How can I make 2019 the best year yet for my business?

You might think that the setting of new years resolutions is far too early. However, the reality is that 2019 is only around the corner and so now is the time to be action planning!

Here are four areas to consider:

1. Ways to become more organised
2. How to free up more time
3. Methods to create and nurture a great team
4. Strategies to make more money

Becoming more organised

Try and keep your work area tidy. Only order the minimum supplies you need and do not clutter your desk with any unnecessary items.

Invest some time in forward planning. Start your year with the end of the year in mind. Start your quarter with the end of the quarter in mind. The same applies to your week and your day! What this means is to have a focused daily, weekly, quarterly and annual action plan to ensure you have the right people working on the right things in the right way that will help you achieve your company vision.

Think about the time when you plan your annual family holiday. And consider the time and effort spend on things such as looking through flights, choosing suitable accommodation and thinking about day trips. After all, no one would turn up to the airport and choose a random destination! Choosing a perfect holiday takes weeks and weeks of preparation. A similar approach can be applied to your business. Think about the potential results you could achieve by being organised!

Make an ongoing effort to stay organised. Being organised has many benefits including allowing you to remain focused on your business. Commit to maintaining order each day while always moving forward and reviewing things as necessary.

 

 

Freeing up more time for myself

Learn to work smarter with e-mail. How many of you have your email notifications turned on during the day and get sidetracked when an email pops up?  A massive tip with emails is to switch your notifications off so that you can focus on the task you need to be doing. Set times of the day aside to read emails and always plan your day as a priority before you even look at your inbox on a morning.

Are you finding yourself completing routine activities in a long-winded and repetitive way? Make use of versioning and templates to prevent this from occurring. You may also want to consider better organising your desktop filing structure on your PC so that crucial files can be accessed quickly.

Creating and nurturing a great team

• Understand the strengths of each team member and work with these to allow staff to channel this into your company, benefitting the entire organisation
• Create a culture based on the goals and visions of your company
• Ensure that all staff have full involvement with the business at all levels
• Engage and mentor new team members. Their development will be accelerated and the team will take shape much quicker
• Create clearly defined roles for all members of the team so that staff understand what is expected from them. This also has the added benefit of boosting staff morale
• Make your staff work better as a team by engaging them in team building exercises. However be sure to budget appropriately and offer appropriate incentives for participation
• Make use of the different personalities in your team and be aware that different job roles demand different personalities. Do not attempt to ‘fix’ a persons personality
• Develop a more comprehensive network through guest speaking, development sessions and invitations for important partners and customers to attend meetings
• Ensure your team feel valued. This can be achieved by learning more about your staff and offering suitable opportunities for growth and progression. Make sure to celebrate their success as well
• Identify staff problems earlier on. It is likely that not everybody will fit your culture so be careful of who you hire and only fire someone after several verbal and written warnings
• Work on dissolving negative dynamics such as reluctance to change, lone wolves, favouritism and micro-management
• Be the best manager you can be by being approachable, friendly and authoritative. Your team will benefit by growing more quickly and ultimately perform better

 

 

Making more money

Make sure that your pricing and costs are correct. Consider increasing your prices by 3% to increase turnover and profit. Conversely, you may want to reduce direct costs by 3% or more, allowing a more significant margin of profit. Above all, a healthy bank balance can be maintained by collecting money quicker.

Ensure that your product or business is presented in the best possible way. Ensure that all of the advantages of your product or service is emphasised so that sales performance is maximised. Furthermore, work out what is unique about your proposition and how you are different from your competitors. Above all, why should people choose you?

Other things that can be done to make more money include

• Firing poor performing staff, customers or suppliers. Poor performing individuals can create high levels of stress and damage the team environment
• Diversifying your marketing strategy to develop the most leads as possible
• Using add-on sales to increase the number of products sold to customers
• Working out why customers are using competitors over yourselves

Are you ready to make 2019 the best year for your business?

Give yourself and the business the best chance you can of making 2019 a great year by doing your planning now. That way in January you will be prepared to get cracking straight away and hit the ground running. We have presented some hints and tips to make the most of the year ahead. In this post we have mentioned:

1. Ways to become more organised
2. How to free up more time
3. Methods to create and nurture a great team
4. Strategies to make more money