New Year's Resolutions for Small Businesses in 2015

Involve everyone in projects 

Everyone from the owner herself to the guy who empties the trash bins over the weekend is invested in your business. They spend their time, effort, and energy into bettering the company or their own jobs. Every employee of a company has the ability to think like an owner. To do so, you have to involve them in the goals, planning and drive employee engagement. You may set the overall direction, but let them be involved in the creation of the outcomes. This is a big key to greater involvement, commitment and success.

Keep goals clear and concise

When goals are created, everyone needs to be reminded of them regularly. As a leader, you must help people keep their goal in mind and remind them of what success looks like. Employee motivation is key. Using bulletin boards to regular conversations in team meetings, find what works for your team, and implement it.

Diversify communication

“I don’t understand, I sent them an email.” As a business owner, communicating key messages frequently is a top priority. You must ensure that the message sent is received. Doing so, your message is heard and drives action.

Listen

In trying to make sure their point is made, or to stimulate a discussion, leaders will often share all of their ideas and then ask the rest of the team for input. This will rarely work. When you want the team’s input and ideas, you must ask questions. Let the team share their ideas as a means of team building. Be patient and give them time. If they don’t think of a key idea or piece of information, you can share it later with greater effect. Nature gave you two ears and one mouth.

Critique with progress in mind

As an awesome leader, you want your employees to improve. However, most workplace feedback is focused on changing past performance.  To be a more effective coach to your team and help them make improvements in their skills and results, give them feedback, advice and wise counsel about what they can do next time. Regularly conduct employee performance reviews to keep your workers feeling secure about their positions.

Be a model. 

Are your behaviors the ones you want them exhibiting? Are your attitude, work habits, and customer focus what you want them to exhibit? Recognizing frustration, laziness, and irresponsibility from the source, you, creates a “pack” mentality in a workplace rather than “every man for himself.”

Increase sales in 2015

If you say you want to increase general sales, even a $5 increase over the year would qualify you as having achieved your company goal. Set a number that is realistic. Look at the last few years of sales and aim for just a bit more growth. The economy will likely allow for a little extra reach in your numbers this year.

Market better through social media and SEO

SEO is the way of the intelligent business plan in 2015.

Become an expert in my field

If you work on personal branding, people have to know your name for it to be successful. The more places you appear, the more people get to know you through your knowledge.

Be more productive

Last year, I resolved to move my analytics department to Google Docs. In doing so, I achieved exponential productivity for myself and my clients. Focus on tools that will help your business operate more efficiently. Pick a few and resolve to fully implement them in 2015.

Delegate your work

Sometimes it just seems easier to do it yourself. Or is it? I delegated a large project onto the shoulders of one of my better employees. It helped me to achieve other goals on a timely basis, and increased the credibility and competency of my employee. If you’re not working on the bigger picture for your business, you’ll never implement growth.

Make the most of technology

Commit to fully using all of your technology solutions in 2015. So many busy small business owners do not fully utilize the technology investments they've made, despite the fact that doing so would likely save them a lot of time and drive up efficiency. There are so many ways that technology can make your life easier once you take the time to fully embrace and learn.

Make customer service a priority

Customer service can make or break your relationship with current and future customers. Looking ahead to 2015, customer service should be a priority for every small business. We see small businesses taking advantage of the cloud to work smarter and make customers happier. Most customers would rather have their teeth pulled than speak with a customer service agent. 

Be SEO and data-savvy

As identity theft and cyber security dominate the headlines, there are ways of making sure consumers feel safe using products and platforms. In 2014, search engine optimization (SEO) firms discovered new ways to uncover this data using several options. Firms will become more creative with how to access and interpret keyword data because it remains a large part of SEO strategy. Knowing how visitors are searching helps firms to better understand their target markets and create a better user experience on the website, which is the foundation of a solid SEO strategy.

Perform security audits

Next year will be a crucial time for companies to make sure their data stays protected. The rise of targeted attacks seen against corporations has made this a realistic concern. When it comes to investigating potential bugs, it's best to look outside the company and leverage domain experts to probe for risks, examine policy, and suggest fixes. The company I currently work for performs an audit yearly. Expanding the scope of audits due to the new types of security risks and escalating threats observed is the best way to prep for a possible attack.

Be aware of employee fraud

Adopt a code of ethics for your workers. Set a strong tone that fraud will not be tolerated at any level of your business. Draft and approve a code of ethics that includes concise compliance standards that are consistent with promoting ethical behavior across the organization. Require each employee to read and sign the code of ethics as well as contractors who work on behalf of the organization. Your employees are the other half of what sets a company’s reputation.

Become more adaptable

As mega-retailers continue their quest to steal market share from other big-box retailers, smaller online businesses need to be better competitors, both from a price, customer service and marketing standpoint. This includes identifying true points of difference and showcasing these points in marketing and branding, delivering personalized experiences, and so much more. The economy and the community are built up by the success of small businesses.