The New Year is fast approaching and the holidays are almost upon us. What can you do now to get a fast start in 2019?
SCORE offers free business mentoring services to any business owner in Southern Arizona. Here are some of our recommendations:
- Start now, do not wait for the New Year to begin. You will need time to develop and implement your plan.
- Analyze your results for this year. What were your biggest successes and how can you have more of them? What areas need improvement and what will you do differently in 2019?
- Identify your goals for 2019 and write them down. Clearly identified goals will help keep your efforts focused and on track. Create a system to measure your results.
- Examine all of your target markets and prioritize them. Break them down into easy to identify niche markets. Know exactly which will be your top target markets, and be specific. The easier it is to describe your target market, the easier it will be to reach them. Develop a specific marketing strategy to effectively reach each of your target markets.
- Analyze your top competitors. Look at things like their website, quality of staff, cleanliness of the office, their marketing channels and which technologies they use. Check out the products and services they offer and their pricing, too. What are they doing well that you can learn from? Are they targeting good niche markets you may have missed?
- Think about the additional resources you will need in 2019. Will you need to hire additional staff? What systems and processes are you going to implement to improve your efficiency? Are you going to need help from a business consultant or a mentor? If so, who will that be?
Invest some time and energy now and hit the ground running in January.
This may put you one step ahead of your competition.
