Building a Better Year: Steps for Small Business Success

As the year winds down, it's natural to reflect and prepare for what's next. For our team, 2024 was a year of resilience, growth, and transformation. Coming off a tough 2023—when we faced two client bankruptcies, including one that accounted for 75% of our workload and revenue—we had to make some hard choices. We became an open-books company, cut expenses where it made sense, and made investments to prepare us for the future.

This year, those decisions paid off. We embraced networking and business development as a shared responsibility in a consulting firm, grew our facilitation capabilities, and leaned on coaching and strategic planning resources to reset and recharge. The result? The best year we’ve ever had.

As we look ahead to 2025, we want to share a few simple steps that helped us—and might help you—determine where to cut, where to invest, and how to navigate challenging times as a small business or consultancy. We don’t have all the answers, but we believe in the power of small businesses to shape our communities and economy. Let’s succeed together.

5 Steps to Set Yourself Up for a Stronger Year

1. Take an Honest Inventory of Your Resources Begin by reviewing your finances, time, and talent. Identify what’s truly driving value for your business and what isn’t. Be objective, even if it’s hard. This meant being open with our team about our financial situation and inviting them to determine what to prioritize. When you’re honest with yourself and others, you can focus your energy on what matters most.
2. Cut Back with Care Cutting expenses is never easy, but it’s often necessary. Look for areas where you can reduce costs without harming your long-term goals. This meant scaling back on non-essential expenses but holding the line on professional development and tools that help us deliver value to clients. Every cut should align with your mission and future vision.
3. Invest Strategically While cutting back is important, don’t lose sight of the future. Strategic investments can drive growth, strengthen your team, and open new opportunities. For us, this meant prioritizing professional coaching and enhancing our facilitation skills—even taking a team trip to train together. It wasn’t just an investment in skills but an investment in our future and our culture. What capabilities could transform your business if you invested in them now?
4. Reset Expectations and Processes Sometimes, surviving and thriving requires a cultural reset. In 2024, we redefined networking as a core part of everyone’s role. It wasn’t an easy shift because when you're in-house HR or learning and development, you don't usually look for work (it finds you regularly). Still, growing our business and diversifying our client base was necessary. What expectations or processes must evolve in your organization to make 2025 better?
5. Lean Into Vulnerability Being honest and vulnerable with trusted partners—whether employees, vendors, or clients—can be uncomfortable, but it’s often where the greatest breakthroughs happen. When we opened up about our challenges with our team and key partners, we found not only understanding but also new solutions we hadn’t considered. Vulnerability builds trust, and trust drives success.

Looking Ahead to 2025

Sure, success and resilience come from hard work and wise decisions. But, our most significant lesson learned between 2023 and 2024 was the power of relationships. Small businesses like ours are the fabric of our communities, and when we lift each other, we all succeed.

As you close out the year, we encourage you to reflect, reset, and reimagine what’s possible. Let’s make 2025 the year we turn challenges into opportunities and dreams into plans.

We’re rooting for you. Let’s make this journey together.