Six new year’s resolutions for business owners

Losing weight, quitting smoking and other popular New Year’s Resolutions are great, but they won’t help your business’ success. Consider making a list of professional goals to take on during 2020 and bring about a positive change that will encourage growth.

Here are six suggestions to get you started:

1.    Revamp Your Prices

We belive in “real numbers” here at Nordens. Business owners should charge the rates they deserve and they are worth instead of undervaluing their services. If you’re looking to raise your prices, it’s time to set a strategy to ensure you don’t lose clients/customers in the process. Do your research and compare your services with your competition. Then be transparent with your existing clients to avoid any issues. The team in our award-winning strategic department would be happy to share their advice if you’re not sure where to start. If your business’ overall financials are not straightforward, you can begin understanding the numbers by watching this video.

2.    Improve Cash Flow Management

Cash flow problems are often the cause of small to medium businesses’ failure, so it’s important to focus your attention here. Consider a cash flow budget and manage your debtors. As you know, we work closely with our clients to manage and improve their cash flow.  The A2Y team is on hand to get your bookkeeping in order and review your situation on a quartlerly basis, allowing you to stay on top.

3.    Update Your Digital Strategy

If you don’t have a digital strategy yet, add it to your list for 2020, as having an online presence for your business increases transparency and trustworthiness. There are always new platforms, apps and programs that can improve day-to-day operations. Spend some time researching new tools and technologies, whether for social media, search engine optimisation, video, or even organising your tasks, and see if any fit into your strategy.  Thanks to recent digital innovations, the pace of change moves swiftly in the world of business. A Digital Transformation is the three-pronged process of using technology to alter your business’ processes, culture, and customer experience in order to fit your industry’s expectations of business today. You can find out more about this here.

4.    Increase Overall Productivity

Unnecessary meetings and too many points of communication waste time and can result in working overtime and affecting your work/life balance. Focusing on increasing productivity levels, whether on a personal level, for your team or the whole business, will free up time. Our strategic business coaches would be willing to step in with some timely guidance if you need productivity or time management tips!

5.    Up Your Communication Game

Ineffective communication, misunderstandings and repeating the same information affects operations and staff morale. Sometimes over-communicating is necessary as the people listening don’t absorb as much as you expect them to. Learn how to improve your communication by watching our video.

6.    Check in with Your Employees and Clients/Customers

The new year always means that people focus on self-improvement. Check in with your clients/customers to see what their New Year’s resolutions are and whether there’s a way for you to help them achieve their goals. It’s also a good plan to consider integrating or improving your customer feedback strategy. We’re thrilled with our 173 Trust Pilot reviews – all with five star ratings, so think about implementing a regular feedback process for your business.

And if you haven’t already made a resolution to check in with us regularly to see what improvements we recommend to benefit your business, add this to your list!  Remember that we offer a free consultation – what better way to get your new year off to a fantastic start?!