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Preparing Your Business for Success in the New Year

December 30, 2015

2015 is officially coming to an end…

This means it is time to take a step back and look at some different opportunities to make your business and employees even more successful! Making improvements doesn’t necessarily mean making big changes; some of the smallest adjustments can make the biggest difference.

Add Some Excitement

The beginning of a New Year is a great time to sit back and think about what you could do to improve what is already great. Take a look at the type of customer base you have; what are they wanting and/or needing from you? What sites are they visiting? What search words are they using to find you? Customers’ interests and preferences are constantly changing, so making sure to stay on top of these changes will help keep you ahead of the game. Think about adding something new and exciting to grab the attention of customers, whether it’s a new product, process, or marketing campaign, to let them know you are still there.

Update the Office

Everyone gets sick of the ‘same old, same old’ after a while so updating the office may be a good way to add some more excitement to the office environment. Giving the office a new ‘feel’ so it can help to motivate employees and increase production. Studies have shown that the office layout (open vs. closed), paint colors, lighting, décor, etc. can have different effects on employees and their productivity level. Even making a small and simple change to the office could create a whole new energy amongst employees.

Incorporate Creativity

A creative technique to engage employees and create goals for the upcoming year is a Vision Board. The purpose of this board is to help keep the business goals in constant sight to remind employees of what the business wants to achieve and motivating them to work towards achieving them. “The Law of Attraction says that the more you focus on the things you want, the more time you spend paying attention to your purpose, the more you draw your desired items and experiences into your life. So surrounding yourself with visual representations of what you desire helps to elevate your energy in the direction of those things” (Karyn Greenstreet). Employees are better able to stay focused on the business goals if they see them every day within the office.

To create a Vision Board, the employees should come together to agree on what the goals for the year should be. The board is a collage of the pictures, ideas, and situations that the company wants to work towards achieving throughout the year. An important aspect of the Vision Board is to make sure to include feelings as well. Although this sounds a little odd, studies have shown thatby pairing a desired goal with a positive feeling, it helps a person identify that goal with that particular feeling and they are more motivated to achieve it. An example of how this technique is used and has been successful would be with many athletes who use this technique to improve their performance. Psychology Today reported that the brain patterns activated when a weightlifter lifts heavy weights are also similarly activated when the lifter visualized lifting weights.

Reflect on 2015

After the end of a great year or even a rough year, it is always important to take time to look back and reflect on what has happened so you can make appropriate changes for the year to come. Of course you want to acknowledge the success you had in 2015, but thinking about what didn’t go so well is also very important. Based on what you find, you can make a plan on how to fix the things that didn’t work so well and make notes of what did, so you know the direction you need to take moving forward.

 “A goal without a plan is just a wish” (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

Wishing you a very happy new year! What do you plan to do to help your business be even more successful in 2016?

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Posted By: Renee MacLean

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