How to Start the Year Off Right For Your Business

It’s a new year which means it’s time to reevaluate your business goals to start the year off right for your business. 

Regardless of whether your new business goals relate to bringing on more customers or doubling your profits, these tips will help you start the year off right for your business.

Read Also: How I’ve Worked Full Time Online For a Decade

Clean out your inbox(es)

The last thing you want to do is have things pending from the prior year. 

January is a great month to make sure everything from the prior year is finished off AND as a result, this will reward you with a “zero inbox”. 

Ideally, once your inbox is at zero, you’ll be able to keep it as close to zero throughout the remainder of the year to give you peace of mind that you’re staying on top of all of your business-related tasks. 

I personally clean out my inboxes at the beginning of every month, however, this wasn’t always the case and understandably it can take some time to get into the habit of doing so. 

When starting you can create folders for things that you cannot delete and/or need to respond to at some point AND you can also archive other messages so they can be referenced at a later date if needed. 

Schedule time off

One of the downsides of entrepreneurship is it’s so easy to always be in work mode. 

The end of the year will come and you’ll realize that you’ve snuck in work on all holidays and didn’t take not one day off.

By no means am I saying that it’s not important to make your business successful, but at the end of the day do you think people regret not making more money/putting more hours into their business OR spending more time with their family making memories?

I get how hard it can be. 

I’m a workaholic by nature. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m a Capricorn or if it’s because working hard has been embedded in my brain since a young age. But, I can tell you that as I’m getting older (especially since having my daughter) that I’m finding out just how important it is to schedule time off and actually stick to taking the time off. 

I haven’t been the best at this in the past, but this year I’ve scheduled all of my days off on my calendar already so I can make time for the important things throughout the year in advance. 

Evaluate your business structure

Think about what went well for your business in the prior year and how you could make your business perform better this year without adding extra work for yourself.

Maybe this means letting go of some independent contractors, suppliers, etc, OR trying different methods to expand your business such as hiring a marketing company such as ooh media. 

Over the years I’ve worked with quite a few independent contractors and clients and each year by December I’m able to determine who I will continue working with and who I’ll need to cut loose based on how the performance went for the year.

For example, last year, I slimmed down my clients a lot. This was mainly due to me giving birth and needing to manage all of my time more efficiently, but in the end, it made my time more valuable. I was able to get rid of clients who were taking a ton of time, but not giving a good ROI and in return, I was able to increase my monthly income by having more time to spend with those who paid more. 

Additionally, I also let go of most of the independent contractors that I was working with since thanks to this newfound time from clients that were no longer a good fit I could now handle tasks and found many of them to be more enjoyable and thus increasing my profits. 

Adjust your goals

Maybe you met all of your business goals from the prior year or maybe you didn’t. 

Regardless, if you want to start the year off right for your business you need to adjust your goals. 

What I like to do is reflect on the prior year and think about what went well and what didn’t go so well and then start from there. 

Sometimes I keep goals from the prior year that weren’t met or increase my standards for goals that were met. It’s also okay to ditch some goals that may no longer be relevant. 

Final thoughts

If you want to start the year off right for your business you’ll want to keep these things in mind. Most importantly, though, don’t get stuck stressing about the bad things from the previous year and instead look at this new year as a fresh start to exceed your expectations.