The year 2020 has begun and there are a lot of those who are already starting to tick away things from their list of New Year’s resolutions. And then some still haven’t made their lists – yes, we are looking at you, busy business owners!
Grab a pen and paper or your laptop and join a group of people who are committed to improving their lives and businesses. However, if you lack inspiration, here are a couple of New Year’s resolutions from other small business owners to motivate you.
Add a blog to your website
A blog adds credibility to your small business because you are essentially offering content connected with your industry. With professional content, you are establishing yourself as an expert, both in the community and from the perspective of the readers. The latter will also value the fact that you are sharing certain tips and tricks for free, which will strengthen their loyalty towards your brand and products or services.
In addition to that, blogs are fertile ground for your SEO efforts and can help your website rank higher because they provide answers to your audience’s questions. Please make sure you include 1–2 long-tail keywords related to the intent of your target readers, and strive to regularly provide fresh content. Naturally, manage your existing content and remove, repurpose, or update it as necessary. So, in 2020, task yourself (or a marketing agency) with creating SEO-optimized and engaging content for your blog to boost your reputation in the business industry.
Take time off
Business owners are the last to notice that they are getting close to burnout – they ignore the signs of accumulated stress and the sense of exhaustion until it starts affecting their work performance or spills over to their private lives. The desire to give your best to make your business flourish is understandable but nobody will benefit if you exhaust yourself or end up in a hospital.
So, as soon as you start noticing the signs of severe mental strain and that you don’t engage in anything other than work, it is time you take a break. Accept that invitation from your relatives that have been calling you for so long to visit them in New Zealand. Just fly there, get a car rental at Auckland airport, and drive over to spend some quality time with them. Sleep late, recharge your batteries, avoid work talk, and you will notice the difference just a few days without work can make to help you see things with fresh eyes.
Activate more on social media
Being active on social media can be a cost-effective way to raise awareness about your brand. It gives you a unique opportunity to connect directly with your customers and to find out their honest opinions about your brand and products. Your social media profiles are also a great source of ideas because your customers can give you insight into things that could be changed or new products that you can market.
To increase your social media engagement, you should consider including visuals because they are what grabs attention. You can use photos, images, infographics, memes – anything your target audience finds interesting. Also, don’t forget to connect your website to your social media profiles by adding buttons that directly link to them, and promote your blog content on the profiles to increase your website traffic. If your small business has profiles on social networks but they are not that active, change your approach not to miss out on the chance to tap into that gold mine of information.
Forget micromanaging
As mentioned, business owners are naturally inclined to give their best to make everything work and this, unfortunately, often means that they are looming over everyone’s shoulders. Understandably, you want to do everything in your power but micromanaging, that is, personally overseeing every single task and employee, can have more negative consequences than positive
Most Common New Year’s Resolutions have time sides to it.
First and foremost, you are making your employees anxious and that is what will cause them to make a mistake rather than to improve. You have to show your employees that you trust them so overseeing can be either left to team leaders or through a different approach. You have to reconcile with the fact that you cannot do everything that you have to delegate tasks and by doing so and trusting your employees, you will ensure a quality result. Instead of pushing your employees’ buttons and piling up additional stress on your back, it is best to let them do their jobs and participate in thought feedback and similar mechanisms.
Now that you have read these suggestions, sit down and think about how you can make these goals come true. Don’t forget to add some deadlines to turn it into a challenge but most importantly, remember that these goals should be adapted based on your business, so that they may advance it.
