New Year’s Business Resolutions
While they may seem like a modern popular culture phenomenon, New Year’s resolutions have a history that dates back millennia. The ancient Babylonians pledged to their gods to make good on debts to their neighbors and return objects they had borrowed from them. The citizens of Rome made promises to Janus (the god of beginnings, and the namesake of the month of January). Knights in the Middle Ages undertook The Vows of the Peacock to prove their pledges of chivalry. More recently, starting at the end of the Great Depression, large numbers of Americans began to make similar resolutions to reflect on their lives and make positive changes to start their year off on the right foot.
The start of the new year is also the perfect time for businesses to reflect on their past successes and failures and make improvements. Setting worthwhile and achievable goals now and revisiting them as the year progresses is an excellent way to ensure the health of your company, as well as give your employees measurable indicators of its growth and success. Here are a few excellent ideas to enable you to keep your New Year’s business resolutions and ensure that your next year is the best one yet.
- Set Specific, Attainable Milestones.
It’s easy to say that you want to increase your sales or customer base – but with no barometer in place, this will remain an abstract rather than concrete goal. Don’t be afraid to attach specific numbers to your goal – but make sure they’re realistic. Take the time to review your past year, and set specific, attainable milestones based on your past performance. When you reach your goal, be sure to celebrate and reward your employees for their hard work in achieving it. If you have larger goals in mind, break them down into multiple, smaller goals – that way the goal will seem like an attainable one, rather than a point of stress. - Make Tasks and Schedules – But Excuse Bad Days
Often when you’ve got multiple goals and day-to-day duties, you can end up overwhelmed by the sheer volume of what needs to be done and as a result nothing ends up completed. By setting short, daily tasks and scheduling time to focus on your projects, you can make sure that there’s enough time in the day for everything that needs to be done. Most importantly, don’t beat yourself up if all of your day’s goals don’t get accomplished – after all, we’ve all had days where something unexpected completely turns our day upside down. Try and make room for those missed tasks as soon as possible, but don’t let a small setback completely derail the overall goal. A little work on your goal is better than none at all. - Keep Your Employees Motivated and Updated
You won’t be working on your business resolutions by yourself. Your employees will be the ones doing the hard work of trying to help you achieve them. Be sure to keep them apprised of your progress, and in a constructive way. When you’re hitting your goals, be sure to let them share in the success. When you’re coming up short, find positive ways to try and improve. When you’ve got everyone motivated to help your business thrive, you’ll find that success comes more quickly.
The New Year’s resolutions you set now can help your business thrive throughout the entire year, especially if you set realistic business goals that everyone is motivated to help attain. Remember: communication is key – and we should know. AccessDirect has been helping small businesses with their communication needs for over 20 years. We’ve watched our customers set specific growth goals and expand from small, 1 to 3 employee businesses to companies spanning multiple locations in multiple states. Contact us today to find out how we can help you achieve your business goals.
