We love the holidays and the season of gifts, getting together with family and friends and frankly just kicking back. But as you un-plug for a few weeks this is a great time to think about the new year and making positive changes for your business. Here’s our top tips for changes you can make to start the new year off on the right foot.
Utilize Technology To Automate
Find your self doing the same tasks over and over again? Look into automating those with tools like Zapier and others. I’m not saying to take the human out of where it counts, but updating email lists etc.
Setup A Budget
Creating a budget is the first step in planning to make sure you meet goals. Setting up thresholds and goals will help you measure your progress throughout the year. It can even be easily done in your accounting softwar like Xero or QuickBooks Online.
Beyond tracking the income and expenses, it forces you to think about what you plan to do and set goals. That act is alone is a lot more than what a lot of business owners
Implement Some Tax Planning
Now, you have probably heard lots about taxes this past year and rightfully so, 2018 has seen some of the most extensive tax reform laws in decades! Knowing why they mean and translate for you in your business is no small feat but that doesn’t mean you should keep your head in the sand. Planning now can save you tons of tax if you play your cards right. For example, IRS section 199 outlines hefty tax savings for small business owners under a certain income threshold. This translates into huge tax savings for a lot of businesses.
Fortunately for you, if you’re reading this blog you’re in the right place to get help if you don’t understand or know how to apply it to you. There are also tons more opportunities to save tax so it may be worth your while to schedule some time with your tax planning expert. Or, give us a call if you don’t have one.
Get Your Books In Order
I call ‘net income’ the magic tax number because it’s what drives most of the tax liability when you operate a business. But you’re never going to know what that is unless you keep good records of your income and expenses. Let’s face the hard truth, the days of paper and spreadsheets for tracking this should be over. Online accounting software like Xero is so easy to use and so cheap that it’s a no-brainer. Plus, using something like Xero is a great way to get ALL of your business on one place for invoicing, bills, document storage, etc.
Level Your Business Up
During this time when you’re taking some time off or away from the desk think about waysin you can make small changes to improve the quality of life. Think in terms of plenty and ditch the scarcity mindset. When you do you’ll see big changes at how you handle stress and how you visualize success. For example take implementing a CRM like Active Campaign or Hubspot costs a monthly fee, but did you think about how much time you can save with automation and how you can better serve your customers by having a system in place to put them in?
When you’re able to spend a little you make big gains in your mentality for growth. Remember, unless you invest and work on your business there is huge rewards.
In closing I hope you’re able to use some or all of these points to have successful new year going into 2019! Don’t forget, growing your business is like steering a large ship, you do it with small course corrections and in time you will get where you want to go!