As the year comes to a close, many of us are looking at the new year and the adjustments we need to make when it comes to the management of our businesses. If you are considering making any resolutions for the upcoming year, these five should be at the top of your list.
Create a Better Life Balance
You cannot be a good manager if you don’t cultivate a healthy life-work balance. Personal time is just as important as being at the office, so one of the best ways to improve your company’s culture is leading by example. Make efforts to put family first, and encourage your employees to do the same. Research indicates that employees who have balance between their work and personal lives have increased job satisfaction than those who do not. Especially in today’s high tech world, it is harder for managers and employees to leave work at the office. You may want to consider implementing a policy in which work communication is forbidden after a certain time at night or on weekends.
Encourage Learning
The growth of your business depends on keeping up with industry standards, learning new technology and gaining new skillsets that will improve your bottom line. Not only do you want to continue learning yourself, you want to encourage everyone in your organization to learn. Add a training line item in the upcoming budget that will allow you and your staff to attend conferences, classes or seminars that will expand minds and improve skills necessary to grow your company.
Review Financial Information
If your fiscal year ends in December, you will soon be facing budget decisions. Now is the time to begin reviewing the current year’s budget to determine what can get cut, what needs expansion and what decisions need to be made related to the financial health of the company. If you are the business owner, you will want to review the entire business to determine how to best allocate financial resources. However, even as a manager, you want to help the company improve its bottom line. If there are areas where your department can be cut to economize, make those cuts now and apply them to areas that should be expanded. While most companies have some set expenses, make sure your budget has built-in flexibility to adapt to your needs in the coming year.
Make Health a Priority
Just as a work-family balance is important, the health of you and your employees is also important. For the upcoming year, resolve to promote healthier lifestyles throughout your company. Encourage staff members to quit smoking or begin a fitness routine. Maybe organize a walking or running club for employees to participate in after work hours. Club sports like soccer or kick ball encourage teamwork, camaraderie and a healthy lifestyle among co-workers, too. Establish fitness and health goals that can be shared throughout the company, but remember that you lead by example. Choose to live a healthier lifestyle yourself in an effort to encourage staff members to do the same.
Review Your Online Marketing Strategy
Although you may already have an online marketing strategy that is working well, online marketing changes rapidly. Search engines change algorithms on a regular basis, which means that what worked today may not work next week. One way that search engine optimization is changing is the need for up-to-date, quality content on your website, in your blogs and in your social media posts. Although keywords still have some benefit in online marketing, the shift is more toward key phrases. In addition, there is no longer a need to “trick” search engines by purposely misspelling keywords or using awkward phrasing as search engines now adjust for those types of user errors. Videos on social media are growing in importance, so you may want to consider professionally produced videos for your online marketing. The bottom line is that you need to be aware of how online marketing is shifting so your campaigns continue to grow your company.
Sign Up for a Training Seminar With ActionCOACH Tampa Bay
There are many other resolutions that can help you grow your company. These five should be at the top of any manager’s list as they will have the most impact on employee morale and the best chance of improving the bottom line. Our team of experienced business coaches is ready to help you achieve your resolutions for 2016, whether you’d like to take your company public or expand on either the national or international level. Let us share the principles of our success with you to help you achieve your company goals.
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