Have you set your business goals for 2016 yet? Towards the end of the year, millions of people decide to set New Year’s resolutions, yet only a fraction of these people actually follow through with their plans. Once the new year begins, it is easy to get swept back into your busy schedule. Many people end up forgetting about their resolutions or giving up on them after a couple of weeks.
While the goal of most resolutions involves personal growth, many business owners decide to set separate business resolutions. Obviously, as a business owner, you should take the time to create goals – both long-term and short-term. The start of a new year provides you the perfect time to take advantage of this rebirth and finally realize the goals that you have been putting off.
Here are 6 tips that you can use to help you stick to your New Year’s business resolutions and reach your business goals.
#1 – Create a New Habit to Reach Your Business Goals
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The first tip is to force yourself to develop new habits. If there is anything you did not like about the way you handled your business this past year, write them down and make them a part of your business goals. This could include any habits that may get in the way of business growth, such as spending too much time checking emails or browsing the web instead of actually working.
Make a conscious effort to replace your bad habits with good habits. For example, if you check your email too often, make a habit of spending just 15 minutes in the morning checking your email and then limit yourself to periodical 5-minute email check-ins every hour or two. It will take willpower to resist the urge to check your email frequently, but studies show that after at least a month of performing the same task it will eventually become a habit, allowing you to break your old habits.
#2 – Create Long-Term and Short-Term Business Goals
Write down a list of your business goals. Many of these are likely to be long-term goals, such as increasing sales by a certain percentage or growing the size of your business. Having a list of long-term resolutions will not really help you reach your goals. You need to break these goals down into smaller short-term goals. Write out each step of your business resolutions so that you have a series of short-term goals that will eventually lead to the completion of your main resolutions.
#2 – Do Not Make Excuses
As mentioned, it is easy to get so involved in your daily routine that you forget about your resolutions and business goals. Or, at least, that is the excuse that many of us will make. You need to stick to the mentality that there are no excuses. Even as you get busy or your schedule changes, you need to hold yourself accountable and stop making excusing. You would not want an employee to come up with an excuse, so do not give yourself the privilege of accepting your own excuses.
#3 – Mark Your Business Goals on Your Calendar
There is a good chance that you check your calendar on a daily basis if you run your own business. Add your business goals to this list. As you break down your long-term business goals, add each step to your calendar.
#4 – Review Your Business Goals Regularly
As the new year begins, continue reviewing your business goals. Check them on a daily basis. If you have added your goals to your calendar, this should be a little easier. Also, as you progress through your goals, you can track your progress and see if you are actually meeting the goals that you set. You can decide if the plans that you created are actually working and whether or not you need to take another look at your approach for completing your resolutions.
#5 – Incorporate Your Goals into Your Company’s Mission
Another step that you can take to follow through with your New Year’s resolutions for your business is to incorporate your goals into your company’s mission statement. For example, if one of your goals is to donate more money to charity, include this in your mission statement. This helps you stay accountable for the goals that you have set.
#6 – Hold Yourself Accountable
The final tip (and one that has been repeated within the other tips) is that you need to hold yourself accountable. Only you have the power to bring to change to your business, even if you have a group of employees working under you. If you step up and reach for your goals, the people below you should follow. The only person that you can hold accountable for the success or failure of your business resolutions is yourself.
[su_pullquote align=”right”]The keys to brand success are self-definition, transparency, authenticity and accountability. Click To Tweet[/su_pullquote]
The New Year marks the beginning of another calendar year, another quarter, and hopefully the start of a new chapter in the history of your business. While millions struggle to hold onto their New Year’s resolutions, use these tips and suggestions to increase your chances of success.
Many of these tips can be applied to your own personal resolutions – such as creating long-term and short-term goals, holding yourself accountable, and creating new habits to replace bad habits.
Life is definitely a journey and you should use the small break you may be getting during the holidays to reflect on your business goals, personal goals, and your overall vision of where you are headed. Stay focused and remain motivated – and have a happy new year!