Why you should make New Year resolutions for your business
Just like people, every year your company needs a fresh set of achievable goals. So, if you’re ready to work smarter this year, here are three resolutions you can make for your business.
It’s been said that ‘businesses don’t fail, people do’, and it’s hard to disagree with that sentiment. Attitude, work ethic, the willingness to innovate and evolve; these are all essential attributes for any successful endeavour.
However, it’s easy to get used to the same old habits and routines, or become complacent with the results we’re getting. A brand new year is the perfect excuse to take a big broom to your business, clean away the cobwebs and start afresh with renewed energy and passion for the year ahead.
So, with this in mind, here are three resolutions you can think about making for your business.
1) Reignite your passion
Starting a business is an exciting prospect. There’s lots of new ideas and people to interact with, as well as brand new skills to practice and perform. Once the gears start turning on your corporate project, ambitions are rife, and dreams start to materialise into reality.
But when the years start to roll by, what started as an action-packed venture gradually begins to morph into something mundane. The fun, exuberance and even passion of your venture has now become something that better resembles the typical daily grind – much like working for someone.
Business resolutions are an opportunity for reinvention and fresh experiences, which can reignite your initial passion, and give your company longer legs in the long run.
So what kind of ideas should you consider? You could expand your trade, offer a new service, take on new clients, or even simply redecorate your premises. All of these things may help to put you back in touch with your passion for your business.
2) Keep a closer eye on your competitors
It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, one thing is guaranteed; it’s constantly evolving day by day. This means, when you run a business over a number of years, competitors will come and go. New ones will crop up, and older ones will fade away – either because their businesses have closed, or because you’re no longer in direct competition.
One of your new year’s resolutions involving your business should be to keep an eye on your competitors. Ask yourself questions like:
- What are they doing well?
- How could they improve?
- Are they a threat to us?
- Is there anything we can learn from them?
The answers to these questions may help your own business dodge a bullet or two in the future.
Obviously, don’t cost any ethical lines in your quest to learn about another business. But do look at any information that is publicly available, and learn what you can.
3) Shake up your organisational structure
One resolution that is always good for business is to shake things up a bit – everything from your computer hardware to your organisational structure could usually do with an annual ‘spring clean’.
It’s an opportunity to review what’s working. what isn’t, and what can be updates, refreshed or modernised to work smarter. Update as much as you can with fresh systems and strategies, and you should see your performance and results will improve.
For example, you could update any tired-looking equipment to help run your business more smoothly, hire new talents, use cloud data storage, or let go employees who are only too happy to be complacent.
These big shakeups, where needed, can go so far as to redefine your business. In the end, sometimes you need to remove what came before so that you can make way for something new.
Photo by The Journal Garden
