Some businesses thrive throughout the year, their product offering and capabilities unaffected by time of year or holidays. Most, however, step cautiously into the first quarter, watching nervously as purse strings tighten, businesses wait for budget approvals and economies lurch awkwardly into the space the shopping mayhem left behind. To add to the South African stress are a very slow economy and the pre-election nervousness that has investor and enterprise waiting before making any financial decisions.
Generally, this time of year sees the business hold tightly onto its budget, cautious of unnecessary spend. If your business is booming now, then you’re lucky or you’ve built an annuity-driven model that will ensure revenue at any time of the year. However, for those who are just starting out, experiencing the slump or staring worriedly at their income, here are some tips for this year and the next…
1. Plan
While you can’t do anything right now, this second, to combat the quiet you can plan for the future. Use the time you have to plan for your next financial year and to even review your five-year strategy to fine tune it based on your experiences over the past year.
2. Failure
Look at your failures and be brutally honest. This is where your learnings come from. Yes, you get to stare defeat in the eye and sometimes defeat stares back, but you will prevent yourself from making the same mistakes again in the new year. It is a mantra that so many self-help gurus bang on about that the value of assessing your failure can be lost in the noise but the reality is that you can learn from it and you can use this learning to try again, but differently.
3. Celebrate
On top of your failures lie your successes. This is a superb opportunity for you to celebrate your successes from last year and to use these as a springboard for the coming year. What worked? Why did it work? What can be tailored and used in a new market? Can this ignite a new revenue stream?
4. Focus
Stay focused on your end goal and motivate your team to find the same purpose as you do. If you are wandering the halls looking like the world is about to end, this will translate to your employees and that will, in turn, communicate to your clients. Don’t look at the quiet of today as a sign of tomorrow, rather look at it as a chance to really streamline your goals and get them moving.
