Every 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 entrepreneurs to share their biggest goals and what they were looking forward to in 2021.
#1- Collaborate and provide more employment
As a CEO, my goal for 2021 is to expand my business to provide more employment. Due to the pandemic, not everyone has been lucky enough to keep their jobs. To help them provide for their families, I would like to employ people in my community first and hopefully extend to other communities as well as I will also be partnering with other small businesses. This aims to employ people who lost their jobs during the pandemic. I am also looking forward to collaborating with vloggers to promote my business further.
Thanks to Vietek Ladislaav, Square Motion!
#2- Make our marketing more efficient
My number one goal for 2020 is to get our marketing flywheel to a state of complete efficiency. As an agency, getting new contacts and prospects over the internet has been a mixed bag of results. High CPC's and inefficient channels led us to a place where we thought getting new customers was better done in-person. The pandemic changed that landscape and led us to a place where we revamped all aspects of our ad spend and funnel to create a predictable revenue system. We have made gains, but it’s not perfect yet, but we hope it will be in 2021.
Thanks to Craig Smith, Trinity.one!
#3- Make more partnerships
As a premier test prep and private tutoring company, we have served the LosAngeles areas for the past 11 years and partnered up with many educational institutions such as public and private schools offering financial aid programs to select families who could not afford our services. We've recently opened 2 new locations in San Francisco and New York so our # 1 goal in 2021 is to make similar partnerships in new services areas and assist the underserved families in these 2 new cities.
Thanks to Arash Fayz, LA Tutors 123!
#4- Remain agile as a brand
As an entrepreneur and business owner, there is always a risk and some uncertainty, but 2020 has been particularly challenging regardless of what industry you're in or your company's size. For 2021, my number one goal is to be able to remain agile as a brand to be able to come out on the right side of the changes that are and will continue to come out of the global pandemic because I believe we are shifting to new ways of doing business, a different economy, and changing consumer behavior. During the pandemic, my brand has been able to stay very agile, and we tried our best to remain calm and learn from the shifting landscape of our industry. For 2021, I want to remain agile and understand our industry's changes to apply them to our business decisions and ensure growth this coming year.
Thanks to Anthony Shook, Foster's Lab!
#5- Focus and expand my reach
My #1 goal for 2021 is to focus and expand my reach to emerging leaders and business professionals focused on preparing themselves for an age of A.I. and a new world of work. As employers prepare to accelerate their plans for scaling automation and robotics due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the timetable for reskilling and upskilling the laborforce has tightened. In just a few short years the disruptive elements of advanced technological change will be felt globally. My mastermind programs, online courses, blogs, and the launch of a new narrative podcast in the spring of 2021 aims to create a bridge to a future that will increasingly include artificial intelligence in the business mix.
Thanks to Dee McCrorey, Risktaking for Success!
#6- Continue with 3 things
2020 was a huge year for me in terms of growth, learning, and development as an entrepreneur. In 2021, I want to continue these 3 things, but on a larger, more sustainable scale. My #1 goal would be to set up a robust remote workforce for uAcademy that are experienced and passionate about we are trying to do. While working at finding the right people, I will create and implement systems so that we work smart as a team and really build off each other’s strengths. By this time next year, I want to be more equipped to grow even larger, while also sticking to the things that have helped us get to this point.
Thanks to Jay Lee, uAcademy!
#7- Get the business back on track
2020 wasn’t a great year for us. We took a big hit and had to downsize our team. It was sad that we had to say farewell to many of our beloved and talented coworkers. My no. 1 goal for 2021 is to get the business back on track, focus on business fundamentals, build up a strong and healthy cash buffer – and continue seeking ways to deliver value and delight our customers. With the world getting increasingly complex and dynamic, we believe that the best way for us to be relevant is to develop the willingness to take risks and trying out new ideas – knowing that most of them would not work, but those that do would be a big difference.
Thanks to Bowen Khong, ForexToStocks!
#8- To be profitable
My business is fairly new and with most new businesses the number one goal is to be profitable but I want to add so much value to my clientele that it blows all my goals for my business out of the water by default. I aim to be the best at what I do because it is what I am passionate about. I think what I do serving blended families is so needed now, with more families becoming blended these days. Seeing marriages and families succeed fulfills my purpose and I'm blessed to be able to make a living at it coaching.
Thanks to Lesa Forrest, First Step Family LLC!
#9- Several goals
Because of the pandemic, the goals I have set for my business for 2021 has changed to adapt to the new normal. At the top of my list right now is to maintain the flow of profit instead of increasing the revenue of my small company. I plan to balance my investments with profitability. Investments are essential since it will enable you to test any changes in the market. Likewise, it allows for the expansion of your business.
Thanks to Kate Diaz, Swanky Den!
#10- Be more intentional
The pandemic has forced us to pause, reflect and hit the reset button while the pace of life and business has slowed. As things pick up again after a vaccine arrives I do not want to jump back on the treadmill we were all on before. I want to be thoughtful and deliberate with how I use my time and choose the people and activities I invest in carefully. I am more aware of how precious our time is so do not want to waste it.
Thanks to Paige Arnof-Fenn, Mavens & Moguls!
#11- Have a solid emergency fund
My major goal for 2021 is to have a solid emergency fund that will enable my business to function regularly for one year at least, regardless of the external factors. For a long time, I have underestimated the importance of an emergency fund because I didn’t think that we would face such a huge crisis anytime soon. I invested in it, but it was never enough to keep us working for a whole year. However, after the lessons from 2020, my primary goal will be to make a budget that will be sustainable and sufficient for every worker in my company for the entire 2021. I may need to make small cuts in some categories, but it should be enough to keep us going for a while.
Thanks to Malte Scholz, Airfocus!
#12- Recruit 1000 photographers and artists
While 2020 was difficult, it was also a time of great flux. As a company that seeks to highlight and change the narrative around Black life, UmbrellaStock is perfectly positioned going into 2021. Our goal is to recruit 1000 photographers and artists as contributors to create images that paint an accurate picture of Black people and other minority populations.
Thanks to Michae E. Allen, Umbrellastock Inc.!
#13- Complete my book
With all the uncertainty happening in the world right now, setting goals can be tricky. As a coach, I am encouraging people to set quarterly goals for 2021, so as the year progresses it will be easier to adjust. My first quarter goal for 2021 is to complete my book, tentatively titled Right Career, Right Now, and shop it to publishers. Currently I have a solid draft done and am working with an editor to finalize it.
Thanks to Colleen DelVecchio, Colleen DelVecchio Consulting!
#14- Have our operations back in full swing
Though I know that this will not be immediately possible, we will still try our best to rise up again while following the standards brought about by this new normal. My team and I will think and create new strategic and marketing plans that can help us to survive future challenges that might come. And along with this, we will do everything we can to serve our customers and give them the best experience whenever they purchase from our brand.
Thanks to Chris Muktar, WikiJob.co.uk!
#15- Collaborate with amazing companies
For 2020, my goal was to start a travel blog and one day be successful enough to support my family. It is near the end of the year and I haven't done as much as I hoped to. So I am beginning to focus on 2021! I have this feeling that next year will be MY year! As New Years' comes around, I have been writing down my goals and how I will achieve them. My goal for 2021 is to collaborate with amazing companies across the world and in the travel industry. I will remain focused on my blog and in 2021, I will make it my full-time job. I have a goal that one day, I will make enough money blogging that my husband and I can travel the world and immerse ourselves in new cultures! I am a big believer in experiencing things and places in order to help educate yourself and others. This is why making Famously Frayling an established travel blog is my #1 goal!
Thanks to Alyssa Frayling, Famously Frayling!
#16- Investing in the best people
My goal for the coming year is to invest in the best people and create solid processes that set them up for success. When you begin treating people as assets and not expenses, you'll see them tap into their real potential. And the best part is that employees want all the opportunities that encourage their growth and boost their performance. It's a win-win situation and our team has already begun strategizing this.
Thanks to Cody Crawford, Low Offset!
#17- Growth
Growth is my number one goal, and perhaps controversially I feel like the only business owner who doesn't want to pivot their business into a pandemic proof niche or retrain. After 18 years of photographing babies, I still love what I do, and I know how lucky I am to say that. That isn't to say I won't change anything, but the fundamentals of being face to face with a client to photograph them is essential. My business is about preserving those memories, baby photographs have an important role to play in recording our social history. Personally, I love looking back through old photos, and I am sure I am not alone in that.
Thanks to Sue Kennedy, Sue Kennedy Photography Ltd!
#18- Travel to new places
I love to travel and don’t get to do enough of it. But in the last few years, due to business engagements and then the COVID-19 pandemic, I was not able to take a vacation and visit places I had never been to before. But in 2021, my main goal is to give time to myself and explore new places! I will be spending more time doing hiking, laying on a beach, and visiting historical places to make up for the lost time and reenergize myself. There are honestly so many amazing places and things to see, and none of us will be able to see them all. For me, 2021 is definitely shaping up to be a year for make-up vacations.
Thanks to David Shell, TradesmenCosts!
#19- Build enough passive cashflow
My biggest goal in 2021 is to build enough passive cashflow to cover all my expenses so that from 2022 onwards I can focus on business endeavors based on how passionate I am about them, and not because I need them to ‘pay my bills’. I have been building some passive cashflow over the past years, through real estate and portfolio income, but am planning to make this my #1 priority this coming year and am making sacrifices to do so, for example reducing the hours I spend on my main business (consulting) and foregoing short-term revenue. I have been researching 20+ passive income streams over the past months and creating specific ideas I’m going to be testing in 2021. This goal is so important to me because it would allow me to be truly financially independent and free from monetary constraints in my decision making for years to come – for example whether I want to accept or leave a full-time job, which businesses I want to start, or whether I want to take some months or even years off to take care of my family.
Thanks to Julia Lemberskiy, JJ Studio!
#20- Build my personal brand
My goal is to develop a name for myself and establish a personal brand in my industry. I have already built a personal website and started promoting it via different techniques like a guest post, PR, networking etc. and want to accelerate this process in 2021. Setting such a goal will push me to work hard to create relevant content that will keep my followers engaged and also attract new audiences. Establishing a personal brand is a way to gain exposure for my expertise, and it shows my uniqueness, which in turn helps to draw clients in.
Thanks to Simon Dwight Keller, SDK Marketing!