamline your operations.
Whatever your industry a CRM system is integral to the success of your customer communications and will ensure ROI. There are many out there but my advice is to choose when that is industry specific and has been tried and tested by your peers. I would recommend Acquaint CRM for all the above reasons please see our online demo.