Preparing for the new calendar year can be particularly daunting as those December days begin to be fall from the calendar. However, making sure your small business is ready for what the new year could hold can be critical to continued success.
Future-proofing is a relatively abstract concept, but your small business should be aware of what needs to be in place if you want to be able to sustain and support successful growth. Here are three things to keep in mind if you want your business to stay in only the best of health across 2015 and beyond:
Assess where you are, and where you would like to be
Finding and correcting flaws requires business owners to do some self assessment. Looking into the broader landscape of your company - and taking into account everything from staffing levels to working capital - can be crucial in planning for what's to come.
Furthermore, setting realistic targets for your business over one, two, five or 10 year time scales can really help with future-proofing, as keeping and meeting long-term goals will give you a much better understanding of the overall trajectory of your company.
Don't rest on your laurels
If you have had success over the last 12 months - regardless of your industry - it can be easy to sit back, relax and enjoy the holidays. Whilst there's nothing wrong with doing the latter, complacency can be dangerous for businesses particularly as the new year looms.
You should learn from success in the same way in which you gain insight from any failures. A big part of future-proofing can rely upon you knowing your strengths and weaknesses and acting on them accordingly.
Be ready and prepared to change
Technology is already changing the way companies do business on a day-to-day basis. Whether it's small business software or social media marketing campaigns, embracing changes in tech is a huge part of future-proofing.
To that end, implementing software such as CashManager by Accomplish can provide you with a utility that is just as useful to your company today as it will be in the months and years to come.