As we approach the midway mark in 2023, business expert, Daniella Genas, shares her advice on how to create a roadmap to success.
Confidence among business leaders has increased for the fifth month in a row, according to a new report.
The Institute of Directors’ “economic confidence index” is based on surveys with company directors on issues such as the wider economy and their own plans for hiring and investment.
And it found that for the fifth consecutive month, they recorded an uptick in the level of confidence among those running companies.
But despite the renewed optimism, challenges still lie ahead in the second half of the year.
Commenting Daniella Genas, a business coach and the founder of Be The Boss said: “As we move closer towards the final half of the year, it is important to acknowledge that for many small businesses, the first half has been a challenge. The rising costs of everything has been impacting demand with businesses and consumers tightening their purse strings. The residue of Covid and Brexit still lingers for many and the fallout from the Ukraine/Russian War is also taking its toll. Let’s not also forget to mention that the rise in AI is sending many business owners into a panic and as will it make my business redundant?”.
“It hasn’t been the easiest of times, not just in 2023, but over the last few years. Therefore, the fact you are still in business is something which should certainly be celebrated. But it also isn’t a time to sit on your laurels and hope for the best. Difficult times call for decisive action. If you want to increase your chances of ending 2023 in the best position you can, then now is a great time to start identifying and completing key tasks which will help your business not only survive but thrive during uncertain times.
Here, Daniella shares a few steps business leaders can take in the next few weeks, to increase your chance of ending the year successfully and achieving business growth.
Revisit your vision
To reach your destination, you must first know where you are going. The most important part of planning for the final 6 months is being clear on what success looks like. If business growth is the goal, what does that look like? Spend some time reflecting on the vision you have for your business and for your life. It may have been quite a few months since you stopped and reflected on exactly where it is you are trying to get to. Ensure that you have razor sharp clarity on the purpose and mission of your business and how they feed into what you are trying to achieve overall. Allow yourself to be excited by your vision and what you are seeking to achieve with your business.
If it doesn’t move you, then it is not audacious enough. You should be inspired by your vision. Having this clarity will give you a sense of purpose and help you maintain motivation. It will also help you better determine the opportunities you should be seeking versus those you should say no to. When we have no clarity, we can waste time on activities which do not serve us or move us forward.
Knowing our intended direction of travel will help us to be more discerning with what we commit our time to. If it isn’t related to business growth, should you be doing it? Also during this process, it is important to take stock of what is happening around you in society, within the industry, and within technology. What new developments may impact how you execute or pursue your vision? It is important that you don’t bury your head in the sand, but instead stay informed so you are able to capitalise on opportunities and/or avoid major risks.
Ask yourself these questions: Where do I see the business in 3 years? What major factors do we need to be aware of which may impact business delivery? What type of work will we be doing? Who will we be working with? What do we aim to achieve?
If you have a team, ensure that you involve them in the process. Get them to contribute and see how they will be involved in this future you are creating.
You may be thinking about how 3 years in the future applies to the next 6 months. If you get clarity on the long term goals, it will help motivate you to set yourself on that trajectory now.
Review your performance:
Because we often do not see immediate major growth in our businesses, we do not recognise how far we have come. We can sometimes see failure, where there has actually been significant success. Incremental progress is still progress, but we often miss it, because we are not properly or accurately tracking our performance. Because we don’t stop and understand the actual performance of our business, it is difficult to get a true sense of how we have performed and whether we have achieved business growth. Spend some time deep diving into all areas of performance in your business. Evaluate all of the performance areas that will have an impact on your business growth: Finances, sales, client satisfaction, operations etc. You may be surprised by the results. Maybe you didn’t hit your sales goals but you were able to reduce costs. Maybe you didn’t hit all of your key performance indicators, but in other areas, you exceeded the metric set. It is also important to be honest with yourself.
Ask yourself: Did we implement everything that we set out to implement at the start of the year? If not, why? Are we regularly tracking and reviewing performance and making adjustments? Which areas pose the greatest challenges and how will we overcome them?
Set your sales targets
This is a MUST! Get clear on exactly how many sales you want to achieve for each service or product, for each month for the remainder of the year. This will help you to understand and plan for the required resources, time output and cost of delivery. Take into consideration changing customer/buyer behaviour in light of economic factors.
It is important to be proactive with sales and identifying the number of sales required will inform the amount of marketing and sales activity required to hit your sales targets, which will help you achieve business growth. It will provide focus and if properly tracked, will enable you to make adjustments if you see you are moving too far away from the target.
Ask yourself: Which of our services/products are the most profitable? Which ones are the least profitable? Have we seen a reduction of enquiries/conversions? If so, how do we combat this?
Update your marketing and sales strategies and tactics
If you want to achieve business growth by the end of the year (or next year), it is essential that you have clear strategies to enable you to achieve it. The strategies that you defined at the start of the year may no longer be relevant. Now is a great time to update your strategies, assuming that you have them.
Build upon the areas that have proven successful. Where specific strategies have not been successful, seek to understand why and maybe change your approach. You should then identify the key tactics which you feel will work going forwards. Ensure that you are clear on the goals that the strategies are seeking to accomplish and the ways in which you will measure success to achieve business growth.
Ensure that you have a clear understanding of changing market conditions and the impact they may have on the successful implementation of your chosen strategies. You may find that new ideas are birthed based on recognition of areas which have become more challenging.
Ask yourself: Do we have enough up-to-date insights on our target clients/customers?
Do we know exactly who our target clients/customers are? Do we need to change our strategies to overcome market forces?
Update your action plan
Having goals and strategies are only effective if they are consistently executed. They will only be executed if you are clear on exactly what you need to do to execute them. Create a list of all of the specific actions which need to be accomplished for each of your goals and by when. Create start dates and end dates and assign the tasks to the person, or people responsible for carrying them out.
Review everything you and your team need to accomplish by the end of the year. Ensure you are not putting too much pressure on yourself or team members. Make sure that you schedule weekly, monthly and quarterly reviews to determine if actions are being completed in the specified time.
Consistent, incremental, well-timed steps forward, lead to strong results. Create your plan and stick to it.
Ask yourself: What are the key priorities that will help move the business forward? How will you prioritise operational and strategic tasks into the weeks, months and quarters? How will you ensure that you remain consistent? You can’t do it all alone and actually, you shouldn’t have to. Identify individuals and/or organisations that can support you in achieving your goals. Maybe you need to partner with another small business to help expand your reach. Maybe you need to get a mentor or a coach to provide guidance
or to hold you accountable. Maybe you need to expand your team to increase capacity. Whatever your requirement, be clear on what/who you need and make a plan for getting them on board.
Ask yourself: What areas do we struggle with internally that are preventing us from achieving our goals? What could we outsource to help speed up or improve what we are doing?
What partnerships could help us add value to our existing client/customer base or could
help us attract a totally new audience?
Improve internal systems and processes
Having robust internal systems and processes can make a significant difference to your bottom line.
If you are able to be more efficient, this will lead to an increase in profitability. Identify areas that are draining time and resources that can be automated. Invest in the systems/tools/software that will make your business run more efficiently. Technology is here to stay, use it to your advantage to improve the customer experience and how your business operates.
Ask yourself: Which areas of the business are running into continuous problems? Which areas of the business are critical to success and therefore require investment?
