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2020 is here, hooray! So you are planning your New Year resolutions, intending to become a new and better you. You might be considering traveling more, developing new skills, or just getting fit. That’s great since the year brings with it all sorts of possibilities. And these can extend to businesses and startups. Want to improve your business in 2020? Then you’ll need to make some New Year’s resolutions for it as well. With these, you can plan how you can develop your startup and grow it. And by following through with these plans, your startup can soar to new heights this year. So consider the following New Year resolutions for your business:

Working Smarter

Make the efforts you and your team exert more beneficial for your business. Do this by working more efficiently and effectively, not just by simply working harder or putting in more hours since this can become untenable in the long run. Organizing your work process smartly, utilizing the latest tools, delegating tasks to specialists and assistants, all these can help you boost your business’ performance while making life easier for everyone involved.  

Increasing Productivity

On that note, your New Year resolutions can include boosting productivity to get more things done. And, again, this doesn’t mean you have to work harder or smarter, or put in more hours. Doing it smarter, by automating processes, making the workflow more organized, leveraging tools and delegating, can result in higher productivity. By increasing productivity, you could still be technically getting more things done if you’re maintaining a satisfactory level of output while working less hours. You heard that right. Hypothetically, if your output is the same but you’re only working for four days a week, then for all points and purposes you ARE getting more things done! The right tools can help you automate tedious processes like invoicing, social media scheduling, emails and newsletters, and more. You can also task Virtual Assistants and Virtual Teams with these roles. So you can focus on more crucial tasks like leading the organization.  

Boosting Marketing

Stay on top of marketing trends that can help your business or startup punch above its weight class. After all, you’ll need effective marketing strategies to capture the attention of audiences online and off-line, and convert them into customers. Social media marketing is getting more and more relevant. So your branding and marketing game has to be on point. Take a look at what worked for you in 2019 and what didn’t. Expound upon the successful approaches, replace those that didn’t work, and reach new audiences in 2020!  

Improving Customer Service

With marketing drawing in customers, the next step is keeping them and turning them into loyal fans. Which means providing more-than-satisfactory customer service. So think of ways you can improve and keep them happy for 2020 and the years to come. Is your service already great? Then keep at it! In these times, customers are now expecting 24/7 customer service. Rather than shooting off emails, they expect nigh-instant responses when they send direct messages to the company Facebook or Twitter page. Hiring a Virtual Assistant to handle company social media accounts, or implementing chatbots, or a combination of both can be the way to go. After all, your responses need to be authentic as well. People appreciate talking with a real human being. The important thing is to keep in mind the importance of developing customer engagement and cultivating customer relationships through these interactions.  

Grow Your Team and Delegate Smartly

As an entrepreneur there’s always that temptation to do everything yourself and micro-manage. But moving forward, your New Year Resolutions should include growing your team so they can handle the everyday tasks necessary to expand your business. You can do this by hiring in-house employees as well as outsourcing to Virtual Assistants and Virtual Teams. It depends on the nature of the tasks you need handled and your startup’s budget. Thanks to this, you won’t be overwhelmed by all the tedious tasks. You’ll have someone trustworthy, dependable and competent who will handle these and deliver satisfactory results.  

Doing Better

In the end it’s all about taking the good from 2019 and redoubling on them, while remembering the bad and lackluster and learning from them in order to avoid making the same mistakes. Make the most out of last year’s lessons and chart a new path for yourself, one that’s better than before. Whether it’s in your personal life or your business, the New Year brings with it countless potentials to do better. That’s why we make New Year resolutions, after all. So keep working at it and best of luck!