Five New Year Resolutions for Entrepreneurs

Are you an entrepreneur who has set his new year business goals around profitability and growth? If yes, besides setting those goals, here are five recommended actions which you should take, to ensure you achieve your goals for the year.

1. I will leverage Accounting as a tool for managing my business

Have you defined key performance indicators that you can easily track on a daily basis? Is your accounting system aligned to generate these KPI trackers on appropriately designed dashboard that gives you the pulse of your business on a daily basis? In case you have been looking at accounting as a necessary evil for tax and other compliances, this is the time to change your point of view. If your accounts are not maintained up-to-date, ensure you have a system of maintaining the accounting data up-to-date. Your design of accounting system - the business units, products, services, chart of accounts, etc. - must be aligned to the KPIs you want to monitor. Get an expert help if necessary, because this will yield rich results. Ensure that you review the dashboard on a daily basis and practice management by objectives.

2. I will focus on products and services that yield profits and promise growth

When was the last time you looked at the growth potential and profitability of each of your products and services? If a product or service doesn't provide desired profit margin, is there a good reason to continue with it, e.g., is is necessary to complement other pprofitabile products, or does it enhance your brand? Is there a need for innovation, say, by adding new features, or by simply improving packaging? Or, you need to abandon some of those to focus on the others? Or you must expand the portfolio by introducing new products? Have you collected feedback from your customers and identified opportunities for obsolescence, improvement or a new product?

3. I will align vendor and customer relationships with my business goals

It sounds a bit preposterous to say that you can align your customers to your business goals. It takes a lot to get a customer and a lot more to keep him happy. However, you work with a set of customers because they help you achieve your business goals. Run a check to see how many of your customer relationships are profitable and how many promise growth. have you been maintaining a relationship with the hope of getting more profitable business in future? Is it still a time to pursue with that hope? Are you able to continue with those customers without putting a constraint on your scarce resources, be it your personal time, or finances? Likewise, evaluate existing vendor relationships. is there a scope for reviewing the contract? Reviewing a contract doesn't mean squeezing vendors for more discount or better price. There may be a scope for improved value-add through better product or service. In some cases, you may have to evaluate new vendors and ask existing vendors to compete with the new ones. Ensure that your customers and vendors are aligned with your goals of growth, profitability and generating value.

4. I will align my people with my business goals

Employees are the most valuable asset in any business. Getting good people on board and ensuring they stay with you is not easy. Over a period of time, however, there could be a need for adding new skills to their profile. Encourage them to pursue skill-building courses in their area of work. In case you want to give them a wider exposure or take leadership role, encourage them to pursue a business or leadership course. Remember, salaries and allowances are expenses. Exposure and skill-building is an investment. Likewise, check whether the rewards and recognition programs for employees are in line with their goals as well as your business goals. If adding new products is your goal, ensure maximum rewards go to employees who help design and build new products.

5. I will pursue only those opportunities that align with my business goals

As you keep interacting with customers, new opportunities present themselves. A customer who you sell product X, needs product Y, and inquires with you about the same. Naturally the entrepreneurial mindset is tuned to grab each and every business opportunity. That is how business is built from scratch. However, you can't afford to follow the same strategy when you have built a business of certain size. Practice saying 'no' in case the new opportunity doesn't align with the business goal. Every time you say 'no', note it down and review later. Opportunity does knock on the door more than once, If it comes knocking on the door again, give it a serious thought. Maybe a new profitable business is opening up. Evaluate it again on growth potential, profitability, value and ROI.

"What got you here, won't get you there", they say. The new year goals of an entrepreneur should hep him get there!

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