Joining a gym, quitting smoking, giving up cheese – popular new year’s resolutions tend to focus on ways to improve our health and wellbeing. But the start of a new year can also a good time for entrepreneurs to reflect on their business and how they want it to develop, whether it is by improving cashflow strategies, selling products in new markets or investing in staff training. We spoke to three business owners to find out what their resolutions are for 2015:
Be more efficient
Jimmy’s Iced Coffee was launched in Selfridges in 2011 by Jim Cregan and his sister Suzie. Soon they secured listings with Waitrose and Ocado and today many large retailers stock their products. The business is now focusing on its next stage of growth.
Cregan says one of their new year’s resolutions is to have a more efficient workspace, so they are renovating their office. “We want to be more productive and actually be able to see each other across the office. That way if someone has an idea they can just wave, and they’re not all trapped behind walls and doors as we are at the moment.”
A second resolution is to learn to say no to things in order to help the team focus on its core strategy.
He adds: “Another resolution is to employ some new people so we can delegate a little more and offload some of our work onto others to give us the opportunity to steer our business.”
Cregan advises other small business owners to think carefully about the resolutions they set, and not to limit themselves to the start of the year.
“Don’t just make some resolutions on 1 January, as that might not work, like getting a gym pass and then going back to eating cookies on 1 February. January can be a motivating time for people, and that’s what we focus on. For me the new year is all about boosting staff morale.”
Encourage cultural change
For Asi Sharabi, co-founder of Lost My Name, a personalised children’s book, the new year is about encouraging cultural change within the business. This means finding more female developers.
“We are super keen to find more female developers,” says Sharabi. “We are at about 70% men and 30% women across the company and we strive to get to 50%/50%. The product team of designers and developers is where we’re lacking brilliant female practitioners and we are determined to change that.”
The Lost My Name team also want to start working more closely with local schools. “Last year we gave hundreds of free books to children all over the world. This year we are hoping, in addition to that, to bring our magic to local schools around Hackney,” says Sharabi.
Start exporting
Tea entrepreneur James Shillcock, founder of Vivid Drinks, a range of drinks that contain matcha green tea, says his resolution is to look beyond the UK, and begin exporting.
“This year has been all about developing our business foundations, but next year our resolution is to spread our wings a bit further. We have our eyes on Holland, France, and Germany. Germany is so ahead of the game. Just this morning there was an article about matcha tea in German Vogue, so that was exciting. We’re also planning to look towards Australia as well as they have such a healthy lifestyle there.”
Shillcock says he also wants to become more consumer-focused, and the business will be releasing some products that are “purely consumer-lead.” He adds: “The first year was very trade-focused. We won listings and awards, but now we have that foundation we can do more fun things with it.”
What are your new year’s business resolutions? Share them with us in the comments section below or tweet us at @GdnSmallBiz
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