New Year's Resolutions for the Small Business Owner

The New Year can be a time for reflection and positive, forward-thinking. Take the opportunity to reflect back on the previous year – what accomplishments best impacted your business? How can you keep that forward momentum in the New Year?

As small business owners, we are often so laden with the intricacies of our businesses that it can be hard to find time to step back, look at the bigger picture and identify ways to help our business grow. However, CompAndSave has compiled some useful New Year’s Resolutions for small business owners to help spark some new ideas and get the ball rolling for 2011!

Keep Learning & Growing
As a business owner, the most important thing you can do is continue to learn about your business and the industry. This will help you keep abreast of new changes and updates and ensure that you are at the cutting edge of new business models and opportunities.

Take time to attend a conference or other industry event, read books about you industry and the economy, and take a business class. Encourage your employees to do the same – motivating employees to learn and grow will help moral and motivation and may spark some great ideas for improving your business! Investing in your people is a way to fuel profit (and to keep employees around for years to come!).

Save Money Where You Can
The New Year is a great time to look at last year’s expense reports and statements and see where you can cut back. Spent too much on printer ink cartridges? Consider purchasing them in bulk. Too much spent on paper? Encourage employees to only print if absolutely necessary – set up shared networks so employees can access documents without needing hard copies. Consider changing your business model to allow some employees (part-time, contract, etc) to work from home – this will cut down on energy bill, space to rent and more.

There are always small ways to cut back, spend less and save more. Explore new ways in which your company can save money in the new year and recycle that money into new ventures!

Clean House
With spring just around the corner, it’s time to clean house. Take time to organize and clear out your email inbox in preparation for new communiqués. Since messiness leads to a lack of productivity, go through your desk, drawers and file cabinets to make sure that no unnecessary clutter is taking up space and making things feel chaotic. Cleaning house can also involve new ways to structure your time more effectively!

Make sure your employees do the same. Taking time to organize, clear out old memos and documents, and restructure your workspace can leave you, you employees and your workspace feeling rejuvenated and ready to tackle the New Year.

Be Realistic
Understand that improvements and new initiatives do not happen overnight. Setting monthly or quarterly goals can help keep improvements coming along at a steady and regular pace while giving your company time to develop new ideas fully before implementing them. Rushing things down the pipeline may backfire so be realistic about what goals you can accomplish in the New Year and the time needed for each one to be fully developed and implemented. Be sure to prioritize goals so your most important tasks get accomplished in 2011!

Embrace New Media
Social media can be quite a life-sustaining force for some small businesses, yet many small business owners are hesitant to jump into the new media mix. If new technologies are overwhelming and you are unfamiliar, hire a social media expert to manage your accounts and develop the brand in this new sphere. Embrace change and new technologies, including social sites. Choose what works best for reaching your target market, and run with it. Many smaller companies have seen huge successes when they jumped into the social media game – maybe this year it could be your company!

About the authors: Andrew Yeung is president of CompAndSave, a leading online provider of premium printer ink cartridges, including remanufactured and compatible printer ink cartridges. With deals every month and a 100% customer satisfaction, CompandSave provides an easy way for people and businesses to purchase printer ink and accessories.

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