The start of a new year can be an exciting and busy time for a company and an important time to have a strategy for success in place…Below is a brief guide with a few tips that may help your business in 2020.

Reflect on the Past Year

One of the most valuable pieces of information when planning for your businesses’ future is to take a look into the past.  Looking at what worked and what did not can give a business advantage for the following year.  Think of the General Manager of a sports team, when coming up with a strategy for the upcoming draft they reflect on areas (positions) they need to improve and draft accordingly.  Businesses are similar in a way.  For the efforts that worked for the past year, is there a way you can improve to make these even better?  Even a small bit of fine-tuning can have a large impact on a business over the course of a year.  For those efforts that did not work in the past year, is it worth scrapping these or can they be salvaged with improvements?  Reflecting helps take the successes further and prevents your business from making repeated attempts at strategies that do not work.

Have a Game Plan Ready

For many businesses the holidays are a time when activity slows down.  People are instead enjoying time with a family and friends.  The end of the year is also a great time to strategize your upcoming year.  Answer questions such as: What do we hope to accomplish this year?  How will we accomplish it?  Who are the competitors we need to be aware of?  What changes do you anticipate in your industry in the upcoming?  Answering these types of questions will help prepare you for the new year and lower the likeliness of being caught off-guard.   Businesses will be faced with surprises over the course of the year, but having a game plan will help you be ready for some of these.

Organize, organize, organize

It is undisputed that being unorganized slows down a business.  Your business is not operating at its highest level if you are spending time in 2020 cleaning up the messes from 2019.  Being organized allows your business to hit the ground running at the start of the year.   Organization is essential to maximizing your business’ efficiency.  Make checklists that contain all the necessary supplies needed, make sure software is up-to-date, all emails have been ready and responded to.  While organization is important year-round, but the end of the year is a perfect time to get caught up in time for the new year.

Cut Costs

Businesses can get weighed down by expenses (many are not even necessary).  Businesses often overlook recurring expenses because they don’t bother to look into what the expenses are.  In the digital age several companies have switched to subscription-based methods to charge clients.  They charge accounts regardless of whether or not the software is used.  Often businesses do not realize that they are paying for subscription-based software that they are not even using.  By looking at your expenses in detail you can eliminate unused recurring items.  Additionally, make sure to make a budget for 2019 (if you don’t already do so) and make it a goal to stick to it for the year.

Get the equipment you need for the next year

As mentioned in previous posts, there are several benefits to picking up equipment for your business right now!  The first is the Section 179 tax benefit allowing you to deduct the full purchase price (up to $1,000,000) from your gross income.  In order to take advantage of this benefit for this year, you must purchase or lease your equipment before the year ends.  Another benefit of purchasing or leasing equipment for your business before the year ends is that you will be ready to use the equipment at the beginning of the year and there will be no down time.

If you are interested in financing equipment for your business fill out our easy online application for quick approval.  The process only takes a few minutes and Providence Capital offers flexible financing programs for businesses with A – D credit.