It’s a New Year and everyone seems busy penning down their New Year Resolutions. Business owners are also devising strategic means to boost sales and make more profit.
It’s a time to sit and reflect on the past year and see what can be done to make the present year a success. As a business owner, you want to set your business up for success. What do you intend to do differently this year?
To achieve a different result, you need to be willing to do things differently. It could be the way you assign tasks or the goals you set in place or even the marketing strategy you adopt.
In this article, I will share with you 5 ways to set your business up for success. This isn’t something you implement once and get a lasting success. No! It’s something you must be willing to implement occasionally to get your desired success.
Set SMART goals
What sets a business apart from another are the goals set in place. You can always distinguish between a successful business and a less successful one by the kind of goals they set.
One way to set your business up for success is to implement SMART goals. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-based.
Can you spot the difference between the two goals? “Increase sales” and “Increase sales by 30% by the end of the year.”
To get to where you want to be, you first need to know where you’re going. Any business owner can set goals but many fail to set SMART goals.
Specific – Are your goals clearly defined? Do you know the why, what and how of your goals?
Measurable – Can you monitor and measure the progress of your goals?
Attainable – Can these goals be attained?
Relevant – How relevant are these goals to the growth of your business?
Time-based – Do these goals have deadlines? How soon can they be met?
Engage in social media
It’s no doubt that a lot of users are active on social media. Want to set your business up for success this year? Get active on social media!
A large number of the public are constantly on social media. As a business owner, it’s important you attract, reach out and engage your target audience on social media. It could be Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or LinkedIn.
What better way to get your business out there than through social media? Everyone seems to be engaged in the social media world. Whether it’s Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, consumers are constantly searching their newsfeed for products and services so, use this opportunity to grow your business, promote brand awareness, make more money, reach a wider audience and in the long run achieve success.
However, you need to monitor which social media channel your target audience is active on. Facebook has a number of 1,870 million active users. Instagram has 600 and Twitter has 317. Just because Facebook has the highest doesn’t mean it’s your target audience preferred channel.
Delegate
If there’s one thing you must do to achieve success this year is to delegate more often. Your business is your baby, I get it. But if you don’t take care of yourself and learn to delegate, you’ll get burdened and overwhelmed and eventually both you and your business will fall apart.
According to Gallup “founders who have and use high delegator talent can generate better business growth and venture success than leaders who get lost in the day-to-day minutiae of managing a business.”
- Choose what tasks to delegate
- Delegate to the right people
- Communication is key
- Invest in teaching and training
- Learn to trust your team
Email Marketing
While most business owners avoid email marketing because they think it’s obsolete, 59 percent of B2B marketers reveals email as the most effective channel for revenue generation. According to McKinsey, email marketing is 3 times more effective than social media and the average customer order is high.
Set your online business up for success this year through email marketing. Why? I’m glad you asked. Email is an easy way to reach mobile customers. Look around you, how many people do you see with smartphones? I’ll tell you. Everyone! We’re all glued to our devices.
A report indicates an increase in the number of purchase made on mobile devices from 3.4% to 36.7%.
- Email marketing helps you create lasting relationships
- Everyone still checks their email
- Keeps your brand top of mind
- Email marketing is inexpensive
- Email marketing is action-oriented
- You can tailor your message to your customers
- Email marketing is measurable and testable
Respond to change
We all know change is inevitable; it’s a constant factor. As a business owner – whether B2B, B2C, small/large scale or online, you need to embrace change as a contributing factor to business success.
You should be willing to adapt to the dynamic nature of the environment and be flexible. The market and economy keep changing; customer demands seem to change as well. You have to keep up with these changes if you must succeed this year.
When you’re unable to adapt, it’s likely you’ll lose customers and profits which will eventually result in a total failure of your business. You wouldn’t want that, would you? I don’t think so.
Always bear in mind that the world keeps evolving; you need to keep up with the change.