The end of 2019 will be here before you know it. While it might be easy for businesses to take their foot off of the gas, and coast to the finish line, now is the time to finish strong, and prepare for the race ahead. That is why we put a short list of rules that all businesses could benefit from in 2020.
The Skydiving Rule
There’s only one difference between skydiving and simply jumping out of a plane, and that’s having a plan. Running a business can be kind of similar. Sure, you can just jump by yourself, and hope for the best. Maybe you find out that you can fly, or maybe you come crashing down to earth wondering what went wrong.
OR
You can work with people who know what they’re doing, that will give you a parachute and everything you need. If it’s your first time, or you’re not fully comfortable jumping on your own, they strap themselves to your back, and are with you the entire way.
Practical Application: This is what it’s like hiring a marketing agency versus doing everything yourself or trusting someone inexperienced to do your marketing (or any aspect of your business) for you.
The Balancing Rule
You may have heard the term “work-life balance” before. It sounds simple, but finding that balance can actually be quite difficult. The best way to balance your personal life and your work life, is in your personal life, think about today. Think about what makes this moment great and count your blessings.
In your work life, allow yourself to think about tomorrow. Think about what your business or job could become. Look forward to where work could take you. This could be a bit nerve-racking at times, but that could help push you to do what needs to be done and gives you a goal to strive for.
Practical Application: A lot of people dread Mondays. Beginning the work week could be met with a bunch of unknown factors that you just aren’t prepared for. That’s why we suggest planning your work-week on Fridays. Taking the time to look ahead allows you to not be anxious over the weekend, and lets you get straight to completing tasks on Monday.
The Permanent Student Rule
You might be the most skilled or talented person in your field, or you might have the best product or service, but that doesn’t mean you have EVERY skill needed to run a business successfully. You will always have room to grow and learn. You may be out of school, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be continuing your education. Look to learn from your employees, coworkers, assistants, or business partners. The help you ask for doesn’t have to stop there or stay internal.
Practical Application: No matter what industry you are in, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of conferences that can provide valuable knowledge to you and your company. Take the time to visit a conference to learn more yourself, or send your employees to help encourage their growth.
You could also hire third-party companies whose success is predicated on your success is a great way to complete tasks without having to provide salary or benefits. They can provide services to you in areas you struggle, or give you the know-how to be better prepared for the future.
The Drafting Rule
There are two strategies to drafting a team in any professional sport: drafting to fill a position need, or drafting the best player available. Often times, businesses go with the former. There’s a job opening, so they try to fill the job. There’s a need to market online, so you find whoever you can in the office or a new employee to do that job. Does that work? Sure, but you end up spending more money, and often take people away from what they do best to fill a need.
For that reason, I am a bigger fan of drafting the best player available, and building your business around the skills and talent you have. Hire people that are the best at what they do, let them do what they do best, and build around that. Then, if there is a need to be filled outside of what you do best, you can go to free agency, and find other people to partner who specializes in fixing those needs.
Practical Application: Maybe you have a business that heavily relies on its cleanliness or the appearance of the workspace. Rather than having your employees who should be focusing on customers, making a sale, or completing other tasks, doing the mopping and the cleaning, you could hire a custodial company. This ensures your space is going to be clean without having to take people away from their job, or provide a salary or benefits to an in-house janitorial or maintenance staff.
Whatever need your business has, chances are, you can find another company to help you in those areas.
The Giving Rule
You may have started your business because you had a dream, you had a skill that you can monetize, or you needed to support your family. For whatever reason you started the company, you figured that there was money to be made. Nobody starts a business with the plan to lose money in the long run. So though it might seem counterintuitive, while you’re doing everything you can to make what you can, you should be finding out how to give what you can.
Find needs in your community that you can be passionate about, and help however you can. You can spend all the money in the world in marketing, saying that you care about the community that you’re in, and that can’t hold a candle to actually getting involved and building relationships with people in your community.
Practical Application: If your city has a park, have your staff volunteer to do clean up on regular basis. If your city has charities that feed the hungry, volunteer your time or provide funds or food to be given out. Have a food supply, coat, or school supply drop-off at your business, and partner with organizations that can distribute or help you distribute those items to those in need. This allows you to not help a good cause, but gives you an opportunity to build relationships with those who walk in your door to donate.
Conclusion
Hopefully these rules can help you get a head-start to success for the next year. Obviously, there’s much more to running a business than this, but just remember that you don’t have to do this on your own. If you have any more questions about how your business can operate better in the next year, or are looking for help for any marketing needs, please feel free to message or email us. We’d be happy to see how we could help!