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As last year fades from your rearview mirror and a bright new year stretches ahead, it’s a good time to assess where you just came from – and decide where you want to go – with your business. Here are six key areas to review this time of year:
1. Business Plan
Last year, did you get to do everything you wanted to in your business? What helped you make it happen – or what kept you from accomplishing it? Do your business objectives still align with the markets you compete in? Will those goals still help you take your business where you want it to go?
If you aren’t sure, start with a broad view of it, break it down into specific, measurable pieces, and then make the needed adjustments as you move forward through the year.
2. Marketing and Advertising Strategies
The lifeblood of every business is effective marketing and advertising. The results your own business gets will only be as good as how much you invest in it and the strategies you use. More options exist now than ever before – both online and offline – and it can be confusing for typically hyper-busy company owners.
Focus on implementing proven foundational strategies like reputation management, video marketing and retargeting first. Keep building on top of those as you go, and you should see the kind of returns you want from your marketing investments.
3. Human Capital and Automation
Your people are what make your business run on a daily basis so treat them with respect and support. Help them keep their skills sharp by encouraging an environment of constant learning and ongoing improvement. Make your team strong and competitive by rewarding true achievers, and don’t be reluctant to prune under-achievers. That’s how championship teams are built.
Show your commitment to winning by nurturing creativity and flexibility in your corporate culture. Start taking advantage of the advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and automate as many repetitive tasks as you can to free your staff's time to address more high-value issues. Reward excellence whenever and wherever you find it, and take time to celebrate your successes.
4. Expense Management
“A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking about real money,” a politician once infamously said. Well, your business may not be spending billions of dollars, but a few hundred here and a few thousand there in unnecessary expenses can ruin your bottom line.
Actively search for and eliminate waste wherever possible. Challenge your team to behave as if they themselves owned the business and they had to personally authorize every expenditure. Expense management is everyone’s responsibility.
5. Competitive Advantages
Did you know the first type of business to implement a customer drive-up window wasn’t a fast food company? It was City Center Bank of St. Louis in 1928, yet it wasn’t long before that simple drive-through model started being adopted by restaurant operators and other types of businesses nationwide.
Look around. What are other industries doing? Do any of their methods offer potential competitive breakthroughs for your type of business? Sometimes it’s an existing idea, re-applied in a different type of market, which can give a company a new edge over its local competitors.
6. Resetting Priorities
For many organizations, the new year is an opportunity to realign their actions with values. This could mean reimagining your company’s mission and how it can better serve your customers.
This is also the time when businesses commit to re-connecting with their clients, launch new campaigns to refill their all-important sales funnel, and use the moment to capitalize on the collective optimism and fresh outlook of their clients and partners. The new year is a perfect time to reset your priorities and give them the attention they need.
Bottom Line
Sometimes you have to slow down temporarily in order to speed up later. Taking some time right now to address these six key issues will help you take your business to its next level as you move forward into this new opportunity-rich year.
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