Five Resolutions You Can Make For Your Business

A new year calls for an evaluation of your achievements and resolutions. It’s a time for reflection but also for making goals and plans for the future. It’s the ideal opportunity to work out what changes you want to make, and that includes evaluating your business and career path. So, we’ve come up with five resolutions that could make a significant difference to your work life and business. Whether you choose to focus on one or several of them, see the new year as a fresh start; it’s the perfect time to work on your goals for 2020 and beyond.

Update Your Social Media

We don’t mean show us a pic of your Christmas dinner!!  Social Media is so often the first point of contact for our customers these days, so take time to update your social media platforms (ensuring any public posts or photographs show you in a positive light). Make sure contact details, links, pricing and opening hours are all up to date, and that it’s clear what your business is about.  Make it easy for customers to find you online!

Take interest in your industry 

Whether you’re looking for a new opportunity  or not, you should keep your social media pages up to date, follow accounts relevant to your sector, and update your LinkedIn page regularly. If you’re not a social media whizz, why not sign up to relevant newsletters or magazines? It’s important to keep up-to-date with the latest changes and developments within your sector. 

Network, network, network 

Networking can take place in a variety of ways, from attending local business events and talks to simply connecting with new people on LinkedIn. There’s no reason not to expand your network of contacts and, even if you don’t need any business services  right now, networking will mean you have a ready-made list of people to contact when you do want to outsource a part of your business.  At a minimum, try to make at least one new contact every month. 

Assess your work/life balance 

If you’ve been skipping your breaks or find yourself looking at work emails while you’re at home, it’s time to assess your work/life balance. Everyone should be able to switch off from their work schedule, but sometimes the distinction between work and home life can become blurred. There are a number of ways to improve your work/life balance, but our main advice would be to delete any work email apps from your phone if you don’t need to check them at home, and to allocate some time every evening to ‘unplug’ and do something unrelated to your phone, laptop and social media. The ideal time to ‘unplug’ is before bedtime, as exposure to electronics and screens before bed can interrupt your sleep patterns and negatively impact the quality of your sleep. 

Learn something new 

However long you’ve been in your current job or industry, there’s always something new to learn. There are hundreds and hundreds of skills that could benefit your current role and responsibilities but also your wider career. If you’ve got one in mind, search for a local course or training sessions that cater to that particular skill. 

As a minimum though, take at least a few minutes out, to think about the coming year, where you want to be at the end of it, and how you are going to get there.  After all, the old adage says “if we fail to plan, we plan to fail”!