2018: New Year’s Business Resolutions

At the start of the new year while the spirit for making new year’s resolutions is all around us, now is the time to get our businesses and finances in check. Following are 5 ideas to help you make the most of 2018 from a fiscal perspective.

Forbes Contributor Prudy Gourguechon, just yesterday wrote an article on the importance of “Avoiding Bad Business Relationships.” When one enters into a bad relationship in business it can have incredibly costly repercussions. Checklist ways to lessen the likelihood of becoming engaged in such a situation include choosing business bedfellows with these attributes: trust, self-control/discipline, judgement/critical thinking, self-awareness and
Don’t Look Back in Anger on 2017 but do look back and reflect. Much of this is a numbers game. Where were you at the end of 2016 compared to now? Where were you projected to be at this point (presuming you did that last year; if not, start from now) and what are your realistic fiscal goals for 2018? January is a good time for metric analysis in the form of business transactions and what led to them.
Assess Company Meetings – presuming you’ve had them, January is a good time to review minutes of important company meetings. If you’ve not had them yet, put them in the calendar today. Ideally at least one each quarterly.
Get Your Staff Involved – in as much as CEOs often really want to do it all themselves, as they see their business grow they understand the need to delegate. So they do. By hiring. But they often stop there and don’t fully bring in the employees so that they too can get excited about the ebb and flow of the company’s transactions. Do it. January is a great time to start.
Pricing Evaluation – are your prices at market value? Do you have the kind of product/service that can stand an annual price increase? Take a look at your pricing and make sure it’s up-to-date.

So business owners/managers; use January wisely – it’s the perfect time for evaluation and forward-moving action.