HERE COMES THE BOOM IN 2016 As business owners, year-end can be stressful. December is about year end billing, employee gifts, holiday parties, year-end accounting and planning for 2016. Budgeting and forecasting your income and expenses is critical and Inc. Magazine’s Jeremy Quittner says that overall entrepreneurs’ confidence is low. http://www.inc.com/jeremy-quittner/business-owner-optimism-sinks-as-slow-recovery-dims-hopes.html Everyone has advice on what you should do but here are three simple things you can do.
- Bring back the passion. Review and revise your mission and vision for your company. You now have another year under your belt and you should incorporate those data points into your plan. Think about what worked and what didn’t and focus on what you loved doing. Entrepreneurs are leaders but ask yourself if you have been a leader in the true sense of the word in 2015. Whether it’s been a good or tough year, a new year is a new opportunity to re-evaluate and reinvigorate. Think energy and passion and the rest will fall in place.
- Plan for the unexpected. Set up mechanisms (people and processes) in place to deal with issues that may arise relating to your vendors, employees, clients etc. You don’t have to identify the actual issue but rather just make sure that you have a person to call or a procedure to implement if a general category of issues (personnel, legal, financial) is impacted.
- Identify your dead weight. Employees, clients, vendors. This will free you up to work on issues that are exciting, profitable, and have growth potential.
Take some time to work on your business this month!