A new year is associated with a clean slate, a fresh approach to things and renewed motivation for success.
With the economic and political turbulence of the year just gone, many business leaders and owners will approach the year with caution.
Whatever your views on the year just gone, build these key points into your business strategy for the year ahead and get 2020 off to the best start.
Goal Setting – A simple but critical part to ensure success for the year ahead is to plan, set goals and track their progress. One of the most manageable ways to do this is to break the year into quarters and work out what you need to do in each quarter in order to reach your overall goals by the year end. Allocate resources and budgets to each goal and the tasks needed to deliver it. Working out your strategy in as much detail as possible allows you to forecast and manage your budget much more effectively. You’ll also get an idea of how flexible you can be in terms of timings and finances which will help to keep you on track.
Recruiting and Developing Talent – No matter what goals you have set for your business year, having personnel with the right skills, talent and attitude in place can be the difference between success and failure. Planning your recruitment strategy at the earliest time possible will ensure you have the resources in place when required. It is also important that once you have your team in place that you invest in regularly developing their skills. This will benefit the business hugely in the long term by having a highly skilled, loyal workforce who are motivated because they recognise your commitment to their development.
Empowering Your People – if you’ve hired the best talent and have invested in developing their skills then you should have absolute trust that they are capable of delivering the results you require. Empowering your teams not only improves their job satisfaction, personal development and speeds up problem resolution, it also leaves you with time to focus on strategy and other important business tasks. Make sure your teams are given the right resources to do their jobs to the best of their ability and allow them to approach tasks in their own way, often these are the times where real innovation happens.
Investing in Technology –The world is changing at a rapid pace and from a business perspective, investing in the right technology that enhances the efficiency of your operation can set you apart from the competition. Depending on the industry you operate in will depend on what kind of technology your business can benefit from but at a very minimum you should have a user-friendly website and social media pages so that your customers can find you. Whether you are looking to improve your customer service, the efficiency of your team or to utilise your data there is a technology which can help. Spend time looking at how technology can complement your goals.
Learning a New Skill – No matter if you’re a Chief Executive Officer or a Director of a large business, you’re never too senior to learn a new skill. The best leaders are those who are constantly learning, after all the world is always evolving so to be at the top of your game you need to at least try and keep up! Allocating yourself dedicated time and focus to develop your own skills will give you a refreshed look on things and recognise gaps in your business where you may need to add resources or employ a specialist to work on this area.
Think about the Bigger Picture – If your business running successfully and you’ve nailed everything on your checklist it’s time to start thinking about what you can do for others. Giving back to the community not only helps those in need but also gives your brand further credibility and improves employee retention because they feel they are part of something meaningful. There are lots of studies which show that companies who give back actually perform better and much of this is to do with the promotion of teamwork, ethical working and an increase in motivation. It’s a winning situation all round! With so many ways of helping your community it may be wise to ask your employees for their input that way you’ll have their buy in from the start and will be supporting something close to their hearts.
As a business leader, there are so many things to consider when it comes to running a successful operation and it’s guaranteed that throughout the course of the year, there will be unexpected challenges to face. However, we hope this checklist is a useful way of gaining clarity on your key objectives and goals, giving you the attitude and motivation to drive your business forward.
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