A new year often motivates people to get themselves into better shape as they assess their current conditions and find areas where they are lacking. This general mood can be harnessed to tune up other things as well, which makes the new year season a great time for fixing up your small business for the months to come. Here are some small business tips for getting your company ready to handle current and upcoming challenges.
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Re-evaluate Pricing
When the buying season is in full swing, it’s tempting to leave everything as it is in fear of upsetting the apple cart. Now that the holidays are over, it’s a good time to open up your books and make sure that all of your prices are still in line with your desired profit margins. Raise prices as necessary to keep creeping postage and production costs from chewing away your bottom line. On the other hand, if you’ve gotten a stellar wholesale deal on a product line, consider lowering the prices to attract more customers.
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Re-evaluate packaging
Keeping a product looking fresh is important to retailers whose business comes from physical locations. Look at your products’ packaging with a critical eye and ask yourself a few questions. Does it look stale? Does it communicate the product’s benefits effectively? Is it exciting, or does it fall flat? If you find that it is lacking in one or more of these areas, now is the time to change it.
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Freshen up your Selling Area
A new design can bring the appearance of new life to a tired store or website. Despite this, decor shouldn’t be entirely reworked just for the sake of making it new. Unless you’re in a market that prizes change for its own sake, stick to changes that freshen things up. Customers like to be able to find what they’re looking for without learning an entire new map.
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Set Trackable Goals
Instead of just thinking of how you’d like to make more sales, set a solid goal and then track progress. You’ll get much better results when you have an unbiased record to tell you if you’re making your targets.
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Get Your Finances in Order
Not only will organized financial records make tax time easier, it’ll give you a clear look at the health of your business.
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Re-Evaluate Current Suppliers and Contractors
When you first set up services like your phone and internet connection, you may have had the best deal. These deals, however, change greatly from year to year. Shop around and see if switching plans or even providers has become a good idea.
Some things should be done all year. One of these ongoing goals should be providing great customer service and responding to market needs. Without the customers, you have no business, so take steps to ensure that their voices aren’t lost in the hustle of other operations.
With these small business tips, you should be able to make your business more efficient and profitable over the upcoming year. Start now to gain benefits almost immediately.
