New year new you—getting 2018 off to a great start
As the saying goes, “New Year, New Me” and for many of us this means an opportunity to start with a clean slate. Most businesses look forward to the new year and tend to put in extra work in December to make sure that they can get their business off to a flying start when January rolls around.
It’s a great time to really take stock of your achievements and decide what you hope to achieve in the next 12 months. It’s also good to look over any major mistakes which were made last year and discuss how they can be prevented.
Here at Glandore, we believe in setting up companies for success, and want to ensure that 2018 gets off to a good start for our Glandore Members. So, we’ve put together a list of some great tips to guarantee that next year will be your best year to date!
1. Review the past year
First things first, look over the past year and flag every notable event, target and shortcoming. It’s important to invite all of your employees into this process and get their feedback on how things could be improved. Try to pinpoint three things:
- What worked well
- What didn’t work well
- What can be done better
These are really basic things to note, but tend to be the things which managers always revert back to when looking for a solution to a problem. Set up an online survey for your employees to fill in and collate the information before setting a plan for the year. This will give you a better indication of problem areas rather than trying to identify them yourself.
2. Set your goals for 2018
Once your review is complete, it’s time to sit down and set out your goals and targets for the year. What are your aims and how do you plan on getting there?
Make this a quarterly event so that each quarter can be reviewed and goals can be adjusted accordingly. By continuously updating your business plan regularly, you can adapt to any curve balls your business may have to deal with.
According to Manny Frangiadakis, co-founder of AIF and CPFA, “updating your business plan regularly makes it much easier to implement new strategies and conquer difficult situations because you’ll be prepared to handle them.”
3. Become informed
The only way to ensure a relatively smooth year for your business is to remain informed. This could refer to any part of your business, not just problems.
It’s important to be informed of employee issues as they are the backbone of your company. If they are providing honest, constructive feedback the least you can do is acknowledge it.
It’s also important to be up to date with the latest business trends and developments. Read at least three articles a day to keep abreast of any current business trends.
Another tip is to let this year be the year that you fully embrace social media. At the very least, have a few active social media pages. It’s free advertising and an outlet for marketing.
4. Build a strategy
Once you have all of the relevant information, you can start to develop your business strategy for the year.
Essentially, you want to be able to link a goal to an action. This way you will be able to add substance to your targets and make them seem more realistic, rather than just demanding results.
It is also important to make this strategy visible to your employees. Why not invest in a printed graphic and hang it somewhere that everybody can see it. It will remind employees of the direction you wish to take your company and how they fit into that plan.