Today, let’s look at ways for you to start this financial year really strongly.
These past six months have been a massive learning curve, haven’t they? The lessons that we’ve learned have just been surreal! Honestly, some days you’ve got to pinch yourself and think, “is this really happening? Is this really what we’ve been through?” Even with all the challenges, we can learn useful lessons. Lessons that have got the potential to make us stronger, smarter, and more resilient business owners than ever before.
The key to success is always in setting goals, and then working to achieve them. So there are five goals that we can all be setting, based on the learning we’ve taken from these last few months. Let’s use these to make this next financial year look like a really successful year for all of us.
Activate online:
The first one, if you haven’t already, is to activate online. Google averages 40,000 searches every second, which equates to 1.2 trillion searches worldwide per year! Even those numbers would have increased over the last few months! It is a fact that everyone is online now. Interestingly, 78% of consumers say they regard online reviews in the same way as an in-person referral. So, if the vast majority of people are searching online, and most consumers look to reviews to make their decisions, your business needs to be found online.
Systemise your content marketing:
The next new year’s resolution you can set is to systemise your content marketing. There are 3.2 billion internet users actively engaged in social media right now. 3.2 billion, and two-thirds of them are there for business reasons. If you are a B2B business owner, it is absolutely vital that you activate and systemise your social presence, produce content, and publish it like clockwork. Get your content out reliably, without missing a beat. Get really visible online.
Reduce your expenses:
Another thing you should be doing this coming year is reducing your expenses. The reality is, 82% of small business failure is directly the result of a lack of cash flow. If we have learned nothing else, it is to trim our expenses back. Trim off the fat so you’re running a lean business and not wasting a single cent. Every single investment that you make with your business revenue needs to be earning its keep by keeping systems operating, and delivering to your customers.
Optimise your systems:
The next resolution for this new financial year is to optimise your systems. Now, this is the perfect way to keep your expenses low. Find the best, fastest, most efficient, and most cost-effective ways of operating in your business. Find them and lock them down. By spending time doing this, you are investing in both the present and future of your business. Once done, make sure that everyone is working according to the plan, which leads us to the last resolution: documenting your processes.
Document your processes:
Interestingly, at the start of the year, 85% of businesses did not have process documentation. This means that when the lockdown hit, those businesses were not able to send their staff home with adequate instruction or support. It meant that when things were changing, there was no stability in place because even the regular things were not certain anymore. By putting a documented process into place, you are able to keep track of past, present, and future, and build a solid basis for your staff to follow.
I’ve got one final quote that I read just the other day to finish up with:
“The past is where you learn the lesson. Your future is where you will apply it.”
This is a powerful idea. We have learned so much over these last few months, and now, it is time to apply that learning. We can apply it to create more certainty, more efficiency, and more capacity for growth in our business. This coming financial year is the time to make these resolutions and grow your business even better than before.
