Top Ten New Years Resolutions for Business Owner’s

Happy New Year from Apollo Hosting!

I’ve been hearing a lot lately about New Years Resolutions. The top of course is always to lose weight. Then there is to reduce debt, quit smoking, find a soul mate, find a better job….

But what about business owners? What are their top ten new years resolutions? Well, I have made up a list of what would be my top ten and maybe the top ten of other business owners:

1. Loose weight

Okay, I just had to put that one on there… lol  Business owner’s are always busy! There’s never enough time to exercise or eat right. Fast food is one of the worst culprits. Try bringing in your lunch. Pack veggies to snack on too instead of visiting the vending machine. At Apollo Hosting we purchase granola bars for the employees to snack on as well as organic fruit.

2. Find more time for family

Once again our days are full. For a business owner, the day doesn’t end when the clock strikes 5 PM. Most of us work at home after we leave work. Then there are the business conversations with spouses etc. My kids know more about how to run a business from just listening to my husband and I than many business majors.

3. Increase Revenue

With the mortgage crisis and the bad economy, many consumers are just are afraid to spend money. Apollo Hosting hasn’t been affected like many of the others simply because our customers are largely small to medium sized businesses. The last thing a business owner wants to do is cancel their hosting account. Without a website many business owners would be dead in the water.

Some ideas to increase revenue would be to find inexpensive ways to market. A great book to read is called Guerilla Marketing. It gives invaluable insight into how to market your company without spending a lot of money.

4. Exercise more

Being a business owner is stressful. And stress creates a hormone called Cortisol. Increased levels of Cortisol can lead to all sorts of nasty side affects like:

Exercise is the main way to combat high Cortisol levels. But you can’t just do it once, you really have to include moderate exercise in your daily schedule to combat high Cortisol levels. Just a 10 minute walk has been shown to dramatically decrease your Cortisol levels.

5. Get to Know My Employees Better

It is very important to get to know your employees, and unfortunately many of us think we don’t have the time. But all it takes is a few minutes a day to walk around, say hello or Happy New Year and talk to your employees.

6. Find Ways to Cut Costs

In this economy this is so important. You can read my previous blog about how to succeed during a recession. I talk about how finding ways to cut costs can help the most but do NOT cut your sales and marketing budget. That’s the worst place to cut costs unless those costs are unnecessary to the growth of your company. Instead find costs associated with processes that are duplicated, conducting meetings via video conferencing instead of travel etc. 

When my husband and I started to look at this a few months ago, our employees were very helpful. They were excited to be a part of the plan to recovery. So don’t forget to include them! They want you to succeed as much as you do!

7. Spend More Time Volunteering In My Community

It DOES feel good to volunteer in your community. Find a community service that you can become passionate about and you could even include your employees. Some businesses spend a day a month volunteering at Habitat for Humanities. It is fun and builds great relationships with your employees. And  you know how they say that an employees most motivating factor in working harder is having a best friend at work. Your community gets the benefit of your help, and you help your company as well!  That’s a win/win situation!

8. Travel Less

Many business owner’s have to travel a lot. I talk to my colleagues and some actually spend 3 days each week traveling! What a way to live. With the Internet and the increased availability of access around the world, business travel should be slowing down not increasing. Conference calls are great but video conferencing is even better. And it is easier than ever to get started. Webcam’s are as little as $70 now.

9. Increase Time Spent Networking

There are at least two reason’s why I think this is important. One, is to make sales of course. But just as important is the need for business owner’s to ‘connect’ with other business owner’s. It helps you to feel like you are part of a group and every business owner has a story to tell. Many of their ideas will become great strategies for you to follow as well. And you can help them in return with a problem you are facing.

The Chamber of Commerce in most cities has great networking opportunities. Most of them have networking groups that meet monthly. I know I would like to spend more time networking, and this is a place where I always feel welcome.

10. Blog More!

I guess I saved the best for last! Blogging takes time but it is a great way to communicate with your customers, employees,  potential customers, vendors, and even your friends. Plus it shows authority in whatever you do which is always helpful to a business owner. The more authority you have the more people will want to purchase from you, and work with you.

So that’s my top 10. I think it pretty much sums up what many business owner’s in general could be thinking. I like to think so.

Interesting Web Sighting

Before I go I wanted to tell you about a cool site that I found today. It is www.copyscape.com. The site allows you to type in the url for a web page on your site like your home page, and it will scan the Net for other sites that have ‘copied’ text on your site. I actually found one hosting company that copied our text exactly. (I’ll have to email them about this later!)

Good luck!

Tamara Field
President, Apollo Hosting Inc.