Small Business Resolutions For 2021
January is often that time of the year everyone makes their new year resolutions. And these resolutions often range from personal to family, and business to other goals. You may want to quit smoking, lose weight, improve your relationships with others, save more money, etc. But beyond setting these personal goals, what do you have as your small business resolutions for 2021?
Well, despite the uncertainties it seem leveled out in the year, here are small business resolutions you should consider to make a headway in the year:
Small Business Resolutions For 2021
1. Decide To Expand
Growth is not often accidental. You need to make a decision to grow or expand. And as regards your business, you must be deliberate about having a vision of what progress you really want to make. You must also be committed to making that expansion a reality. This would mean a lot of things to different people and their small businesses. It would mean investing your resources – finances, mental, personnel, emotional – towards achieving the growth. It could also mean getting trained, or improving your skills in certain fields, getting the help of professionals, bringing in better equipment for your work, and so on.
2. Identify Your Profitable Areas
As a freelancer and small business owner, you must be able to identify what exactly makes you money. Identify areas you are most profitable. For most businesses, there are majorly two kinds of funds. One is profits — the one that offers long-term security — and cash flow — the one that keeps your small business door open on the short-term. You must be able to identify and put your focus on those areas that are more reliable in bringing in the cash for your business.
3. Commit To Your Recurring Revenue
One-off buyers are not likely to do much in the growth and expansion of your small business. You need to be able to identify your regular recurring customers and pay increased attention to them. They are your best customers.
And If you think you do not have repeat customers right now, find a way to secure customers for your business. Find out people who patronize you, and are capable of coming back repeatedly to your shop.
4. Be Timely In Sending Invoices Out
It is important that you get your invoices out for money to come in. But more importantly, the invoices should be sent out on time. Several small business owners fail to get out their invoices in good time. Self-employed consultants are especially guilty of this. You may preferably accept credit card payments at the point of sale to do away with invoicing.
5. Figure Out A Profitable Niche
It is very crucial that you realize that it is much more profitable to find a specific type of niche area and customer and serve them. This approach cuts down on your competition and also brings in more money for you.
Find a niche that is very specific, profitable, and is less competitive, rather than trying to please everyone in the industry. Target this research audience and you’ll make more steady income from your effort.
6. Be In The Face Of People
Small business owners often fear being rejected or turned down while trying to sell their products or services. Hence, they think that if they are able to produce a service or product, that people would naturally patronize them. But no. They are not likely to come naturally. Or those who come naturally are not likely to be worth the growth of the business.
You’ll have to go out and evangelize your products or services. Be in the face of people. Get over being rejected, and keep moving.
7. Use Google My Business
Register your business on Google My Business to take advantage of the google traffic. Read here to see how Google My Business can help your business. Everyone loves free advertising. We love to leverage on free traffic. Get found free by harnessing this Google tool. List your company so that your company comes out on search engine result pages when people search. You can also focus on Bing and Yelp listing for free.
8. Be Clever With Social Media
We all need a few moments away from work to relax and have some fun. Social media gives exactly such opportunity. But it also gobbles up huge time when caution isn’t in place. Even when you use social media for your business, ensure to put a time limit to how long you spend there. 30 minutes to 1 hour a day should be fine, while also harnessing scheduling tools such as TweetDeck and Hootsuite. Avoid getting distracted and get back to work. Being clever with social media should be one of your small business resolutions for year.
9. Create A Business Plan
If you want to grow and survive in your industry, then you must create a business plan. Having a solid business plan will channel your business for growth and evaluate your activities, competition, customers, finances, and business operations. With your business plan, every player aboard will be sailing in the same direction, and this would generate positive returns for your business.
10. Get Help
You need help for your business, especially if you are just starting out. Take a closer look at your business operations for routines that gulp up huge amounts of time with little or no profitability. You may consider hiring an employee to fill in the role. To make you more efficient in your job.
You should also get professional help from people who have gone far in the same industry as you. Get a mentor. Read books. Ask Questions. Doing these will save you lots of time and money that would have been wasted on trials and errors.
11. Create A Reserve Account
You’d need a reserve account because of the roller-coaster nature of cash flow. Create a reserve account that serves as a few month’s operating expenses. This will feel less trouble when a sudden drop occurs.
12. Be Prudent With Cash
Ensure to know everything that is going on with your money. Manage it as much as you can. Cut out unnecessary expenses. Know what is happening to your bank account balance, and regularly evaluate cash flow, profits and loss, and aging accounts payable and receivable.
13. Harness Cloud-Based Softwares
Move away from on-premise softwares and start making use of applications that are cloud-based. This will help you to become even more mobile. Make use of online document storage and collaboration. Examples are Google Drive, Dropbox, Apple iCloud, Microsoft OneDrive, Box, etc. These tools will make it easy to access your items from any device, anywhere in the world.
14. Network
Networking helps make your small business stronger and able to weather the storms of entrepreneurship. Connect with others within your industry and work together to do joint marketing and spend money with others to achieve a more effective business goal.
15. Exhibit At A Trade Show
One of the most efficient ways to reach your most prospective customers and audience is to attend or exhibit your ideas at a trade show. As a small business owner, you should consider starting with local, state, and the less expensive and affordable exhibition-options.
16. Vote Wisely
2020 is another year to vote in the next President, Senate and House of Representative candidates. Your small business resolutions should include voting wisely as you will do better when the economy is in good shape. So, choosing thoughtful, selfless, smart, willing and committed leaders is very important to make the best decision for the United States.