Keeping Your Business Resolutions in the New Year

A month into the new year, small businesses are facing the stressful task of staying accountable for their list of resolutions to make their businesses more productive, efficient and downright successful in 2009. Are you struggling to change bad business habits while motivating your staff to pick up on the new way of doing business?

The Resolution

Tom Butler, co-founder of Right Angle – a Louisville-based business coaching and consulting firm – suggests New Year’s resolutions for businesses should directly link to the company’s annual operating plan.

“If the annual operating plan includes a 10% increase in revenue, then the business can develop several strong resolutions in sales and marketing that support this revenue increase,” said Tom.

By keeping in line with the annual operating plan, you can ensure that your resolutions are focused on your long-term business objectives and supportive in the efforts to achieve these objectives.

“Make sure you can answer the question, ‘Why are we doing this?’ because that is what your employees will ask. If you can answer that question and create buy-in from your team, you are on your way to achieving the resolutions,” said Tom.

Tom proposes that small business owners examine four categories to focus their resolutions for optimal results.

• Manage your cash flow by understanding what happened historically and develop projections for the next 30-60-90 days.
• Become more profitable by turning revenue into profits through examination of your operations and optimization of your processes.
• Attract business from competitors through focused sales and marketing efforts. (Because of the current business conditions and challenging economy, some of your competitors will lose focus on their current customer. Now is the time for you to reach out to them and offer a better product or service.)
• Improve the skills and productivity of each team member through team training. By augmenting the skill levels of your current staff, you can essentially do more with less, making your business more cost effective and efficient.

Once you have established reasonable resolutions, break the resolutions down into actionable items with responsibilities assigned to team members and expected completion dates noted.

“We have found that focusing on 90-day increments of time makes it easier for the team to understand, stay focused on the task and to celebrate successes,” said Tom.

Keeping your resolutions

No business resolution can be achieved without the support of your team members; therefore, implementing business resolutions must first come with a buy-in from your team. According to Tom, in order to facilitate the success of the resolutions, the boss or team leader must delegate effectively.

“The team leader must properly explain the activities, assign the correct people and get agreement on the due dates. Once that is complete, the most important role the boss or team leader can play is that of a coach – guiding, educating, motivating and keeping people on task.”

Looking for added team support? Incentives are a good solution for making improvements to your business through team members. However, the incentives do not have to be monetary. Think of other possibilities that would have appeal with your staff such as additional time off, recognition awards and opportunities for promotion within the organization.

“Creating a more team-focused, positive environment where people work together to achieve company goals may be all the incentive they need,” said Tom.

Are you determined to make your business resolutions stick in ‘09? Check out these tips to ensure you are successful.

1. Make realistic and measurable resolutions. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, often resolutions fail because they just aren’t achievable. Instead of aiming to increase your market share by 35%, shoot for 15%.
2. Create an outlined plan. Once a set of realistic resolutions is established, map out how you will strive to achieve them throughout the year.
3. Discuss your resolutions with team members. Make sure everyone is on board with your company’s business resolutions and ensure they know their role in supporting the success of the resolution.
4. Track your progress. Because business resolutions should be geared towards long-term results, it is important to keep track of each success in order to stay accountable and to ensure you are working to reach your goals.
5. Celebrate your successes. Did you get that new client you had resolved to snag? Well, celebrate! Celebrating the milestones will keep you motivated to achieve your larger, over-arching resolutions.