Expert Advice

The perfect time of year to reflect on business performance

By Judith Germain

The New Year period is an unusually frantic time for business owners as they try to capitalise on the networking opportunities presented over the month and secure orders and clients for the year. There is also a strong need to relax before you start. It can be a time of hope and disappointment as you reflect over the previous year’s achievements and plan for the forthcoming year. Some people are galvanised by the new opportunities that they see presented whilst others can feel downhearted as there seems so much more to achieve.

As the economic downturn continues and money is becoming tighter for both the small business owner and their potential clients, many business owners are choosing to go out less and invest less time and money on their business. This can become a very expensive choice as many small businesses receive a lot of revenue via referrals and networking, coupled with long sales cycles. So a ceasing of networking activity now can have a long term impact in the revenue of the future. If you spend too much time working in the business rather than on it you will not be prepared to take your business forward.
 
When you are a small business, it is very tempting to mirror the behaviour of larger more corporate businesses, especially as many small business owners are indeed corporate refugees. This can mean that the business owner decides to spend the holiday break concentrating on relaxing after a hard year, enjoying the Christmas Parties and spending time planning holiday activities. After all, the reason that none of their clients are considering spending any more at the moment and after all the effort they have put in recently, they deserve to have a break. This is totally understandable and this strategy can work for many businesses.

If you decide that this is something that your business can ill afford to do (after all, you will never get this time back) then you can view this time as a window of opportunity.

Sometimes going against the flow, by being maverick (wilfully independent) can be the best thing that you can do for your business. Whilst others are sleeping (resting) or partying you can be planning your future, consolidate your business plan and leverage your reputation.

One way that you can give your business a boost is to enter a time of reflection and assessment. This will give you an advantage over other businesses that decide to do this later on.

The following questions are an example of the types of things that you should be considering during your reflection and honest assessment of your business:

1. Have you achieved your objectives for the year?
2. What key things have you learnt? What do you still need to learn or know?
3. What key things do you still need to achieve?
4. Do you have the resources that you need for the forthcoming year (e.g. Finance, People, Advice)?
5. What priorities have you set for the forthcoming year?

After reflecting and assessing your business, you should have a strategy for the future that includes the key events and activities that are taking place. For example, you should have designed your Networking Strategy so that you can capitalise on the many events that are taking place throughout the year.

The keystone of networking is being remembered. It’s important that after you leave someone they understand what your key message is and are able to articulate it to others. Another thing to decide is whether you are networking for clients or advocates. Networking for clients (e.g. selling to your network) can have short term results but you run the danger of saturating your market and slipping into some hard sell activities. If your network finds this off putting it can have an adverse impact on your ability to gain referrals from others and build advocacy.

Your Networking Strategy should have online and offline activities to leverage your Outer Network (those that have heard of you but don’t know you. Typically they will know at least one of your business propositions).

Your strategy will include things that will increase your Middle and Inner Networks (those that are prepared to refer and advocate you); typically you will be building these networks with a bias towards face-to-face meetings.

It is therefore important to take control of your brand and how you present it to others. Some key things to consider are:

1. Is your business proposition articulated well and easy to remember?
2. How well defined is your niche?
3. What is your networking strategy?
4. Do you have enough advocates?
5. If I looked for you on the net what would I find? Do you have a Social Media Strategy?

Gaining advocates often rely on you being open and transparent as well as consistent with your behaviour. This is on as well as offline. For example, it is worth considering what your online activity says about your reputation. If you are frivolous on a social network and have potential advocates or clients as ‘friends’ on this network, is your reputation harmed by the picture of you being drunk at one of those Christmas Parties? The lines between business and personal are often blurred online and are becoming increasingly difficult to separate.

Events around the New Year have a strong social element to it. You will therefore need to consider your networking behaviour. Most people are looking to relax, so a ‘soft sell’ of your services will be more welcome than a ‘hard sell’. You don’t want to pick up a reputation as someone who is a bore and cannot switch off at social events.

When businesses or clients come back to work this month, try to update your online profiles on networking sites. This will enable you to be ready for the surge of activity that you will be doing in January.

There are a number of things that you can do to boost your business this year. Here are a few:
a) Reflect and assess your current business.
b) Be honest about your own development and ability to take your business forward.

c) Develop your Outer, Middle and Inner Networks – and be consistent with messages and activity.

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