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New Year's Resolutions for Small Business Owners from Heather Smith

Announcement posted by Short Stop Communication 30 Dec 2013

Top Tips to get your business running efficiently in 2014 from a small business expert
With New Year’s upon us, it’s time to start contemplating what commitments you can make on the 1st January 2014, to benefit your small business. Making resolutions give you and your team a challenge to focus on, and setting effective resolutions ensures business success. Here are ten small business resolutions your business could adopt from Brisbane based small business guru, Heather Smith:
  1. Schedule regular business planning sessions, to help understand the direction the company should be moving towards, and review and readjust realistic goals, to keep the business on track.

  1. Identify opportunities to delegate work, either to staff, contractors, other businesses, automated technology, or outsource work to virtual assistant in Australia or overseas. Freeing up managers time, enables them to work on the business rather than in the business.

  1. Pinpoint beneficial areas of training for staff individually or as a team, and commit to following up on them in 2014. There a plethora of training opportunities, from sharing a book like Valerie Khoos “Power Stories” around the office, to internal training, online training, and specialised business training through organisations like the Australian Institute of Management.

  1. Branch out and join a new networking organisation that aligns with your business. Visit theFetch.com , which curates local interesting networking events for ‘business folk’ as they like to refer to us! Networking can be time consuming, so it’s worth reviewing what the event is, and realising sometimes the higher priced events attract a higher calibre attendee.

  1. If a certain piece of equipment continually breaks down, is it time to invest in something new? In a similar vein invest in good quality chairs for the office and a decent coffee maker to keep the coffee elite in the office, rather than exploring the local streets for coffee holes on your time!

  1. If you don’t already have an annual date, it’s time to decide when you’ll implement annual price increases. To keep up with inflation, you need to adopt annual price increases. Planning a date and informing customers in advance can make the process palatable – if you’re the type who likes to avoid price increases.

  1. Recognise your health is paramount, it’s easy when working long hours in a business to overlook this. Schedule time in your week, to meet your own health goals in terms of activity and eating. Organise a regular fruit basket delivery at work, ensure filtered water, and freshly circulating air is readily available.

  1. Refresh marketing material, such as updating website and newsletters. Investigate social media, and decide if channels suit your business.

  1. Considering ditching PC based solutions and moving business processes to the clouds, enhancing productivity, and reducing expenses around administrative costs, heavy technology and insurances. Look to an online accounting solution like Xero, and identify what other integrated bolt on solutions can help streamline business processes. For example a café could implement Xero plus the rostering solution DeputyApp plus the point of sale system Vend. All solutions talk to one another minimising the need for double entry, and enabling the manager the flexibility to manage off site.

  1. Commit the business to environmentally friendly work practices, like buying locally, a paperless office, and investing in green energy.

There’s a saying “If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten.” Setting resolutions that align to your business success, will challenge the business team to strive for success in the New Year.

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