Building Better Business in the New Year

There are two kinds of people in this world: people who make New Year’s Resolutions, and people who pooh-pooh them. I am the first kind – I love the hope and inspiration that comes with a new start. Your New Year’s Resolution are your own, of course, but I thought I’d share my own professional resolutions for the new year.

I love my job. Helping small business grow is inspiring and fulfilling. But, too often, I have sacrificed my own business growth for others. I don’t necessarily regret this, but if I can set aside some time for my own business, I’ll be happier and I know it will help me grow, too! I’m going to spend the first two hours of each work week on 1212Creative…scheduling my own social media, following up with business contacts, sending invoices (I always seem to do this last!), and making sure I’m on schedule for the year.

I think this is a reasonable thing to achieve. I have been very fortunate to have my business growth be primarily through word of mouth. I don’t have to do much advertising to gain a new client. My circumstances are not normal, however. I have done really well this year, but I know if I put more effort into it, 2017 will be magical. I am also a HUGE homebody. I love spending a good evening at home with family, so networking events don’t usually call my name. But one night a month is an easy target to hit – bring it on!

I’m fully aware that this isn’t always going to be realistic. When you work at home and for yourself, it’s easy to wake up, open the laptop, work work work, close the laptop, and go to bed. I do this too often, and my family life suffers. So, whenever possible, my workday is going to end at 5:00pm.

All throughout 2016, I had great ideas for marketing my business…about 5 minutes too late. I hadn’t planned well in advance, so by the time I had these ideas, there wasn’t enough time to implement them. I am putting together a calendar of plans, along with alerts that I’ll get throughout the year to keep me on track.

I’d love to hear what you’re doing to grow your business this year. I’ll take all the inspiration I can get.