2024 - Your time to shine
As we welcome in another New Year, every second email or social media post seems to be offering advice of how to make it your “Best Year Yet”, whether it be lifestyle, finances or your health. It can seem a bit overwhelming and cliched.
One thing I know for sure though, is that the time will pass anyway, so why not join the planning party, and make 2024 Your time to shine. Here are our top business tips for framing up your new year and beyond.
Rearview Mirror:
How was your 2023, what goals did you achieve, what difference has it made to your business? Reflection on our lessons learned, focusing on what worked what didn’t and how we can use those lessons to plan for this year. It’s important to celebrate the wins and let go of what didn’t work.
Set the Destination:
Goals help us define what we want. Give yourself some headspace to really think about what you want for yourself, your business and your family. It will give you inspiration for why you are in business and bring a fresh energy.
I like to break this down into time frames, 3 years, 1 year and 3 months. What is achievable and what would be amazing.
Income – this would be your profit. What level of profit can we earn over this time frame? Compare it to what we achieved in 2023. And add a % increase for each time frame. Change up the percentages – for example increase last year’s Profit by 5% then your dream increase might be 20%.
Size – what size of business can you achieve in the above time frames. What size of team do we need to achieve our profit targets, do we need bigger premises or add another service or product offering.
Freedom – how much time ideally would you like to spend in your business.
Culture – what sort of buzz would invigorate your team.
Build the Plan:
Look at the drivers in your business, across finance, sales, marketing and productivity. Pick 2 to 3 strategies in each sector.
This might look like:
Finance:
Review your pricing – when did you last increase prices?
Review your expenses including your personal credit/ debit card expenses – in today’s easy sign up world it is easy to accumulate monthly bills which we no longer use. I’ve just done this exercise, and embarrassingly found several subscriptions that haven’t been used for some time.
Reduce your work in work in progress.
Sales:
Set Targets – work out what level of sales or revenue you need to achieve your profit goals as above. Most of the cloud base accounting software will have a budget area, where you can enter in the targets, then you can run your monthly reports to see how you are travelling. And tweak accordingly.
Follow up – set up a follow up system, to capitalise on opportunities,
Optimise your quotation system – make sure you are not leaving money on the table when quoting.
Marketing:
Define your client avatar – who are they, what do they do, where do they hang out etc.
Review your online presence and brand profile – does it reflect the business you want to be seen as?
Optimise your strategic partners.
Productivity:
Establish your team targets at a business and individual level. Find out what is important to your individual team members and what motivates them. Set targets and rewards around this.
Develop ongoing team training plan.
Organise regular team meetings.
Review and refine.
Now that you have your plan, make sure you use it. Measure your actual results against the plan at least monthly to make sure you are on the right track, If things aren’t working, look at what needs to change to get it working. If things are going really well in an area, double click on that.
Remember if you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.
And most importantly make it fun, and engage your team. It will be sweeter when you come to celebrate the wins!