It’s January, baby! We can finally wave the disaster of 2020 goodbye and start fresh. For us, that means making some business-focused New Year’s resolutions to put our company on track for greater success. If you’re chomping at the bit to get started in 2021, we’d suggest doing the same for your firm. These would be our top four resolutions for you based on our experience.
If you do all four of these things, 2021 will not only kick last year’s butt, but it just might be your business’s best year ever.
1. DECREASE YOUR WORKLOAD
As Spotlight Branding has gotten busier and busier, I, as the founder, have found myself with less and less to do. And we think that’s how it should be! No one becomes an entrepreneur because they want to work themselves to death and have a terrible work-life balance. To lighten his load, along the way, I am constantly looking for opportunities to delegate and build trust in others. This year, we have a challenge for you: Grow your firm in a way that makes your personal workload go down.
There are a few ways to do this. First, you can look around at your team and see who might be able to take on your least favorite tasks. Then, if there aren’t any good candidates, either create a new system or process to make the task easy enough to pass off or hire someone who would be able to take it on.
2. LOSE THE (DEAD) WEIGHT
Almost everyone resolves to lose a few pounds on January 1st, but while we’re focused on our waistlines, we often forget to lean out our businesses. Think about the people in your office. Is there anyone on staff who wasn’t a team player last year? Have you found yourself making excuses in your head for why you shouldn’t fire Person A or Person B?
Let’s get real. Very few business owners get an adrenaline rush out of firing someone. It’s almost always an awful experience. But as much as we hate to admit it, sometimes an employee becomes “dead weight” and needs to be let go for the good of the company. This year, resolve to lose that weight before it drags your business down.
3. MAKE MORE (AND FASTER!) DECISIONS
One of the biggest lessons we learned in 2020 was that while being diligent and thoughtful has its place, more often than not, the thing holding you back from progress is the speed at which you make decisions. The longer you take to consider a course of action, the longer it takes to actually accomplish something. Think about Thomas Edison. It famously took him more than 1,000 tries to make a working light bulb, but he did it!
To succeed, you need to be willing to take leaps and make mistakes. Start thinking of your decisions in terms of quantity rather than quality. If you try two solutions in a week and fail both times, but your third attempt in week two succeeds, you’ll still reach your goal faster than someone who thought for three weeks before choosing the successful path. Ultimately, when you stop talking about things and just try them, the results are net positive.
4. INCREASE YOUR MARKETING CONTENT
Three things trended up last year: Zoom stock, mask sales, and the demand for content. Content continues to be king, and social media platforms are growing around the world. Last year, people trapped at home because of the pandemic consumed ads, blogs, videos, podcasts, and social media posts at a record pace. TikTok burst onto the scene, and thousands of large businesses added content and editorial teams to their marketing divisions. Content is still trending upward, and it’s not too late to get on the bandwagon! This year, resolve to crank up your content creation (with our help or on your own) to reach more people and generate more leads, referrals, and revenue.
If you do all four of these things, 2021 will not only kick last year’s butt, but it just might be your business’s best year ever.