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When asked about New Year’s resolutions, common responses are losing weight, getting a new job, and saving more money. For entrepreneurs, the answer is more complicated as business New Year’s resolutions require greater specificity and accountability, and the motivation to see them through.
As you and your team plan for the year ahead, consider these six, actionable business New Year’s resolutions:
1. Connect with More Customers
A new year means new opportunities to connect with more customers and grow your business. Learn as much as you can about them from social media, analytics platforms, internet forums, and blogs. Check in with existing customers and get feedback for improvement. Your customers will appreciate your proactive interest in them, and in turn, you’ll be on track to strengthen relationships and build new ones.
2. Communicate More Effectively
Miscommunication wastes time and affects morale. Nobody likes repeating themselves, and time spent clarifying is better spent knocking out approaching deadlines. Save time and help your team feel heard by asking for feedback and advice on what works best for them. Whether it’s less emails for more one-on-ones, or using a productivity tool, effective internal communication helps make all other goals seem more possible.
3. Learn a New Skill
Successful people are always learning; their student mentality keeps them open to new perspectives and innovation. Whether it’s to benefit your work or fuel a passion project, learning a new skill will help boost your confidence and give more opportunities to network with others in classes and workshops.
4. Make Time for Yourself
Running a business is hard, but it’s harder when you’re burnt out. Resolve to make time for yourself this year and set expectations with clients and colleagues, even if it’s only for a lunch break or turning your phone off after dinner. Often, complicated tasks become less complicated when you’re feeling refreshed. Taking time off allows your mind the room it needs to wander and connect the dots in unexpected ways.
5. Expand Your Comfort Zone
Make an effort to take more calculated risks and tackle different projects. It seems daunting, but the benefits far outweigh the intimidation. Expanding your comfort zone creates room for real growth and empowers you to chase new opportunities for your team, your business, and your clients. Plus, it shows that you’re versatile and bold, who wouldn’t want to do business with someone like that?
6. Set More SMART Goals
Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely goal setting is how successful people get large projects done. That also goes for New Year’s resolutions, which have a tendency to get dropped around January 7th. Keep your business New Year’s resolutions on track this year by setting more SMART goals, and ask your friend how that gym membership is coming.
When brainstorming your resolutions, reflect on these powerful business quotes for the New Year:
Mark Twain
"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret to getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and then starting on the first one."
Ben Stein
"The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.”
Peter F. Drucker
“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”
Oprah Winfrey
“Step out of the history that is holding you back. Step into the new story you are willing to create.”
As you go into the New Year, effectively manage your resolutions by ensuring they stay top of mind. Consider printing them out and giving everyone a copy, and sending reminders when appropriate. Although these are business New Year’s resolutions and quotes, the advice is timeless and will help inspire greater work across a variety of teams.
What worked this year? What didn’t work? These two questions provide a framework that will improve your performance in the coming year.
Do you have a plan for setting and achieving goals in next year? A personal review of your past year will uncover winning strategies that deserve to be carried forward into the coming year—and those that can be left behind. Conduct an annual review of your performance at work with the following techniques.
Write It Down
Record your observations as you conduct your annual review so you’ll have something to refer back to later. A simple Excel worksheet allows you to organize the past year’s wins and losses month by month. Or, if you prefer to write by hand, Moleskine notebooks are well-made—and can work with Livescribe smartpens to translate your notes into digital content.
Look For Significant Events
Be cautious with granularity. Looking too closely at the past year can cause more issues than it will solve, distracting you from the larger picture. Stay focused on identifying significant events and strategies that impacted your performance.
Create Specific Goals
When planning for next year, create specific goals. Don’t just say you want to make more money or “get better at” something. What will you actually do to make more money? What does “getting better” at something look like? You need to be able to measure your progress toward these goals in a concrete way.
Make a plan and follow up on each step. Use the following categories to establish specific goals for the New Year.
Did you achieve your goals during this year, or did you fall short of your expectations? Have you conducted an annual review and planned for the new year? Comment here, tell your story on Twitter, and follow us @Cydcor. Share this article with your friends and start a conversation with your community. #cydcorlearnandgrow
We are Cydcor, the recognized leader in outsourced sales services. From our humble beginnings as an independent sales company based in Canada, to garnering a reputation as the global leader in outsourced sales, Cydcor has come a long way. We’ve done this by having exceptional sales professionals and providing our clients with proven sales and marketing strategies that get results.