Many of us will create New Year resolutions as we move into 2022, often looking at ways to better ourselves. For small business owners, it’s the perfect time to think about how 2022 looks for your business and consider what action you can take to make it a year of success.
Perhaps you have some goals in mind you’d like to achieve, or some ideas you’d like to implement. In this article, we’re going to look at how you can set the right goals for your business, how to handle time off for your business, and whether you should include any deals/rewards for your customers/clients and how you can implement them into your business in the new year.
Before the new year starts, are you and your business Christmas ready?
How to set goals
When you look at 2022, do you envisage any goals for your business? Setting goals is a great way of keeping focused on an end target throughout the year and working towards where you want your business to be. So how do you set goals?
The best way is to look at what you want to achieve and the benefits it will bring for your business. Here’s an example:
“I want to improve my digital presence because it will help me grow my business.”
Once you list your goals down, you’ll be able to put deadlines against when you want each one to be completed. A great way to do this is by looking at the benefits that each goal presents as this allows you to prioritise the ones with a bigger impact sooner.
Once you have them prioritised, you can then break down each goal into the tasks you need to do to achieve it. Let’s look back to our previous example:
“To improve my digital presence, I want to look into SEO as this will help me be found online easier. I also want to look at social media, as I want to build engagement online.”
By breaking out what you need to do to achieve your goal, you can then create an action plan to help you get there. In this example, the actions are as follows:
- Implement a social media strategy
- Implement an SEO strategy
This is a great way to break down your goals and keep focused on the end goals without feeling overwhelmed.
Should my business and I take time off?
Many business owners, more commonly small business owners, fear that taking time off can result in a loss of sales or negatively impact their business. Whilst this mindset is common amongst small businesses, working without taking a break can lead to burnout or a decrease in productivity.
Taking time off is important for all humans, as it gives us the chance to recharge our batteries and come back to work with a fresh head. So how do you do that when you have a business to take care of?
For some ideas on how you can take some well-earned time out with minimal impact on your business, please see below.
Do you offer a service?
If so, you may be able to talk to your clients and let them know that you’re planning to take some time off, and the work that you would usually do won’t be completed during that time frame. Alternatively, you may wish to get the work done and scheduled in advance. But make sure to let your clients know that you won’t be around to reply to their emails or answer their calls.
Do you sell products?
If you sell physical products that require your hands specifically, then you may wish to opt for a message on your website or a sign in your shop to let your customers know that their product may not be delivered or available in the same timeframe as before as to set their expectations fairly.
Could you delegate or outsource?
In some instances, people can delegate the running of their business to someone else. If you have employees, it may be worth ensuring that you have at least one that can fill in for you if you need to take time for yourself, and your business will remain running whilst you’re not there. Alternatively, you may wish to consider outsourcing to another company/person. This allows you to permanently delegate the task to the hands of a professional without impacting your business.
Interested in outsourcing? See our latest article all about outsourcing and what the benefits are here: Outsourcing – What Are the Benefits?
Deals/rewards for your customers
Your customers are the people who keep your business running. Without them, your business would struggle as there’s no cash coming into the business, and many customers will recommend your products/services to others making them a huge help towards bringing new customers on board.
Keeping your customers happy is a fantastic way of making them feel valued, and ultimately, want to stay as your customers rather than go to a competitor.
By offering deals or rewards, it helps your customers to feel like they matter to your business, and often can help to convert prospective customers into paying customers. There is a difference between deals and rewards and how they are implemented, so let’s look at how they differ and a few ways to utilise this for your business in the new year:
Deals
Deals are typically used to help bring a customer on board. Deals work for both products and services, even if their implementation is slightly different. A few examples of deals are:
- A certain amount or percentage off the original price, for example, 10% or £10 off
- An additional freebie with the purchase, such as an extra product or a month free
- Access to exclusive content or future deals
Rewards
Rewards are a great way of saying thank you to your customers. Their loyalty is what keeps you in business, and offering a reward helps them to feel valued and, in most cases, less likely to take their business elsewhere.
Here are some examples of some rewards you could offer for your customers:
- A stamp or card and offer the 10th product or month free
- A discount on a future purchase
- A thank you present at Christmas
Both options are a great way to either incentivise new customers, or to show your current customers that they are valued by your business, and can lead to some great benefits for your business.
How Weave Studios can help
We care about helping our clients to build their digital presence and share the right message through the services that we provide. We’d love to hear about your goals for 2022 and see if we can help you achieve them. For more information, contact our team today!