10 Steal-Worthy Resolutions from Small Business Owners
Monday January 11, 2016
These 10 entrepreneurs did a great job of setting actionable, measurable, goal-oriented New Year’s Resolutions for their businesses. If you’re still looking for inspiration to supercharge your business growth in 2016, steal one of these awesome resolutions!
1. Matt McKee Photography
“Like many small creative service businesses, it is very easy to find yourself working alone in the studio for days on end. For me this often means that my marketing efforts get side tracked and, after the project is done, I have to go hunting for the next one.
To combat the small business sales roller coaster, I resolve and commit to doing at least one networking event per week. And, that I need to find the opportunity to give 4 referrals per month.
"Combat the #smallbusiness #sales roller coaster." [Tweet this]
I don''t know if it is statistics or karma, but, if I am giving out referrals and sending business to other people I know, my own business grows too!”
2. Tami Brehse, Marketing Consultant
"As a marketing consultant, I''m always encouraging my clients to take advantage of the power of images for social marketing, but I neglect to do so myself!
"Take advantage of the power of images." [Tweet this]
This year I have resolved to make better use of Instagram for business purposes, using it as a tool to drive traffic to my site and even sell directly. There''s a tremendous amount of audience engagement there, and a big opportunity for ROI."
3. Rachel Ritlop, Career and Business Coach to Millennials
“All of my 2016 resolutions are SMART goals. As a business owner, I believe the only way to get goals done, is to write them out as SMART goals (otherwise, who knows when I will get them done?).
"All of my 2016 resolutions are SMART goals." [Tweet this]
My number one goal for 2016 is to launch my total re-brand of my coaching business on 1/12/16! I started my coaching and consulting business over a year ago, and was focusing on really broad life coaching (everything from relationships, careers, finances, to organizing the home).
I had a successful first year, but realized the areas I am most passionate about are career and business coaching. With this new rebrand, I have had to write out a few smaller goals I will need to hit along the way in order to reach my larger goal by my target date.
I have replaced my old site with a landing page redirecting to this date, which has added a layer of accountability, as I have put it out to the world!”
4. Lori Cheek, Founder & CEO of Cheekd
“My New Year’s Resolution for my business is to be more present. Running a small business has been an extremely stressful, yet rewarding journey. There are so many tasks at hand owning a business which result in equally as many distractions.
My resolution to be more present will hopefully allow me to not only pay closer attention to those around me, but to more efficiently listen, learn and delegate. The power of being present will, in return, relieve stress, remove unnecessary worry and overthinking.
"The power of being present will relieve stress." [Tweet this]
Every Monday of the week, I have a note on my iCal scheduled to rate myself for the previous week to keep on top of my progress in hopes of keeping me on track with my resolution. 2016, here we come!”
5. Esther Goldenberg, Founder of Three Gems Publishing
“Over the last six months, I''ve noticed that most of my new clients have come as a result of giving away good content for free. So this year, towards my goal of more client acquisition, I resolve to create more opportunities to work for free.
I''ve put a day on each month of the calendar to have something new to offer, whether it''s a seminar, a webinar, a PDF, or something else, and I''ll continue to give out free information during my potential-client consultations.
Although I''m giving information to people who don''t convert to be clients, everyone can sense my experience and passion that will lead them to their goals of a published book, and those who are ready, do convert into paying clients.”
"Those who are ready, do convert into paying clients." [Tweet this]
6. Alyssa Andrus, Owner of Max + Moose
“I have a long list of resolutions for 2016 and one of my biggest resolutions is to bring more awareness to my brand. Over the past few months I have come to the realization of how important it is to send out as many blankets as possible to get awareness.
So to achieve this big goal, I plan on sending out 10% of our inventory every month to Instagram influencers. What qualifies someone as an influencer? Their pictures are aesthetically pleasing, has good interaction and participation with their followers, and they have a baby.
I am constantly on Instagram finding new influencers and contacting them to send them product. I have a chart on how many people I need to be contacting weekly.”
"I am constantly on Instagram finding new influencers." [Tweet this]
7. Rick Spencer, President of Jerky of the Month Club
Our resolution for 2016 is to promote our club more consistently through social media. We have used many advertising mediums over the years but are moving promotion and advertising to digital so when they click on a link it lands them on the page we position.
We will use SMART goals that includes bi-monthly posts on Facebook. We will post once to highlight the flavor of the month, (flavors may include Green Chili Beef, Cherry Smoked Turkey, Sweet Cowboy Beef, and more). The second post will be excerpts or quotes from our monthly newsletter.
We plan on building a twitter base and tweeting the upcoming flavor to create anticipation.
Although we are very familiar with social media, we have been slow to adopt it in our marketing strategy. We are now focusing totally on digital marketing because when a customer clicks on a link it takes them right where we want them to be."
"We are now focusing totally on digital marketing." [Tweet this]
8. Misa Chien, CEO & Co-Founder of Fosubo
"In 2016 I plan to do more listening and less talking. In the last year we''ve developed a really amazing team, and it''s important for me to take the time to really listen to their ideas and see what we can implement. We start each meeting with a round-table, and I try to make sure I ask everyone else their opinion on something before I dive into my own."
"I try to make sure I ask everyone else their opinion." [Tweet this]
9. Ely Delaney, Automated Marketing Architect at Your Marketing University
“I’ve spent the last few months looking back to all the things we do in our business and my goal is to cut back on all the things we’re doing and streamline to 2-3 things we can do GREAT.
I’m working setting up a very specific and DOCUMENTED process of lead generation and sales flow for our business. We’ve already cut back on some of our offerings which also makes it easier to focus on being better at less things.
This year’s theme is “streamline.’
"This year’s theme is ''streamline.''" [Tweet this]
I’ve been in business for over 20 years and it’s time to not have to work so hard. I don''t mean taking the easy road or getting lazy. I mean to really focus on being awesome at a few things and letting everything else go.”
10. Erin Jump Fry, CEO of FancyFortuneCookies.com
"As the owner of a gourmet fortune cookie bakery who sells almost exclusively online, my success directly correlates to regular new product rollouts. My resolution for 2016 is to develop and photograph my new creations well before my designer needs them for our websites and social media campaigns.
I am overflowing with ideas to bake, and I have several new hires who I expect will free me up to be able to tame the ravenous content monster."
"Tame the ravenous content monster." [Tweet this]