SME owners could be missing a trick come New Year. Setting productivity resolutions for your small business could boost leads and sales during one of the slowest months of the year.
Productivity resolutions are goals that you set come New Year. Like personal New Year’s resolutions, these goals are strictly aimed at your business. As small business owners, you are responsible for your own level of motivation. If that level slips too far, you could send your entire operation on a downwards spiral.
Setting goals for the coming year is a thoughtful way to overcome those January sales blues. Without a clear purpose, a business can easily fall behind the competition. This article will examine the essential productivity revolutions capable of driving your business to success in the New Year. Need help staying motivated? You have come to the right place.
How to Begin Setting New Year’s Business goals?
To begin outlining firm goals which are specific to your business,
i) Reflecting on the Past Year
Reflecting on what you have learned in the past year working in your industry is an idyllic starting point for setting your new goals. Informed resolutions begin with looking at the evidence of your past months.
Looking to the past for inspiration in making solid business resolutions benefit us in the following ways:
- You gain insight into which strategies worked and which did not. This allows you to bin the failed strategies and make use of the good ones, growing on what you already know and avoiding past mistakes.
- You can easily identify areas of improvement based on what you already know from past challenges. Even strategies which worked the first time will offer room for improvement.
- Implementing new Year’s resolutions for your business allows you to foster a sense of accountability and commitment to change. Companies which do not change fail to evolve enough to meet the demands of the ever-changing market.
ii) Setting SMART Goals
The idea of setting SMART goals didn’t go anywhere and we should regularly test our business beliefs to ensure that constant goal setting growth. The concept of SMART goals involves setting yourself targets towards an ultimate goal.
Say, for example, that you want your business to achieve national recognition. You are not going to achieve this goal overnight. Instead, breaking it down into small, manageable portions will allow you to make that goal happen over time.
We call these bitesize chunks working towards an overall goal SMART goals. However, to make the rankings of a SMART goal, a targeted task must meet the following criteria. SMART goals must be:
- Specific – You should set a clear outline of the objective
- Measurable – There should be a way to quantify your success. For example percentage increases in traffic or number of new leads.
- Achievable – Setting unrealistic goals is pointless, that is why we use SMART goal setting to break down seemingly unachievable goals into a realistic time frame.
- Relevant – There is no point in setting a SMART goal which does not further your success.
- Time-bound – Setting a definitive time scale for each goal allows you a measurable rate of success.
If you can achieve all S M A R T points when setting a goal, you will achieve measurable success over time.
Examples of SMART Goals for Small Businesses
Here are examples of SMART goal settings which a small business owner might employ.
A Specific SMART goal could be to increase your monthly website traffic by 20% over time.
A Measurable SMART goal could be to achieve a customer satisfaction rating higher than 90%.
An Achievable SMART goal could be to launch two product lines during the month of December.
A Relevant SMART goal might see your business complete a marketing campaign by the end of Q2.
iii) Streamline Your Business Processes
When you streamline your business processes, you examine all aspects of how your systems work. This allows you to form better strategies to increase productivity through eliminating shortfalls.
Streamlining operations can:
- Save you time and resources
- Reduce redundancies
- Improve overall efficiency
- Increase productivity
- Enhance customer satisfaction
- Create smoother transactions
If you wish to identify and eliminate inefficiencies (i.e.. streamline) your business, try the following things:
Conduct a process audit to identify any bottlenecks in your system. Bottlenecks can cause backlogs which could otherwise easily become improved.
Automate wherever you can. Repetitive tasks are ripe for automation. A small software investment is all it takes to slim down the daily workload.
Encourage continuous improvement among your employees and as an office ethos.
iv) Embrace New Technology
New technology can propel you towards your goals if you learn to harness its function. Speeding up software or hardware systems your employees use daily can cut down hours and weeks of work.
Technology can enhance productivity by streamlining communication systems with project management software. Customer Relationship Management tools are another beneficial software application.
Adding new finance management features can perfect your accounting process.
Some useful tech tools for your small business might include Google Drive or the One Drive. These online storage systems give you access to offsite data storage.
Microsoft Office includes Excel products, typing facilities, and consistently good tools to help your business create the paperwork associated with branding.
v) Time Management and Prioritisation
Time management allows you to boost productivity through better time allocation. You reduce stress, avoid burnout, and manage your workload better this way.
Creating a work – life balance which sustains long-term success means implementing time management strategies such as employing the Eisenhower Matrix, using time tracking tools to identify wasted hours, and implementing the pomodoro technique can help you with productivity.
vi) Employee Engagement and Motivation
Motivated employees are vital for company health. Higher job satisfaction will improve overall performance, so engaging the employees correctly is a key to corporate success. Studies show that a positive work environment fosters collaboration, engagement, and motivation of team members.
You can motivate team members by providing them with opportunities for training and advancement. You should recognise and reward outstanding workers and encourage an open door policy. Regularly asking them for feedback on your management style also helps.
vii) Monitoring and Adapting
You must continually monitor your progress towards your New Year’s business resolutions. Adjust where needed and make sure your goals constantly align to that long-term focus. Conquer each short-term challenge consistently to move on to the next.
You can track your performance against set goals via:
- Using KPI’s, or Key Performance Indicators, as markers
- Reviewing and updating strategies which are based on performance data
- Hold regular team meetings to discuss progress and adaptations.
viii) Celebrating Milestones
It is important that you recognise and celebrate after you achieve a particular milestone. When you do this, you boost team morale and employee motivation, You reinforce that depth of commitment to achieving larger goals in the long-term. This creates a positive work environment, which feeds into the culture of growth and ongoing success.
You might reward employee contributions by offering bonuses or incentives. You could implement an employee reward scheme – like employee of the month – to celebrate. Organise group outings or meetings just for donuts. Employees who feel rewarded are those who stay.
New Year’s Resolutions Could Strengthen Your Business
Making these productivity resolutions and setting SMART goals allows continuous progress on your part. Small business owners can use reward systems, new technology, and an annual streamline of operations to become heads of their fields.
Adapting, monitoring, and evolving your new goals will allow small business owners to embrace the change that New Year brings.
We hope that you found this blog useful. If you need more information about WERGS and how our services such as Invoice Financing, Marchant Cash Advance or M&A Funding can help your business, call us on 07428 717647