A new year is upon us. As any good football, basketball, or soccer coach would advise, “start strong.” So, prepare your small business for success in another year by starting strong.
Why Start Strong?
By starting strong, you get a surge of momentum that helps you not fall behind on your goals as the year progresses. Starting strong can help employees be more motivated and energized. A strong beginning means refreshing goals, recharging, or even redirecting the organization. It is a way to build on the past while paving a stronger new path for the future. The mark of a new year is a natural start for everyone. Utilize this “new beginning” feeling to refocus your employees and the direction of your small business. Starting fresh in the new year can help make your business goals and successes appear more reachable.
How to Prepare Your Small Business for Another Year
Resolve to make your business stronger next year. Ideally, you should be examining your business regularly to facilitate and plan for success for many years to come. However, there’s no harm in re-evaluating at the start of another year. Follow these suggestions to prepare your small business for greater success:
Evaluate this year’s performance. You can’t move forward strongly if you don’t first assess where you have been so that you can celebrate your victories and learn from any missteps.
Update your business plan. Review and update your goals, strategies, and action plans, then define a path forward for the next year. This will help you set a clearer sense of direction for all stakeholders and facilitate focusing on the things that matter most. Your plans for the forthcoming year will set the stage for better performance in the near-term years after that.
Refine your brand. With your refreshed goals in hand, use the new year as an opportunity to refine and strengthen your brand to create the strongest and clearest impression possible.
Review and improve operational processes. A thorough review of operational processes will help to identify ways to strengthen your infrastructure. Use this as an opportunity to build a growth mindset within the organization. Your review should include examining your customer listening practices and learning from any customer missteps. Then, find ways to improve customer service.
Examine your company culture. Are there ways to enhance the culture of your organization? If so, the steps you take to strengthen your culture will pay big dividends in terms of improving loyalty and retention and increasing efficiency and productivity. Some of the actions you should consider are having more diverse hiring practices, providing stronger employee incentives, and developing ways to foster a more positive working environment.
Refresh and strengthen your marketing plan. Good things can be improved, right? So, use the new year to refresh and strengthen your marketing plan. That should include improving your website and content marketing plan as well as calendar your marketing efforts.
Focus on financial planning. It has long been said, that “if there are no profits, there is no mission.” So, make sure that you have a good financial plan, utilize good accounting practices, and vigorously utilize your financial reports.
Back office functions. Make sure that you have the back office strength to support your growth. To augment a good operating team, it frequently makes sense to outsource some accounting and HR functions to specialists who are experts in their areas. This is a good way to prepare your small business for a great year ahead.
Get Expert Accounting and Financial Assistance
Contact Doerhoff & Associates, CPA, based in Jefferson City, MO. We provide professional accounting and financial assistance that businesses rely on. Doerhoff & Associates has one goal in mind, to provide comprehensive business accounting services designed specifically for your success.
