New year's resolutions for your small business

With the start of a new year comes an opportunity to look at your small business with fresh eyes and make a few resolutions that will help it to grow and become stronger in 2022. 3Cube Property Solutions takes a look at some new year's resolutions you can make for your business. Some of these include making company culture a priority, updating your online presence, expanding your network, looking for ways to save time by simplifying processes, updating your business and marketing plans and considering outsourcing certain tasks.

Make company culture a priority

Ensuring that your business's values reflect the needs of your staff is a great new year's resolution. Having a happy team leads to having happy customers, and a positive corporate culture benefits not just your staff turnover, but also your bottom line. Making small changes like promoting work-life balance and offering strong benefits packages can entice top-performing employees to accept positions within your company and stay there for the long term. Having a positive company culture transforms individual employees into a team who will drive your brand and your business forward.

Get your online presence up to speed

In 2022, your business needs a website that's sophisticated, responsive and enables customers to find the products or information that they need in as few clicks as possible. The importance of other digital touchpoints - such as emailers and social media - cannot be overstated. Your business should have a Facebook page - which is different to a personal profile - and your page should be kept up to date regularly. Your Instagram feed provides your customers with a visual representation of your brand - and this is especially important if your business is targeting a younger market. A LinkedIn profile is a great way to showcase your business to other professionals. Social media is often the first point of contact that a potential client has with your business and regular posts show that you're passionate and knowledgeable about what you do.

Expand your network - both online and offline

As a small business, the network of people you know and do business with is one of your most important tools. Make the most of every opportunity to get to know industry stakeholders and potential customers. Attend national trade shows, seminars and workshops whenever you get the chance and join business associations and groups. Every new contact is a potential lead.

Look for ways to simplify processes

Every aspect of your business, from accounting and workflow tracking to communication, team management and point-of-sale solutions, can be made simpler with the help of the wide array of apps, programmes and cloud-based services that are available today. With the help of communication platforms, project management tools, customer relationship management (CRM) applications, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software and Human Resource Management (HRM) programmes, running your business can become simpler than ever. Many of these programmes and apps offer free versions or are very affordable.

Update your business plan and marketing plan

Updating the business plan that you wrote when you first launched your business can help you keep focused on what's important in light of any changes that may have taken place in the business. As your business evolves, so should your business plan. Possibly even more important is to keep your marketing plan up to date. Consider what worked well and what did not work well in your 2021 marketing endeavours, and amend your 2022 plan accordingly. Top marketing trends for 2022 include influencer marketing, short video content, branded audio content and virtual and augmented reality.

Consider outsourcing for certain tasks

As a small business owner, it can be tempting to want to do everything in-house. It saves you money and keeps you firmly in control of every aspect of your business. However, there are times when the right thing to do is to step back from a certain area and allow an expert to take the reins. Depending on your personal strengths, this may mean hiring someone to take care of your finances and accounts, getting a freelancer to take care of your social media or bringing in an admin assistant to help you keep on top of day-to-day business requirements.

Possibly the most important resolution of all for your business is ensuring that you have premises that will allow you to grow. If your business is based in Gauteng, contact 3Cube Property Solutions today and let us help you find the ideal industrial or commercial property.