The start of a brand new year often prompts people to take stock of things, making resolutions to help them reach their goals and improve their outlook. The same theory also applies to business owners. This is the perfect time to review your situation and start putting plans into place to ensure that 2013 is a great year for your business.
But where do you start? Here’s a list of 5 essential areas to get you going in your business review:
• Adapt or Die – Chances are, you spent hours putting together an amazing business plan when you were just starting out. But when did you last look it over? Go back to your original document now and you might be surprised to see how far you’ve come already. Businesses are always evolving and changing to keep up with new trends and demands, so if you take the time to update your plan then it could spark off new ideas for where you want to take things next.
• Recruitment – Recruitment and job-hunting often fall by the wayside over the Christmas and New Year period, but jobseekers quickly resume their search with new vigour at this time of year. If you’re considering expansion within your team then this is a really good opportunity to write up those job descriptions and start advertising for new staff.
• Staff Morale – If your workforce is happy they’ll be far more productive. Make sure you maintain a good level of communication with your employees so that you hear about any issues as soon as they arise.
Try to offer training opportunities where appropriate and keep the working environment as pleasant as possible. You don’t have to go overboard on the interior design, but you can achieve a lot with a lick of paint or a few sticks of furniture to keep your staff comfortable, stimulated and engaged.
• Finances – The end of the tax year is coming up fast so it’s never too early to start looking through the books and identifying any areas where you feel that you could increase efficiency and cut costs. You may also decide that you need to implement a change in your price structure. If this is the case, make sure you do your homework and find out what the competition is offering so that you don’t price yourself out of the market.
• Marketing – How do your customers find out about you? With online marketing moving fast it’s important to keep up so that you’re not missing out on an untapped market. Consider your options for re-vamping your website, taking the plunge into social media or even hire a professional services marketing provider. You could soon find yourself inundated by new customers to keep you nice and busy for the rest of the year.
These are straightforward concepts, but approaching them with an open mind and a notebook at the ready will give you the ideal jumping off point to review the way things run in your business.
Why not take the New Year as a great excuse to step back and consider how you might do things differently if you were starting from scratch. Then all you have to do is figure out how to bring those changes in and it won’t be long before you start to see all kinds of positive effects.
Written by Nicky Hand on behalf of Avent Interiors; providing a range of professional office refurbishment services in Bristol, Cheltenham, Swindon and the surrounding areas.
The New Year Review – 5 Ways To Improve Your Business In 2013
