Waving goodbye to another year is a mixed bag of emotions for all of us in business. Primarily, the New Year offers business owners and entrepreneurs a fresh start and for past mistakes to be erased so that we can look forward to what new business endeavours the New Year brings. On the other hand, it could instil negativity in some as the previous year may have brought some of your best breakthroughs or sales. Or you may have recruited some of your best-performing employees or moved to a new office location that enables your business better reach, etc.
Stemming from this, it can be hard to carry this success into the New Year, and business owners may be worried about how their business can emulate this level of victory over the next business year. As regardless of whether your business has just started out or if it’s established, your company must have a proper and ever-evolving business plan, plus good organisational strategies; otherwise, your business will soon suffer the consequences. In light of this, we’ve created this article full of ways to ensure that your business remains successful in the New Year and for many years coming.
Update Your Business Plan
Before setting up your business, you should have developed a business plan that outlines the basics of your business and the expected costs, which you can update annually depending on how successful (or unsuccessful) your business becomes. Business plans are beneficial for budding entrepreneurs or newly-founded companies. They enable business owners to narrow down and focus on specific tasks and prioritise long or short-term objectives to allow success for the business. You can then use these annual amendments to create new business objectives and review the outcome of previous goals, whether good or bad, so that you can concentrate on improving your business and how you can succeed in future endeavours.
Expand Your Marketing Methods
A pivotal element in the business world is marketing, as successful promotional efforts help elevate your business. It also helps increase the range of audiences and locations that your products/services reach. Successful companies and their marketing teams don’t just wait until the New Year arrives to evaluate their methods; they assess them regularly to draw comparisons between which marketing models work more effectively and if they can improve upon anything. It’s also worthwhile to consider your target demographic when expanding your marketing methods to ensure that your business uses the correct tools to optimise the chances of reaching your target audience.
For example, if the younger generation is your business’s target demographic, you should invest more money into the internet and social-media-based marketing. As millennials, plus the younger generation, are the third most active group on social media and are more likely to find your services/products through these platforms, unlike older adults. Focusing on social media marketing instead of other forms will be beneficial for your marketing methods so that your business can reach your target audience more efficiently and bolster age-specific sales.
Find the Correct Balance between Work and Life
During the course of running a company, it can be difficult for business owners to find and maintain a balance between good work and family relationships. Keeping your family and friends separate from your work life is essential so that you can concentrate and focus on your workload. However, it’s also necessary to take regular breaks from the office so that your brain can recharge and you don’t burn yourself out. Ultimately, sacrifices in business are required, but the majority of business owners and entrepreneurs end up sacrificing their mental and physical wellbeing or relationships with family and friends instead. A breakdown in your companionships leads to increased stress levels and unwillingness to work, leading to the deterioration of relationships within your business and making the company suffer as a result.
So that you can avoid this, make sure that you schedule downtime for yourself and periods you can be away from the office. Down-time could be in the shape of completing a workout, meeting up with friends or family during your lunch break, or collecting your children from school halfway through your day. These periods must be scheduled so that you can maintain your work-life balance and so your business prospers as a result.
Bolster Your Online Presence
Regardless of size, it’s becoming ever-important for businesses to bolster their online presence. Establishing an online presence through revolutionary business tools such as the internet has become necessary for business growth and success. Especially for smaller businesses, the usage of the internet has enabled small business owners to market their products/services directly to the world through tools like social media and connect with their audience in a timely and efficient manner. Therefore, for your business to reach its full potential, it’s crucial for business owners to make sure that the company’s online presence is cemented and updated regularly for maximum optimisation of sales and promotion.
You could do this by appointing the role of looking after the business’s social media accounts to a couple of people within marketing and overseeing that they strive to make the company noticeable across all social platforms. Or you could give your company website a refresh, making sure that it stands apart from your competitors and that your business values, goals, and visions are displayed and accurately represented. Alternatively, if you don’t want to promote in-house, you could consider outsourcing a digital marketing agency in London or surrounding areas, which can manage these aspects on your behalf. Agencies like 303 London specialise in this, offering various services which have helped many businesses with their content creation, social media and community management, e-commerce, and website building.
Improve and Monitor Your Levels of Customer Service
One fundamental way to maintain and improve business success is by monitoring your engagement with customers and how your team responds to their queries, complaints, and praise. Loyal customers are essential for any business, regardless of its size, and often businesses rely on their returning customer base for continued success and easier sales. Ensure that customers repeat business with your company by monitoring your current levels of customer service, assessing which elements could be improved, and ensuring that you stay one step ahead of your competitors.
Having a successful customer service procedure in place also helps set you apart from your competitors or similar companies within your sector. Your employees and yourself should strive to make customers feel as though your business is partial to their needs and makes them feel valued so that their loyalty increases, so you get repeat custom. You could make sure that you’re achieving this by implementing some of the following tips into your customer service procedures;
- Make sure you are annually reviewing or improving your returns and exchanges policy.
- Set a daily goal or time limit to respond to customer queries and complaints via email or social media.
- After a customer places an order or enlists a service, use questionnaires, and online surveys to ask for customer satisfaction feedback or suggestions on how to improve.
- Provide customer service training for staff members.
- If you respond to customers via telephone, make sure you record and annually review phone correspondence to ensure employees maintain your customer service levels.