Congratulations on making it to the last Wednesday of 2018! Now is the perfect time to look back on this year and start thinking about your goals for next year. Establishing goals now creates a stronger direction for yourself and your business, and clear vision is crucial for any business to succeed.

Whether you’re a start-up, established a small business, or a larger corporation, everyone can benefit from establishing smart, attainable goals. So let’s get started with 3 effective New Year’s resolutions for your business.

Establish More SMART Goals

The term “SMART goals” is not capitalized for dramatic effect, but is an acronym:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Timely.

This is a way to create goals that you can achieve. An estimated 92% of people fail their New Year’s resolutions, and it’s because their goals are vague and aimless. For example, let’s say you want to increase sales. It’s a good general idea but isn’t so helpful as a goal. SMART goals require you to list off all of their elements and keep them in mind. So in this case, a good SMART goal would be this:

By the end of the year, I will increase sales by 25% compared to total sales for 2018 so that my business will grow.

The goal is specific, it looks at exactly one thing that can improve, provides a metric and reference to measure, is attainable, and is relevant and timely to growing your business. A great way to organize yourself is to implement SMART goals in every facet of your business. Create SMART goals with each employee and share them with the business.

Build Tighter Employee/Employer Relationships

A woeful amount of small businesses ignore this but a positive work environment where you’re well connected with your employees is essential to your business. A lot of this is work on yourself and making sure you are able to create an environment where all of your employees are comfortable and treat you like a coworker instead of a boss to kiss up to. This model allows for more innovation because workers will feel less afraid to share their ideas and will be valued enough to feel as though their contributions are appreciated.

Of course, this needs to become a SMART goal. Here’s one example that can move you closer to that vision:

I will sit down with every employee once a month and create personal goals with them. Every meeting must focus on what they did well, reaffirm their value in the company, and include solutions to help them do their job better as well as mine.

Hire a Bookkeeper

One of the priciest decisions any business leader can make is to not hire a bookkeeper. Expenses are a hassle no matter how small your business is, and you need someone to take care of the books so that you can focus on building your business. At the very least, an extra set of eyes can keep your books accurate and prevent any financial disasters that arise from inaccurate books.

And no, Quickbooks does not count. Proper Bookkeeping requires accounting knowledge and impeccable organization skills. You need a bookkeeper who’s a human being that can fit your business. Versatel Solutions is one of the more successful bookkeeping services in Northern Virginia. They will provide your business with an expert bookkeeper who is also a perfect fit for your office. Please contact us to learn more.

Growing any business requires long-term planning. That means establishing specific goals for yourself on a year-to-year basis. Working on the above goals will help you form a business that will grow and prosper over time.