If there’s one thing entrepreneurs love doing, it’s setting goals for their small business. This list is often long and detailed at the start of the year. After all, a new year means new business!
However, a few weeks back into the grind can have even those with the strongest work ethics struggling to readjust while tackling an increasingly heavy workload. As for the goal list? It gets bumped to February… then March… maybe even April. You’ll get to accomplishing everything on it soon, you promise.
Rather than continually bumping your aspirations further and further down the line, why not take a bite-sized approach to reaching your goals? If you’re not sure what qualifies as a bite-sized goal, we’ve rounded up a few that every business can achieve before January ends.
Related: How to Set Realistic Sales Goals for Growing Your Startup
Ease into early tax prep by organizing all of your documents
It’s never too soon to start getting organized for tax season! Use this month to gather and organize your receipts (both print and digital copies) and tax forms. Jot down on your calendar the filing dates for estimated tax payments and sales tax, determine how you plan to file (whether by using a software or working alongside a tax preparer), and update your filing status if it has changed since last year (applicable in areas such as getting married or if you had a child).
Meet with your team
You’ve got goals for the new year and your employees do, too. What should you make a priority to focus on first? Meet with your team to make sure everyone is on the same page with upcoming initiatives. You may find that it’s a good idea to break assignments down into three-month, six-month, nine-month and year-long increments so that work strategically spread out over the course of a specific timeline can help you reach your goals without rushing the process.
After the initial meeting, hold follow-up meetings to check in on everyone’s progress and determine the kind of ROI said initiatives bring back to the company. Encourage everyone to ask questions if they are unclear about anything and use the time to also highlight achievements reached by particular members of the team that are going above and beyond with their workloads.
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Encourage customer feedback
One of the biggest responsibilities startups have, regardless of the time of year, is providing excellent customer service. But how can you improve if you have no idea what their experience is like?
Use this month to encourage your customers to leave behind feedback of their experience in working with your company. A few simple ways to get started include leaving behind reviews on sites like Yelp or Trust Pilot, emailing you directly at a specific email customer service address, and sending out surveys via email. Whether an experience has been positive or negative, startups can utilize the data to begin making changes now that will allow customers to have a better experience all throughout the rest of the year — a great example of a bite-sized goal that, when reached, has a tremendous impact on your company in the long run.
