With the New Year fast approaching many of us are thinking about our new year’s resolutions. We start the year with gusto dedicated to achieving these new goals only to find by Mid-February we have forgotten them and gone back to our old ways. Here are 5 tips for you to ensure those resolutions stick.
1. It must be meaningful to you – we all work harder in achieving goals that are meaningful and benefit us. So when you set goals make sure it is something that’s important to you personally.
2. It must be achievable – Don’t set yourself massive goals that you stand no chance of achieving. Your goal needs to be realistic, or you will set yourself up to fail and give up before the year is out.
3. You must believe you can achieve it – We all have that little voice in our head, our subconscious telling us what we can and can’t do. If it’s positive you are far more likely to achieve your goal. So when you set a goal, listen to that little voice, do you really believe that you can achieve it.
4. Set yourself up to achieve – If you need help to achieve your goal, find someone who can help you turn your goal into a reality. Whether it’s a business advisor, accountant, marketing professional, make sure you have the skillset onboard to achieve your goal.
5. Break your goal down – Don’t focus on the whole thing break your goal down into smaller measurable chunks and celebrate your success as you achieve each milestone – This is a great way to ensure you stay motivated, plus it can make achieving a big goal seem far less intimidating.
Now you know how to maximize your chances of achieving your goals let’s look at 5 key goals all business owners should set themselves for 2016.
1. Learn from last year’s hits and misses
Place the previous 12 months’ business activity under the microscope. What worked well for you? What did not work as well as you had hoped and why? Now use this information to make a plan of action for 2016. Include those things that worked and make changes and retest things that didn’t work. This is a great way to avoid repeating past mistakes and allows you to keep growing and exploring opportunities for your business, whilst implementing and benefiting from last year’s wins.
2. Stay on track
Ensure you have a solid plan of action in place for 2016, what do you want to achieve and what will you do to ensure it happens. A solid business plan will help you make better business decisions about the strategies you need to continue to operate and grow. This type of thinking also helps to ensure you and your team have a consensus about where the business is going and how to stay on track, helping you avoid distractions.
3. Don’t try to be all things to all people
Are you the director, IT person, admin manager and salesperson in your business? Wearing multiple hats can be exhausting. Avoid micro-managing if you are lucky enough to have employees. Delegate intelligently. It can be challenging letting go, but if you don’t delegate, growing your business could become a pipe dream. Why not outsource tasks you loathe so you can spend more time on growing the business?
4. Grow to love your numbers
Many business owners consider themselves too busy to check or understand their financial statements. Learn about profit and loss statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements and don’t shy away from the numbers. Making time to understand your financial documents will give you greater control and a clearer picture of your business and its performance. It can help you make smarter decisions with cash flow ranking as the second highest pressure point for SME, it’s time to add cash flow expertise to your toolbox. Ask your trusted accountant or bookkeeper to guide you.
5. Don’t be afraid to embrace technology
Cloud-based accounting software, convenient mobile apps and online business management tools are a must for businesses to consider. Today’s technologies can save you time and drive significant efficiencies. So speak to a specialist today and see how it can help you manage your business.
If you want to set yourself up for a great 2016 catch up with us today for a free, no obligation, coffee and chat. We can help you with all your cloud accounting cloud system, accounting and bookkeeping needs.
If you are looking for some great ideas to help you improve your business performance in 2016 why not use our FREE Business Improvement Report, just 20 minutes of your time and you will receive a FREE tailored report outlining opportunities for business improvement within your business, that you can implement yourself right now.