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If you’re like most small business owners, there are never enough hours in the day to complete every task on your list.
Often you’re faced with prioritizing what you need to do right now – deal with a customer, meet a deadline, attend an event – and the things you know you should do for the ongoing growth of your business.

Scheduling time to attend to these business activities on a regular basis is a great way to get on track for greater success.

Know your numbers

It’s not uncommon for business owners to lose touch with how well their business is performing on a day-to-day basis. But an awareness of your real time income and expenses is the key to making better decisions that will nurture growth.

Implement these changes and see the difference they make in your business:

• Switch to a cloud accounting solution that offers access to real time data anywhere, anytime.  We as accountants who work with our clients in an advisory capacity have been championing the implementation of cloud based accounting systems for years as a way to encourage collaboration
• Monitor your finances on a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis; review the data with your accountant often. Again we feel working with an integrated cloud accounting software is crucial
• Check in on your other numbers, too – your website metrics and software analytics – so you know whether your marketing, lead generation, and sales tactics are working.  Add blog posts with specific messages and other marketing goals you are looking to achieve to your 90 day action plan.

Create a business plan, or update your current one

Companies should update their business plan at least once a year—sooner if there’s an upcoming change that requires planning, financing, or re-assigning resources (for instance, a product launch, an opportunity to start importing/exporting, or focus on a new target market or customer).

Many business owners neglect to create or even revise their plans on a regular basis. They end up operating on autopilot, losing sight of their bigger goals and the steps they planned to take their business to the next level.

Any time is an excellent time to set goals, mark milestones, and start implementing your plans. Now is the best time as we are at the beginning of the forth quarter. The timing is perfect, start by comparing your year-to-date operations with the previous year’s books, so you can plan with your current goals and prior year’s results in mind.

Delegate, delegate, delegate

It sounds simple, but the self-sufficient, independent nature of many entrepreneurs can make it difficult to get comfortable delegating responsibility. Finding the right people to relieve the burden of doing everything, all the time, is the only way a business can scale and reach its potential.

Think carefully about how you spend your days. Are you still at the point where you want to – or need to – do it all? The ultimate success of any company is to reach the point where it can run without you, so you can enjoy a holiday, pass the business on to a family member, or sell it.
It can take time to find the right people that you can trust to perform their jobs well and continue to grow your business. A recruitment agency can help you craft an attractive job description and recruit so you can focus on strategies that can bring you greater enjoyment and success.
Developing new business habits takes time and commitment – but the pay off is well worth it! Which of these business habits is most important for you to commit to this year?

Need Help?  Get in touch.

Chat with us to find out how we can help you reach your business, financial and lifestyle goals.

If you need help with your accounting, want to create a tax minimization plan, want to discuss your business growth plan or your finances, are concerned about retirement goals or need to be held accountable for your 90 day action plan, contact us for a complimentary discovery session or an appointment to just get started.

Our team continues learning new skills and reviews opportunities for tax saving strategies under the new law, the TCJA to bring added value to our client meetings, and we’ve been doing this for over 25 years.