Has yet another year rolled by and you wonder where the time went? Do you pause to reflect how far your business has come? These are questions that you should answer for not only yourself, but also for your business. Part of being a successful business owner is having the ability to look back, evaluate yourself, your company and your employees. Being able to move forward, learn from your mistakes. But, more importantly, not repeat past mistakes and set new goals that will help you to be a successful business owner.
As a business owner myself, I make my personal New Year’s resolutions, but I also take the time to make them for my company. While most people look at the New Year as a clean slate and set goals as to how they can better themselves personally, many business owners don’t take that thought process and apply it to their business.
EVALUATION. This is a word that is heavily used when we begin to discuss setting new goals for the upcoming year. Being able to forecast the future stems from the ability to look back and evaluate where you have been. By reviewing how your business has grown and changed over the last year, you are better able to make realistic goals as to where you want it to grow in 2016.
TAKE THE TIME TO LOOK AT YOUR FINANCIALS. Where did you spend money on advertising? What did and did not work? Many times companies will blindly advertise and not take extra steps to ask new customers where they heard about your business and keep track of those new customers throughout the year. This reduces your strategic ability to target the advertising and drill down to eliminate the marketing efforts that are not producing a return on your investment.
REMEMBER YOUR EMPLOYEES. We all know what growing pains are. It is important to work with your employees through those pains and discuss what could have been done better. By showing you care about their thoughts and ideas, you empower your employees to take an active role within your business. This will make for a happier and more productive workplace. Depending on the size of the staff, a year review can be done in person, in a survey or both. They are the people on the front line of your company. By helping them to do their job better you ensure your company’s ability to run as efficiently as possible.
By engaging your employees who interact directly with customers, you gain insight on new products and/or services your customers may be asking for and may be able to adjust your business model to meet those needs.
SET REALISTIC GOALS. While it is good to have that year end goal in site, setting smaller short term goals makes that end goal seem not so unattainable. When you set goals for your company make them small steps and break the year into halves or quarters. It shows forward progress and gives your company an attainable goal to work for. When you do hit these goals it’s time to evaluate gain. Looking back a short period of time allows you to adjust how you are running the day-to-day business and allows for a quick shift of gears if you find it necessary.
By setting goals, evaluating your company and employees and adjusting your business as needed you are better able to target your customers, engage your employees who sit on the front line of your business and grow your business to new heights.
About the author: Autumn Edmiston is the CEO and owner of the Edmiston Group. The Edmiston Group is a multifaceted Pittsburgh based marketing consulting firm providing senior level marketing management services to businesses and non-profit organizations on a short or long term basis. Core areas of service are business development, marketing, strategic planning and public relations. The Edmiston Group has consistently delivered and implemented real-world, proven business marketing ideas and strategies for business growth.