Ready or not, it’s a new year! The start of a new year is a great time to reflect on the past months and decide what goals you want to achieve in the next year. Remember, a prosperous, flourishing business doesn’t usually just happen. It takes hard work, goal-setting, and planning. Here are 6 ways to set your business up for success this year and beyond.

6 ways to set your business up for success this year

1.     Reflect on the past year

Without taking stock of the good and bad of the past year, making changes will be quite difficult. It’s important to take the time to reflect. What went well? What goals did you accomplish? Was there anything that you hoped to achieve that didn’t end up happening last year? What areas of your business are strong and which ones could use some help?

Giving careful thought to the past year will help you to steer the ship of your business in the coming months. A lack of reflection is similar to blindly making your way through the weeks and hoping that things will go well.

2.     Set goals for the year and for each quarter

Now that you’ve taken a step back to look at the previous year, it’s time to begin setting goals for the coming year.

First of all, consider what goals you’re still working on, what you’d like to add to the list, and whether there are any that you need to adjust or remove.

Would you like to hire more employees this year? Increase traffic to your website? Add or improve any specific products? Streamline a service that you offer? Serve more clients per month?

Now, focus on each specific goal and determine whether or not it’s a S.M.A.R.T goal. Smart goals are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-based

If you’re not familiar with smart goals, read more about how they work in this post! 

It’s important that your goals meet all of these qualifications, or else they’ll only be frustrating to you and your employees. Determine when each one should be completed so that you can break your goals down for each quarter of the year.

3.     Remember your “why”

If you don’t know WHY you’re doing what you’re doing every day, it’s going to be very difficult to keep up the momentum. Furthermore, if your employees don’t feel a sense of purpose in their work, they’ll quickly become unmotivated.

Take some time at the beginning of this year to step back and remember why you started your business in the first place. Who are you serving? How do you want to help? What goals do you have other than simply making money?

While generating income is a good and necessary goal, it simply isn’t enough to sustain a business or its people.

4.     Make any necessary changes to your brand

Since you’re thinking about your “why”, you may also want to consider whether it’s time to make any changes to your brand.

Do you want to add, subtract, or hone in on any products or services? Has your mission changed? Do you need to adjust the customer group to whom you’re marketing?

Reviewing your buyer personas is just one helpful way to reflect on the type of person that you’re marketing to and decide whether anything needs to be adjusted.

5.     Consider hiring a business coach

When you’re in the everyday grind of life and work, it can be difficult to see the big picture. Business owners often have blind spots and can benefit greatly from having someone to go to for counsel, encouragement, and advice.

Business coaches are a wealth of information and insight. They can help you set and stick to your goals, offer creative insight, keep you accountable, and help you make the most of your abilities and resources.

6.    Increase your marketing

No matter how great your business is or how much you want to serve others with what you offer, it won’t matter unless people know about you. 

It’s important to remember that customers don’t buy when you’re ready for them. They buy when they’re ready. Consistent, high-quality, effective marketing is the best way to make sure that when your product or service is needed, you’re the first one on people’s minds.

Although the payoff might not be immediate, in the long run, marketing is an incredibly effective way to generate leads and help more customers.

At Lifedge, we understand that many businesses are struggling because their marketing efforts are not providing the results they want. We specialize in strategy, planning, and execution of high-quality digital marketing to help you achieve success online. We believe that you deserve to have confidence that your marketing works.

If you’re ready to jump into marketing that provides more leads and more sales for your business, we’d be honored to talk with you and make a customized plan for how we can help you achieve success in this year and beyond. Book a meeting today!