A brand new year is here! It is a good time to close out the books from the previous year and celebrate everything you’ve accomplished. It’s also the time to up your business planning game. Whether the past year was good or bad, chances are you’ve learned from it. With that said, it’s important to look at what went right and what went wrong so you can keep building your business and grow in the right direction.
If you want to continue growing in 2023, here are some things that you should do to adapt to your business planning approach this 2023!
- Review your 2022 results
Before starting a new set of strategies and goals, take a look down memory lane and see what went well, what didn’t, and what you could’ve done better! Analyze your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT). This can uncover blind spots that you or your staff couldn’t see on a daily basis.
After identifying those, ask yourself this question: Where or what aspect of your business can you improve?
As your business grows, opportunities and challenges become more crucial than ever. SWOT analysis lets you operate like a firefighter, ready to extinguish any fire that happens at any given time. It can keep you accountable and on track; do it at least once every quarter.
- Set realistic goals and specific action plans
Write down your goals at a very specific level, down to the last peso or percentage you want to achieve in a period of time. Make sure it’s realistic enough, though.
| Goal setting example: Earn RM20,000 in gross revenue in gross revenue at the end of each month beginning in January 2023. |
The next step is to determine specific actionable steps to achieve that goal.
| Realistic actionable steps: Jan 1st week: Start running Facebook ads to reach more customers. Bring down my inventory cost by 20% by switching from supplier a to supplier b. Jan 2nd week: Launch a loyalty program to keep customers coming back. Conduct a door-to-door campaign to promote my business. |
The goals and solutions above follow the SMART (Simple, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound) goal-setting principle. This is a more detailed approach to goal setting, outlining more detailed objectives and action plans.
In addition to SMART goals, set specific dates and milestones. To stay on track, determine the Key Performance Indexes (KPIs) want to consider as a measuring stick for your achievements. This allows you to track the progress you’re making and identify which ones work and which ones don’t for your business. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to goal setting; that’s where the beauty of SMART goals comes in—they’re highly customized for every business or individual.
- Create a social media page for your business
Social media is where it’s at! It’s 2023, and if your business doesn’t have any presence on a single social media platform, you must be living under a rock! For starters, you don’t need to be social media savvy; just create a page on Facebook and Instagram (Tiktok is optional). Upload photos and updates as often as you can so that people can find you when they look for you on those sites.
Furthermore, because Google now includes social media platforms in its search results, having an account in those channels is free SEO for your business!
- Learn how to market your business online
This can be considered a somewhat advanced skill, but once you’ve stepped into the world of social media, chances are you will learn to do this naturally. While digital marketing can get complicated, you can simply do the basics like posting content regularly, announcing promotions through your social media channels, and simply engaging with your customers.
We are not saying that you shouldn’t employ high-level digital marketing strategies to market your business online, but starting with the basics is a step in the right direction! Besides, you don’t need to run ads or craft well-produced content all the time to reach your customers; it will all boil down to your goals as a business owner. A lot of local businesses also thrive online, and there’s no reason why your business couldn’t do the same.
- Automate your business with modern-day biz tools!
We now live in the 21st century, and technology has become abundant for almost every need we could think of, even for managing a business. If you run a retail or F&B business, it’s easier to monitor it with cloud-based POS tools like StoreHub.
This POS can let you do the following:
- Generate a sales report in a single click.
- Manage your inventory in real-time.
- Monitor your staff attendance.
- Customers can order and pay independently using QR technology.
- Remote access to your business.
- Create loyalty and cashback programs to keep customers coming back.
- Run sms marketing campaign using the POS back office.
- Easy to use, little to no training needed!
Having a POS like StoreHub is like having a reliable person run your business for you, minus the additional overhead cost. It benefits not only your business but also your customers!
Book a free demo to start modernizing your business today!
