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With the new year quickly approaching, it is an opportune time to reflect on what you want your business to achieve this coming year. While having a clear idea of where you want your company to go in 2022 can be a bit daunting, it doesn’t have to stop you from committing today.
To set realistic goals for your company, look back at how things went in the past year and develop some specific objectives that will move the needle closer to those long-term objectives. So, where do you start?
Here are seven goals to consider for your business:
Stop Wasting Time
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is to spend time accomplishing tasks that have nothing to do with growing the business. Whether going over sales reports or conducting a weekly staff meeting, it’s time wasted if it isn’t moving your business forward.
Consider working with the 80/20 rule. Every task, be it a weekly meeting or answering an email, should be prioritized based on whether it will bring the best results for your business. The 20% of tasks responsible for 80% of your business’ growth are tasks you focus on. The rest, you can outsource to free up your time.
For example, if you are a carpenter and you spend 8 hours a day on the phone making sales calls, you’re probably better off hiring someone to cold call on behalf of your business while you focus on the more profitable tasks of carpentry.
Refine Your Product or Service Offerings
According to the marketing gurus, businesses should be selling solutions rather than products or services. The solution mentality comes from the fact that people don’t care about what you do. They care about how you can help them.
With this in mind, it’s important to carefully think about what a potential customer would want from your product or service before offering it. If you aren’t offering something beneficial to your customer and solving a problem, you have no business selling.
Go Global
As more and more businesses are heading online, you should also be thinking about expanding your business to reach a broader audience. While this goal may seem like a luxury to some companies, it is something that you should be aiming for.
You have to remember that you can get in front of millions of people with just a few clicks with an online presence. It is an opportunity that is too good to pass up for most businesses.
Make use of Employee Scheduling Solutions
Do your employees need a way to see their scheduled shifts online? Are they constantly calling in sick and disrupting your business? If so, then it’s time you got an employee scheduling software solution to help your business run smoothly.
As a business owner, you want to create a culture where your employees can feel empowered to take ownership of their business, including showing up on time for their shifts. With employee scheduling software, you can avoid the awkward situations of calling employees out for missing shifts.
An employee scheduling software will greatly improve the order and flow in your business, making your employees feel more comfortable about their schedules. It also prevents them from calling out of work at the last minute. For example, suppose you are running a healthcare facility. In that case, a healthcare staff scheduling software can help streamline the process of managing shift schedules for nurses and other medical personnel to be more productive and on time.
Improve Customer Service
Offering great customer service isn’t something you do for the sake of being nice. It’s a tangible, measurable way to win over new customers and improve your overall business. While providing great customer service is easier said than done, you can start by looking at your online reviews.
If you see that past customers are complaining that they had a problem getting their questions answered, then it’s time to revamp how you communicate with the public. Sometimes, a simple change, such as improving your help center can have a big impact on how satisfied your customers are.
You may consider introducing customer service software to help employees manage customer interactions. It is an effective way to keep track of customer feedback and suggestions and allow your staff to deal with customer concerns quickly.
Grow the List of Qualified Prospects
Generating more leads is an obvious objective to aim for, but how many times have you spent valuable time trying to convert members of your list into qualified prospects? You know that it can be a big challenge to make your content interesting enough to get someone’s attention if you’re doing cold outreach.
The next time you create content, make sure you focus on a particular audience and set specific goals for your content. For example, if you are looking to convert your qualified leads into paying customers, use a lead scoring system to determine the best tactics for converting that lead.
However, don’t limit your efforts to generating leads through conventional means. Try to think of new, innovative ways to get leads. For example, why not offer new customers a free trial of your product?
Become an Expert in Your Industry and Use That as Your Competitive Advantage
Business growth is all about uniqueness, so you must develop niche expertise in your industry. You can start by implementing a regular blog where you can share your knowledge with the world while also helping to drive traffic to your website.
If you need help doing this, consider hiring a blogger to create content for you. To get the most out of your blogging activities, remember to make it easy for your readers to share your content.
You may also consider using a podcast to showcase your business expertise to the rest of the world. You can even integrate your podcast with other marketing activities—like SEO and email marketing—to drive more traffic to your website and improve brand awareness.
Summing Up
It’s no secret that business growth is important if you want to increase your chances of success. With the right approach and strategies, you’ll be able to grow your business in no time while preserving the quality of your product or service.
Your business is unique and can only succeed if you learn to understand what your customers want and deliver it in the most profitable way possible. As you evaluate your business growth strategy for 2022, avoid making customer service mistakes that will cost you valuable customers and money. Be sure to focus on what matters, the value you are delivering, and focus on helping others while at the same time growing your business.
