Monday, January 5, 2015

I Resolve to... 10 Resolutions For Growth in the New Year

Beginning a new year offers us a time to reflect on the past and the future of our business - to think about what went well and where we might have fallen short of expectations. It is also a good time to make changes, to resolve to leading your business in a manner that assures steady progressive growth.

Based on 12 years of experience working with privately-held business owners, this will typically mean doing things significantly different than you have in the past.

To be a catalyst to this positive change, I offer my top ten resolutions for growth in 2015.

In 2016, I resolve to:  
  1. Have a well vetted, market-based plan that defines our future state in a measurable way (3-years and 1-year from now) - customer mix, sales, operations, etc.. 
  2. Share that plan with our employees so they too know what we are striving to achieve and how they can be a part of our success. 
  3. Operate to that plan - to get things done and hit milestones when we said we would - and that there will be real repercussions for failing to do so. 
  4. Not make a single spontaneous buying decision for professional services or capital equipment - I will let the plan dictate these important cash expenditures. 
  5. Know who we are competing against by company name. 
  6. Strive to differentiate from our competitors - and if we can’t - to out-market them as one would do if selling a commodity product/service like toothpaste, accounting services, banking, web development, etc.... 
  7. Know who are our target customers and that it be narrowly defined - consistent with the size of our marketing and sales force. 
  8. Recognize that all marketing activity has ultimately one purpose - to generate qualified leads for our sales force. Thus, I will plan our expenditures and measure its effectiveness accordingly. 
  9. Know and rationalize in business terms our social media presence/activity.
  10. Make good hiring decisions - which are driven by the plan, and starts with a written job description outlining the necessary experience and performance expectations, pay and benefits.. 
How many of these are you currently following? Need some help bringing these resolutions to life in you metro Atlanta, Georgia business? Let's talk over a cup of coffee. Contact me here.

Wishing you the greatest success in 2016!

About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping businesses plan and execute aggressive growth strategies. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is a sales process and growth strategy evangelist, prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. He is also an advisor at Atlanta Tech Village and Four Athens Tech Incubator. www.allegroconsultant.com