5 Key Strategies to Strengthen Your Business This Year

The beginning of the calendar year is a great time to step away from your business to reflect, reset and refocus. Executives and business owners are faced with many challenges, from the economy, new technology, regulatory changes, new or changed government policies, to mention a few. To be successful in this environment you will need to adapt, innovate, be as nimble as possible, and lead your teams with purpose.

Here are 5 things you can do (not only at the beginning of the year) to strengthen your business and position yourself for success:

1. Review and Revise Your Vision, Mission and Goals
   As your business grows and adapts to current market conditions, make sure your Vision Statement, Mission Statement, and specific Goals continue to be relevant and coordinated. This is not to say that you must start over, minor tweaks are what may be needed.

2. Make Sure Your Plans Are Up to Date
   My clients and I have the following plans:

As you can see, the level and complexity of the plans increases as the plans become more near-term. Regardless of your planning process, you must make sure that your near-term plans support your mid-term goals and that your mid-term goals and plans support your long-term goals. In addition, the process of periodically revising your plans is as important as finishing the plans.

3. Review and Revise Your Systems
   Make sure the operation of your organization, as detailed in your systems and procedures manuals, align with and support your revised goals and plans.

   This is a good time to determine things that the company needs to STOP, START or RESUME, or DO MORE OF. My colleagues and I have seen many instances where companies need to resume things that were formerly productive that they stopped doing for usually unknown reasons. Most of the time they have resumed doing those things to a great result.

   Additionally, make sure your organization automates as many processes as possible. This includes computer and software systems, AI, and production equipment.

4. Review Your Customer List
   To be blunt, the beginning of the year is a great time to identify customers that:
   • Are no longer profitable
   • Don’t fit with your revised goals, direction or plans
   • Are rude or difficult

And fire them (in a diplomatic way). On the other hand, identify customers that:

• Are profitable
• Refer your business to other good customers
• Will benefit from the direction your company is taking as to new products or services
• Your team enjoys working with

And let them know how much you and your team appreciate their business.

5. Communicate With Your Team
   Make sure you constantly involve your team in all the reviews and revisions mentioned above. The days of top-down control in business are long gone. Constant communication and involvement with your team are the foundation of great team engagement. Great team engagement results in better employee retention and attraction. In addition, an engaged team will deliver superior customer service and results.

If your organization would like to maximize its use of these 5 strategies, please contact me or one of my colleagues. We will be happy to assist you to outpace your competitors.