According to Statistic Brain, only 45% of Americans "usually" make New Year's resolutions. If you're part of the 55% who don't make New Year's resolutions, you might want to change that – the same study found that "people who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals" than those who don't.
The most common resolutions made are focused pretty much entirely on one's personal life, but wouldn't you want to take that same 10-fold increase in your chances for success to your business as well? This is the perfect opportunity to take stock of your business's performance for the past year and prepare for the next.
Know Where You Stand
How exactly is your business doing? Were there any goals you've set previously? If yes, what's the measure of success for each one?
Review your past year and identify the things that have worked and those that didn't. Look to see when business was good and when it was bad, and try to find out what factors contributed to each. Make a list of things you can improve – there should always be many of these, otherwise, you're probably not doing it right or being honest with yourself.
Set Your Goals
After you've gotten a complete picture of your business's current health and past experiences, it's time to put on paper what exactly you need and want to do for your business this 2015. Of course, there's also the statistic that only 8% of people are able to keep their New Year's resolutions. This is usually because the goals set are too big or general, such as "lose weight" (the #1 resolution for 2014), or "fall in love" (#9).
There's a "S.M.A.R.T." way to do it. The SMART criteria are commonly used by project management and other professionals for better goal setting. It is an acronym that stands for:
•Specific
•Measurable
•Attainable
•Relevant
•Time-bound
Act
All the goal-setting techniques in the world won't matter if you fail to act. Make sure everyone involved is fully aware of the coming year's goals and is personally responsible for their individual roles in achieving them. Monitor everyone's progress on a regular basis, and call out those that are holding your business back. Find new people if there are tasks or roles that need to be filled to stay on track.
Your business should constantly be improving year after year, otherwise what's the point? Always welcome the New Year expecting it to be your best year yet!
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