It’s a new year and right after the ball drops, it’s time to go to work. Often entrepreneurs and business owners create their New Year’s Resolutions around their business. It could be more revenue, hiring clients or launching a new product or service, but every new year is an exciting time because it’s ripe with opportunity. We asked 20 entrepreneurs to share their business goals and what they were looking forward to in 2019.
#1- Recruit female executives
A major goal for the new year is to recruit several senior female executives to our company. At the moment, all are top executives are men. Aside from several of our larger corporate clients wanting us to provide senior level coaching and mentoring to females BY females, we believe having women on board will give us additional perspective and diversity of thought as a firm.
Thanks to Robert Morlot, Clearwater, FL!
#2- Build simpler reporting systems
Each month Peak District SEO serves 25 customers with SEO services. Getting business websites more visibility is what we do, but I want to focus on building a reporting system that demonstrates our progress in a way that non-tech CEOS and managers can understand. Overly complex reports than nobody reals or understands are a wasted resource. Simplicity is key.
Thanks to Phil Gregory, Peak District SEO!
#3- Four goals
Thanks to Jamie Binnion, Thedailydoseofjamie!
#4- Partner and create books
We launched Buddy&Soul, a platform for personal development, a few months ago, and we know that what we offer is an amazing way for people to change their lives for good. But the world doesn't know it yet. For 2019 my goals are to: 1. Find (at least) three institutional partners who will use us. 2. Create books and ebooks based on our materials, such as ‘Loving your Pregnant Body'. This will expand our reach and offering. and 3. Have potential partners reach out to us. It's a very different position from being the one doing the courting.
Thanks to Talya Miron-Shatz, Buddy&Soul!
#5- Give back
Our Goal for 2019 is to become the most contributed machine dealership in America in donations to Scholarships, Veterans and Children’s hospital. We want to give back and be part of a growing movement towards investing back into America, especially investments in manufacturing.
Thanks to Curt Doherty, CNC Machines!
#6- Spend at least 20% of my time on learning
My goal is to spend no less than 20% of my time on learning, self-improvement and personal care. I’ll generally split the time into three equal buckets addressing mind, spirit and body. I expect the outcome to be that I produce a higher volume of the best results during the remaining 80% and I do so while being happy and healthy. To ensure that I am compliant with the 20% minimum, I will lead with this activity. These activities will be my “big rocks” – as Steven Covey would teach. They will be scheduled first and not be an afterthought. “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” -Abraham Lincoln.
Thanks to Tony Schy, Vistage!
#7- Read more books
I have a goal to read more in 2019. And I don't just mean short news articles on my phone because I do a lot of that. Instead, I want to finish a few books and get back in the habit of dedicated reading. I feel more creative, sharper and I am learning new things. As an entrepreneur and business owner, your work is never done – I always feel like the wheels could come off at any minute; I think that's why we continue to innovate and iterate. Reading, for me, helps with that.
Thanks to Omar Karim, MAB!
#8- Two goals
Our business is all about social media data analysis, and the amount of that data almost doubles each year! So my primary goal for the next year is keeping our computing infrastructure costs at bay, especially as we are delivering more and more AI-powered processing-intensive product features to our clients, such as image recognition. This technology helps brands have a glimpse into their consumer lives – even though the brand is not mentioned explicitly in their social media posts, but is only present in the photos they publish. It is an excellent way for marketers to learn more about product consumption situations, and uncover valuable consumer insights. That's why I really want our development leaving the status of cool features and go to the rank of practical application. Also, each year I set myself a goal to learn at least one entirely new skill, not necessarily business-related. In 2018 I learned to drive a car on a left-hand side, started to meditate, learned how to play poker and make an ollie on a snowboard. Looking forward to the new year and new skills to learn!
Thanks to Alexey Orap, YouScan!
#9- Get small businesses to improve their customer response rate
BizText's goal this year is to get one hundred small businesses per month to triple their customer response rate by texting. Most businesses can’t take more than one call at a time and are forced to put calls on hold or worse put customers through the dreaded automated-help gauntlet. If we could get businesses to let their customers text them the representative could handle multiple queries at a time, and they will be able to get meaningful answers for customers before their tempers escalate.
Thanks to Brian Matthews, BizText!
#10- Improve the perception of my company as an authority
One major goal for 2019 is to continue to improve my company’s reputation. We are already recognized as a leader for online marketing for lawyers, doctors and dentists. We have established that reputation through hard work, excellent results and transparency in how we work with our clients and our staff. In 2019, I want to take that to another level by setting specific goals to develop the expertise of our staff members and to further cement our authority as the digital marketing experts in our verticals. Our staff will improve their expertise through more in-depth research and training. We will also continue to highlight our digital marketing expertise through a series of blog posts – both on-site and off-site – as well as quotes and mentions in authoritative online media and other publications. Through these efforts, we will continue to build trust and credibility in the eyes of all stakeholders – employees, customers,
prospects and other vendors in our verticals.
Thanks to Dan Goldstein, Page 1 Solutions, LLC!
#11- Two goals
My goal forTipsyElves in 2019 is to rework our supply chain and reduce our product costs – without sacrificing quality – so that we can offer our products to customers at even more accessible and affordable prices.
Thanks to Evan Mendelsohn, TipsyElves!
#12- Starts with a plan
For business owners looking to determine their new year’s goals, a few suggestions to keep in mind that have served me well over the years. A goal without a plan is simply a wish. A wish or hope is not a strategy or a goal. Google’s Sergy Brin has been quoted as saying that, “any conversation I have about innovation starts with the ultimate goal.” Remember if you fail to write down your goals, the chance of success is vastly reduced! It is far better to set your goals way too high and miss the goal by a bit, versus setting low – and perhaps more realistic – but still missing. Each quarter as you are reaching to meet your goals, you should ask: What went right? What went wrong? What have we learned? Did we do what we said we would do? Where did we miss and why? What were the biggest opportunities? Did you go after opportunities yourself? What are your biggest challenges? How are you dealing with them? A final thought: never reduce the target goals. Instead, increase your actions.
Thanks to Wes Guckert, The Traffic Group!
#13- Focus on more human contact
Generally, when we talk about our goals with regard to our business, the first thing that springs forward to most thinking is all about dollars and cents. I too have my business plan mapped out with goals of transactions, dollars and cents. However, that isn’t the first thing to mind for me when I consider my true goals for my life and my business (which for me are one and the same) in the coming year. Instead, in this year’s plan I have decided to put at the very top of my priority list, to spend more time focusing on the human contact between myself and my clients. Instead of having meetings via Skype, I will make more coffee or lunch appointments. Instead of relying primarily on texting and emailing, I will have more voice to voice phone calls. I will be using more low-tech ways to stay in touch with my clients and going back to the old-fashioned human interaction. This will result in a keener awareness of their needs and allow me to deliver the highest possible service experience to them.
Thanks to Brenda Di Bari, Compass NYC!
#14- Find new creative ways to multitask
I know that if I do not feel good I am not going to be at my peak performance level for my team or my clients. With technology and social media we are always on today 24/7. All work and no play is just not a sustainable option so my goal is to be more productive this coming year. I will try to find new creative ways to multitask that incorporates work and exercise. When I worked at large companies they had gyms at the office or groups who walked at lunch but when you are an entrepreneur you have to get creative to find balance. I will begin taking myself as seriously as I take my most important clients because if I am not at my peak performance I am not going to be useful to anyone else either. I will set aside regular time to recharge my batteries and take better care of myself so that mentally and physically I will be sharp and in the best health possible to set myself up for success. Even if you do not have time for a big vacation, sometimes a long weekend away, a walk outside in fresh air midday or a trip to the museum or local gallery can be a nice break to hit the refresh button and avoid burnout in a pinch.
Thanks to Paige Arnof-Fenn, Mavens & Moguls!
#15- Place more children into loving homes
Noble Child’s cloud-based applications help systematically take on the growing foster care crisis caused by the opioid epidemic. Our goal for next year is to license more foster parents and place more children into loving homes than in modern history by introducing our cloud-based application to as many state and non-profit child welfare agencies.
Thanks to Matthew Wollack, Noble Child!
#16- Two goals
In 2019, I want to use my business's branded social media platforms to cross promote non-profit partnerships in the community, increasing our ability to use our following in a more impactful way outside of revenue generation. In the new year, I will be encouraging my team to take more days off – and allowing myself to follow that same suggestion. As a business owner, I know how hard I can push myself, but it's really important to recognize when breaks are needed, or when I just need to unwind and spend time with the family. Work can wait, it'll be there when I am energized and ready to focus on it.
Thanks to Bryn Butolph, Eat Clean Meal Prep!
#17- Further build our company culture
After receiving feedback from our employees and doing some research, our New Year's Resolution is to further build our company culture. It's been shown that a strong company culture attracts and retains top talent and employees tend to be happier and more productive. So, we will be doing more team outings, bi-weekly Friday lunches, and setting up weekly challenges with rewards for teams who complete the most goals every week
Thanks to Jacob Dayan, Finance Pal!
#18- Improve engagement with my employees
No matter whether we're talking about Software Engineers, Game Designers, or Operations, I want every team member to say : I love my job, I believe in Fingerprint's mission, and I'm psyched to do everything I can to help the company grow and achieve its goals. I'm going to do this by working with the team to identify what they really want and how to create a plan to make it happen. That will include teamwork around creating goal statements, what we're doing to make it happen, and new ways to measure personal success.
Thanks to Nancy MacIntyre, Fingerprint!
#19- Metric accountability
At SocialChimp, our 2019 goals are surrounded by metric accountability. Not that we are holding our feet to the fire, but we are creating dashboards that give us the insights to keep our CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) low, and our LTV (Life Time Value) up. We have been evolving from a ‘build it and they will come' mentality to studying our potential customers and earn their business by educating them on social media and the positive impact it can have on their business. This evolution requires us to look at every aspect of our business and customers from a data perspective. We find those really hard to identify sweet spots and jump in. We will create and perfect tools that will give us the visual representation and data we need to make meaningful change.
Thanks to Matt Arceneaux, SocialChimp!
#20-Improve my company's Net Promoter Score by 50 per cent
A Net Promoter Score is a customer satisfaction metric that measures the willingness of customers to recommend a company's products or services to others. This is an ambitions goal and it will help us prioritize spending a lot of time talking to our customers so we can deeply understand their problems and craft the best solutions possible. I want to build something so good that it’s worth sharing.
Thanks to Corbett Drummey, Popular Pays!