You plan to travel in your car.

And your destination is about 1000KM from home.

Before setting off, you prepare the car.

You conduct some checks on it. You inspect the tyres, examine the windscreen wiper and investigate the oil level. And carry out other necessary checks before the long journey.

But…

Why this preparation? Why don`t you jump in the car, arrest the steering wheel and drive off to your destination?

Answer: To avoid a car breakdown during the long journey and ensure a smooth ride to your destination.

Yes, same is true for you to achieve your business goals for the new year.

A new year is a new journey for your business, and the destination you have in mind is your business goal for the new year. For your business to reach this destination, you need to prepare it for the journey ahead.

How?

By considering these three essential things at the beginning of the year.

You want to improve your sales performance or grow your budding brand or launch a new product? Here are three essential things to prepare the new year off strong for your small business:


1. Grant Customer an Audience
At the beginning of the new year, consider harvesting customer feedback about your product performance and service delivery for last year.

Why should you harvest their feedback at the beginning of the year?

Two reasons.

First, you want to collate customer feedback for the previous year, mine it and use your discovery as a roadmap to improve their experience with your brand in the new year. For example, If customers pointed out that your payment method was painful the previous year, you would consider providing a seamless payment method in the new year.

The second reason is to use the feedback collection as an opportunity to reconnect with customers in the new year, to assure them of your commitment to serve better. And with this, you will raise an expectation of improvement in customer minds, which make them stay with your brand. Who doesn`t want to stick to a brand that has promised to deliver more happiness in the new year?

So hand them the microphone, sit back and listen to what they have to say about your product and service delivery in the previous year.

Know how to go about the feedback collection? If no, here are four methods you can employ:

Printed Feedback Form ( For walk-in customers)
Online Feedback Form
Telephone Call
Face-to-Face Discussion.
Remember to let your budget and mode of operation guide your choice, and you should demand mild ceremony for the collection.

2. Update Your Business Knowledge
At the beginning of the new year, you also need to refill your knowledge tank. Learn and update yourself about the latest in your product market and business domain.

Your intention?

You don`t want to be late to the party during the year. Instead, you want to stay ahead of the competition.

By updating your knowledge of your product market, competitors and business domain, you empower yourself to make informed business decisions during the year.

And that`s awesome.

It`s like receiving a real-time traffic update before leaving home for an important business meeting. Not only do you know about the gridlock, but also a suggested route to your destination.

So search the internet. Buy competitors product and examine their make-up. Consult professionals. Leave your desk and go out to ask questions.

What are competitors up to in the new year? Is a branded nylon now preferred in the market to a paper box? What new equipment should you acquire in the new year?

3. Concretise Your Goal
Yes, you have business goals for the new year. You want to improve your sales performance, grow your brand, increase your social media engagement, this and that.

But the question is: are your dreams specific?

What sales figure are you targeting in the new year? Is it seventy million naira or five hundred and sixty million naira? How many Instagram followers are you looking forward to at the end of the year? Is it fifty thousand? Or one hundred and twenty thousand?

Without concretising all these goals in numbers, you risk moving forward in the dark, blindly running into anything that comes your way. You waste your time, energy and other resources.

To avoid that, convert your business goals for the new year to numbers. To be more definite, let those numbers be in months. Or even in weeks.

The concreteness of goals makes execution and evaluation easy. You will know which direction you are heading and where you are. And if you miss your target for a week or a month, you will have an alarm in place to wake you.

Isn`t that great?

Do Have a More Prosperous Business Year

Oh…You read this far?

https://businessmanure.com/3-essential-things-to-prepare-your-small-business-for-a-more-prosperous-2020/

Cc: FOD, dominique, puskin, naijacutee


Ṣeun
Lalasticlala
Mynd44

Insightful.