Category: Creative

A new year brings a fresh start, both on a personal level and for your small business. It’s a great time to refocus, recommit, and set challenging goals for yourself. However, we aren’t talking about losing weight, quitting smoking, or reading 24 books this year–all great goals, by the way! Here are five tips on setting killer new year’s resolutions for your small business that will actually make a positive difference:

• Involve your employees in the goal setting and planning. As a small business owner, you’ll ultimately get the final say on what it is you want to improve upon this year. However, involving people who have a vested interest in what’s going on at your company can prove to be extremely effective. Your team offers fresh opinions, new perspectives, and a different outlook on what’s working and what’s not for your small business. By involving your employees, you’re driving employee engagement and asking them to think like a business owner. Involving employees in setting new year’s resolutions improves commitment, involvement, and overall small business success.
• Keep your goals front and center. It’s easy to have an employee meeting on January second, map out some goals for the year, and stash them in a desk never to be seen again. The key to successful small business new year’s resolutions is to keep them at the forefront of everyone’s mind. Remind yourself and employees what your resolutions are often by printing them out and hanging them on a bulletin board, providing a handout to all employees to hang near their desk, sending out quarterly emails to “check up” on how the goals are coming, and discussing them in meetings. This is easy to do for the first few months of the year, but can easily get lost in the shuffle in April or May. Make sure your small business new year’s resolutions are front and center all year long by writing it in your planner now to remind employees at least quarterly about the goals you set together.
• Set individual goals, as well as small business goals. By setting personal new year’s resolutions –like losing weight, taking a vacation, or saving $1,000– you’re already in the mindset of achieving goals. Make sure one of your personal new year’s resolutions is somehow connected to your business, but not all. A few ideas for personal goals related to your small business are: learn more about your industry by taking a class, show gratitude for one of your employees each week or month by ____, or learning to do one part of each employee’s job that you didn’t know how to do by the end of the year.
• Give each employee a job, and then hold them accountable. Along with setting goals for yourself, ask your employees to set goals for themselves pertaining to their jobs. You can give them individual or team guidelines on what you’d like to see incorporated in their goals, or give them free reign on setting their own. Collect a copy of each employee’s goals and store them to refer to when it comes time for performance evaluations. If you’ve got the budget for it, you may even offer a small bonus or reward for employees who reach their goals by the end of the year.
• Be a model for employees. After your small business new year’s resolutions are set, you’ll likely soon realize they cannot be carried out single-handedly. The best way to get employees to catch the excitement of new year’s resolutions for your small business is to be a doer and work toward the goals yourself. Incorporate the goals into your attitude, behavior, and day to day work. If employees see that you’ve set a plan to accomplish each goal you set, and actually refer to the written resolution as a guide, they’ll model what they see. If you ask them to accomplish the goals on their own–without any help or participation from you–they’ll roll their eyes and use the resolution as scratch paper.

Setting new year’s resolutions specifically for your business and with your employees reminds you that you are not only a business owner looking to increase profits, but you’re also a leader. As you and your team reach your goals together, you’re sure to see increased morale in the workplace, and (hopefully!) a more successful and profitable year for your small business.

What does your to-do list look like as a small business owner today? It likely includes a lengthy list of tasks like: respond to emails, pick up office supplies, schedule an appointment with a certain client, finish employee evaluations, make an important phone call, and the like.

But how about gratitude? Does your list include anything about the expression of gratitude?

Probably not. And that’s ok. Most lists don’t. But here’s a little secret for you:

Expressing gratitude in the workplace is extremely advantageous and can even make your business more profitable.

Here are a few reasons why expressing gratitude should be included on your daily small business to-do list:

• Gratitude enhances overall wellness. Many professionals laugh at the idea of a “gratitude journal,” but those who recognize the benefits of a grateful attitude and express their gratitude regularly actually are healthier overall. Take these studies, for example:
  • Yale studies say a gratitude journal will result in higher alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness, and energy.
  • Stanford offers a high-demand class leveraging gratitude journals, which made students 27% less stressed.
  • Harvard studies indicate gratitude improves health and strengthens relationships.
  • UC-Berkeley research indicates a gratitude journal improves sleep and decreases illness.
  • Columbia research says gratitude improves the immune system, while reducing anxiety and/or depression.

• Gratitude improves focus. When gratitude is constantly in the back of your mind, you can spend your day working toward the best possible outcome and then let the chips fall where they may. You can let go of controlling outcomes and comparison to others because you recognize the abundance you already have in your life. By knowing what you’re grateful for (perhaps the opportunity to own a small business) and then making a conscious effort to further improve it, you can have laser-like focus that helps you achieve your goals.
• Gratitude increases productivity. Gratitude lets you throw yourself into what you are doing and keeps negative distractions from creeping into your work. Why? In a nutshell, giving and receiving thanks increases release of dopamine, therefore raising your energy levels.
  • Take this study, for example: In a long-term research project on the nature of gratitude, Professor Robert A. Emmons, University of California, said “Participants who kept gratitude lists were more likely to have made progress toward important personal goals (academic, interpersonal and health-based) over a two-month period compared to subjects in the other experimental conditions. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.” He has since discovered that an attitude of gratitude in everyday life has tremendous impact on the overall productivity and success of small business owners and their employees.

• Gratitude makes you a better employer. Simple, genuine, and thoughtful gestures not only make you a more likeable boss, but a more respectable leader as well. An Emergency Room Director at a busy hospital in rural Utah ends all of his emails to employees with “Your Servant, Grant.” His staff has often commented on how this simple gesture makes them feel appreciated, as well as more comfortable in coming to him with any questions or concerns they may have about their work. Gratitude is just one way to open the lines of communication between small business owners and their team.

• An attitude of gratitude can cultivate a more successful business. A study by Bersin & Associates reveals that companies that “excel at employee recognition” are 12 times more likely to enjoy strong business results. Small business owners who are down to earth, humble, and grateful are more likely to achieve success than those who refuse to acknowledge good work, even when they know it’s there.

Other than the proven, statistical correlation between small business success and gratitude, being a grateful person simply makes you happier, more likeable, and enjoyable to be around. Dietrich Bonhoeffer a prominent theologian who was hung by the Nazis 23 days before the Allied victory in Europe, said this about gratitude: “Only he who gives thanks for little things receives the big things.”