New Years Resolutions for Entrepreneurs...
The New Year is synonymous with resolutions and promises of making changes. If you are an entrepreneur, this time of year offers you a perfect opportunity to take stock of your business, as emails are probably at an all-time low over the holiday period. Here is my checklist of priority resolutions for all entrepreneurs for the New Year:
1. Review your business plan
One of the most important requirements for any entrepreneur is a business plan; not one that lives in their head or one that is consigned to an office shelf - but a living business plan. If you have never written one, now is the perfect time to do so. If your business plan is in the drawer, take it out, read it and update it accordingly. Without a business plan, your business is essentially rudderless and you run the risk of not focusing on the key activities that need to be undertaken to bring you success.
2. Run through the numbers
For many people, numbers are not necessarily their strong suit and in small companies without a dedicated in-house accounting department this can result in serious problems. There is an old saying that what gets measured gets managed. If you do not have any metrics in place, now is the perfect time to set them. These can include key financial ratios as well as customer and Web based metrics, e.g. $ value per customer, conversion rates, etc.
3. Optimize your website
Most businesses set up a website when they start, but many entrepreneurs then ignore it. It is essential that websites are maintained and are mined for information. Where are your customers coming from? What are they looking at? What is the conversion level for visitors? Armed with this knowledge you can tailor your website for the audience you attract and help achieve the objectives that the website was designed for in the first place.
4. Familiarize yourself with Google Adwords
The growing use of the Web is facilitated in large part by the use of Google as a signposting mechanism to resources and as a means to find answers and issues. Google is the dominant search engine in the US and AdWords is a powerful tool that can be used to target prospective customers. AdWords lets you show your ads only to people searching on a specific phrase related to your business, so it is highly targeted marketing. If you have an AdWords account, the New Year offers you a great opportunity to review campaigns from preceding months. If you do not have one - set one up.
5. Identify a business book and read it
Entrepreneurs are typically very busy people, dealing with a whole raft of different issues and challenges. However, time needs to be set aside so as to consider the bigger picture as wider circumstances impact upon the prospects for businesses. It is important entrepreneurs remove themselves from day-to-day 'fire fighting' to assess future strategy. One means to assist this is by reading publications that either relate to the industry you are in or that will broaden your knowledge in a particular aspect of business. There are huge numbers of business books available at any bookstore (many written by business academics) and some will naturally be more relevant to you and others.
6. Summary
One thing common to all entrepreneurs is the perceived lack of time. Most are required to cover a huge breadth of areas (particularly at the start-up stage). However, this incessant focus on day-to-day issues can mean that they spend little time reflecting on the wider picture. The New Year period affords you the perfect opportunity to make some changes to ensure that day-to-day management issues do not distract you from your broader business objectives.
