New Year’s resolutions for the small business owner

Drink less. Eat better. Exercise more. Cut down on screen time. Be an all-around better person. Those New Year’s resolutions are so 2022. For 2023, let’s give the concept of New Year’s resolutions a Rapid Formations spin, and look at some resolutions that’ll help you, the small business owner (on top of drinking less, eating better, doing more exercise, and cutting down on screen time).

So, let’s jump straight in and look at 10 resolutions that will help you and your small business in 2023.

1. Get better at delegating

As the owner of an SME your time is precious, so are you spending it on the areas that are truly beneficial to your business?

You may be reading this and thinking, wait, I don’t have a team that I can delegate things to, I’m a one-person business. But who’s to say that you can’t delegate tasks via outsourcing?

Review your duties over a monthly period and ask yourself if someone else (or software) could take on any of these duties, in-house or out-house.

For example, if you spend a sizable amount of time working on your accounts, consider hiring an accountant. Or maybe you spend too much of your day fielding phone calls, in which case you should look into signing up for a business telephone answering service.

If you’re thinking about taking on a freelancer, you may find sites such as Fiverr, Upwork, and Peopleperhour helpful.

Your time matters so make it count.

2. Revisit one of your services

If a product is ‘ticking away nicely’, it’s all too easy to leave it alone and let it do its thing. This is a mistake. Business moves quickly and soon enough a competitor will come along with something different that makes you look old hat.

The start of the year is the perfect time to take another look at your offering, and see how it can be improved upon or made more cost-effective.

Is it being marketed the right way? Is your price point still appropriate? Has new technology been introduced that could help you? Does the webpage need a refresh? Is there a specific feature that no one takes advantage of? Is the team who delivers the service still motivated by the product?

Regardless of what it is that you do, there are always opportunities to reinvigorate a service.

3. Improve your customer services

Strive to make your customer services team as good as possible – even if it is only you.

Start by doing an audit of all your customer interactions over the previous year, the positive and the negative, being sure to include emails, phone calls (if possible), online reviews, and social media.

If you have one, consult with your customer services manager on what you think went well and what didn’t, and then develop a strategy for how you can improve upon the not-so-great interactions and those that went reasonably. This should include new email templates and telephone scripts.

If you do have a team in place, the next step should be to conduct some mystery calls and emails, to test out if the new ideas have been implemented correctly. It’s important to recognise that the purpose of these calls and emails is not about ‘catching out’ your team, instead, the goal is ensuring the best possible journey for your customers, new and old.

4. Learn a skill

Set aside some time in your week to learn a new skill that could benefit your business directly, or simply make you feel better.

This could be something practical, such as learning to code or improve your copywriting, or something a bit more out there, like learning how to make an amazing flat white.

Running a business is ultimately a creative endeavour. However, the day-to-day is often anything but creative, so it’s important to flex this muscle and make time to keep on learning.

Whatever you do choose to take on, make sure you enjoy it – otherwise there’s no point.

5. Drop something that isn’t working

No business is perfect. Review all of your products, services, processes, marketing campaigns (and so on), and consider what is and isn’t going to plan. Once you have a list of not-so-goods, be honest with yourself and ask whether it’s worth continuing with any of these activities.

If something is salvageable, great – work to improve it. But if an aspect of your business isn’t working out, take the necessary steps to remove it.

This isn’t about being ruthless for the sake of it, it’s to streamline your activity (and perhaps save some cash). For example, perhaps you’ve made a good go of advertising on social media but have never really seen any reward. Or maybe a piece of software isn’t working as you thought it would.

One of the biggest mistakes a business can make is not recognising what isn’t working.

6. Don’t let company culture slip

It’s easy to let company culture slip in January. You’ve just had the Christmas party, not to mention the impromptu drinks that were dotted throughout December. Now is a time to get your heads down and do some work.

However, not only is January often considered a gloomy month, where team member morale may be low, but it’s also a time when people traditionally look at making a new start – and perhaps consider their position at your company.

So, are you doing enough to build a positive company culture?

Get a team activity booked in the calendar for the next few weeks. Introduce a new perk (free lunch Fridays?). Buy a new coffee machine. Start a book/podcast club.

Whatever it takes to show your team that company culture isn’t limited to a Christmas and Summer party.

7. Review your work/life balance

Being a business owner is all-encompassing, with there often being little distinction between the week and the weekend.

Take a step back and review your own routine. How much genuinely free time do you get for yourself and your family? If your routine works and you’re happy and healthy, fine. But if there is a blur between your work and home life, you could be on the way to business owner burnout.

Set time aside for activities that have nothing to do with work. In the long run, it’s what’s best for you and your business.

8. Talk to everyone

The start of the year is the ideal opportunity to catch up with the people who matter to your business. Staff, partners, customers, suppliers – everyone. Open your door and demonstrate that you care about the people who enable your business to run successfully.

If these people are willing, make time for a 20-minute one-to-one meeting, where you can discuss what they want to achieve in 2023 and anything else that they have on their minds. Listen to absolutely everything that they say, being fully present.

It won’t always be comfortable, but it will be an effective way to hear opinions.

If meeting with everyone simply isn’t viable, look at an alternative way to collect feedback, such as surveys and questionnaires.

9. Attend a networking event

New Year’s resolutions are typically about doing things that you may find uncomfortable. And so we find ourselves here, the dreaded networking event.

Yes, we know they’re not for everyone, but a good event can be legitimately helpful for finding new customers and making new business contacts.

Use websites such as Eventbrite and Meetup to find a networking event local (and appropriate) to you, perfect your elevator pitch, and then take the plunge. You may be surprised by how useful they are.

If you are resolutely in the ‘absolutely not’ corner, dip your toes into some relevant forums instead, such as UK Business Forums – where you can make some handy contacts and get useful advice.

10. Do charitable work

And finally, if you can afford to, look into working with a charity.

This could be a charity (or scheme) that’s local to your business, or simply something that’s important to you and your team.

For example, you could reach out to a local school to see if you can give some computers, or donate to your local food bank.

Alternatively, you could work to start an official partnership with a larger charity, whereby you give customers the option to donate to the charity when at the checkout (you can then match these contributions).

You could even allocate each of your team members a few days off that can be dedicated to volunteer work.

As well as the obvious benefits to helping out a worthy cause, this is also a great way to motivate and inspire your team, as it gives them a chance to do something different from their usual activity.

So there you have it…

10 New Year’s resolutions for you, the small business owner.

Whether you decide to take on all of these resolutions or a few, we’d love to hear how you get on. We’d also like to know if you have any business-related resolutions that we haven’t mentioned – so please do leave a comment.

Wishing you and your business every success in 2023, from all the team at Rapid Formations!

For more posts like this, take a look at our central blog page.