The end of the year is always a good time to evaluate your business and make plans for where you want it to be in the future. I love the symbolic “fresh start” of the new year and feeling like there is nothing stopping me from having a breakout year for my business.
Beyond that I always think about how I can start other businesses that compliment what I’m already doing. Adding product/service offerings, or even adding new lines of business to your current business (I plan on adding a second website next year) are important to pursue if your goal is growth.
With that being said, I want to talk about three specific ways that you can take your current business to the next level in the new year.
Plan for Successful Expansion
It’s easy to say “I want to book twice as much revenue as last year.” It’s much harder to actually make this a reality. I personally have a goal of adding an additional $1 -$1.5k of revenue per month in 2014. This means I will likely need to upgrade my current design, produce more content, market content more aggressively, and spend significant time researching untapped revenue streams. If I don’t plan for how to make this goal a reality, it’s unlikely I will accomplish it and it’s much more likely my business growth will stagnate.
Increasing your revenue may also mean increased expenses. Whether this is additional contractors, employees, office space, or upgrading technology and systems, it’s important to remember that new expenses will likely arise. There are only so many hours in a day
Market Your Business Better
How you specifically market your business will depend entirely on what kind of business you are in. Some businesses are lucky enough to constantly receive referrals from past customers. If you want to truly take your business to the next level, though, it’s going to take some strategic marketing and outreach. A few ways to market your business better in the new year are:
- Use Social Media – If you aren’t on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or other social media sites you may be missing out on potential clients. My wife and I actually found one of our wedding vendors (cheesecake – it was delicious!) randomly through Twitter. If you aren’t active on social media or are only on one social media platform, I would encourage you to start building a presence. I plan on taking my own advice and adding Google+ to the platforms I am active on.
- Seek Out Customers – Finding potential clients and landing a contract/sale is one of the most important activities if you are looking for your business to grow. If you are a data management company that caters to small or mid-size businesses, reach out to those in your area (or not in your area if you operate remotely). If you are a blog owner, reach out to companies you think would be a good fit for a banner or affiliate and propose a deal to them. No matter what business you own you will always need to land new customers.
Marketing your company should ultimately land in new customers and/or increased sales. If your goal is growth consider investing in marketing in the New Year.
Prioritize Effectively
I can’t stress enough the importance of prioritizing effectively. Prioritizing will help you manage your time better, which is an incredibly limited resource for small business owners.
As the owner of this blog, I’ve spent countless hours writing content, commenting on blogs, marketing on social media, and working with advertisers. I only have so much time and it becomes quickly apparent to any business owner that you will never get through your to-do list. Some things that have become a habit for me, such as blog commenting, may not be the best use of my time. This begs the question of whether to outsource it, quit it entirely, or do it on a limited basis.
No matter what decisions you face in regards to your time, there is often no easy answer. The best thing you can do for your business is to constantly re-evaluate your priorities and make sure you are investing your time and money in the things that will give you sustainable long-term growth.
How do you plan on taking your business to the next level in the New Year?
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It is much better to have actual values for growth, as they will let you measure your success better. These were all great points. My hope and goal for next year is to actually make a little business out of my blog. I want to take it to the next level, which is exciting and scary at the same time. There’s a lot to do to get ready for it.
JourneytoSaving Great point! I definitely want to have benchmarks that I hope to meet with my business (which currently is essentially only this blog). I like evaluating my goals versus actual results. I think your blog is already set up for success, so taking it to the next level – whatever that may mean for you – is definitely attainable!
I am going after potential buyers more aggressively. So new website, social media and online reach are the first points I will tackle in the new year.
RFIndependence I think just simply starting my new blog instead of putting it off for months and months may be the best approach I can take. It takes a while for websites to get established and start getting ranked, as I’m sure you are well aware, so my goals for 2014 may be too ambitious with only one established site and one “baby” site that needs time to grow.
We have a lot of similar goals DC! I know to make more each month next year I need to come up with some solid plans and some solid deadlines. One thing is to sell an online course on making videos for your website. It seems a lot of people have interest in that. Let’s hope so. I just have to dedicate the time to putting it together. That’s only one idea…
Beachbudget I also need to make solid plans for increasing my revenue. If it means getting more traffic and in turn better advertising revenue or selling a product/service, that’s what I need to do. But first step is actually writing out what it is that I need to do to reach my goal of increased income.
I have a lot of things that I want to start doing in 2014. I also want to start seeking out more customers in 2014. I have done fairly well with that this year, but next year I really want to attack that!
SenseofCents That’s awesome, Michelle! It’s great to see you not become complacent because you’ve sort of “made it” in my opinion bringing in a very sizable income online.