What Every Business Owner Needs to Know About Establishing Business Priorities

Developing priorities is crucial for business owners. Not only do these priorities help entrepreneurs keep their business running smoothly, but they also ensure companies can stay financially and operationally strong—all year long. Simply put, they help business owners stay focused on success. Below are several notable priorities to consider for the upcoming year:

Reduce business costs: This is vital for every business. In addition to putting this on your to-do list, you should be specific about how you can accomplish this. For example, do you need to outsource? Do you need to improve your use of technology? Do you need to downsize your workforce or consolidate job duties? Do you need to move to a location with cheaper rent? Do you need to focus your energies on sales and marketing? Do you need to reduce your debt? Do you need to improve your customer service process?

Examine all of your processes: Take a look at all of your business processes and determine what is working and what is not. Concentrate on how you can improve these processes, such as tracking expenses, paying taxes, and boosting employee retention. If you are unable to conduct this analysis in an impartial way, consider hiring an outside process improvement consultant who can help you discover inefficiencies in your day-to-day business operations.

Build business credit: As a small business owner, you need to think about how to build business credit. This is essential if you plan to grow your business. And while business credit takes time to build, it opens doors to greater amounts of capital.

Grasp the importance of business compliance and ethical behavior: In addition to focusing on core business issues, growth and products, entrepreneurs also must spend the time protecting their company by focusing on compliance issues. These compliance issues include employment compliance, employee benefit plan compliance, tax compliance and corporate compliance.

Pay attention to employee engagement and productivity: Because engaged employees are committed to their work and strive to achieve excellence on the job, it is vital for business owners to focus on improving morale, productivity and engagement within the organization. To accomplish this, consider offering consistent training within your organization as this helps improve the well-being and confidence of employees.

Consider outsourcing: It is important for entrepreneurs to focus on the functions that drive the largest ROI—instead of minute business tasks. That’s where outsourcing can be vital. Outsourcing not only enables business owners to concentrate on core business activities, but it also provides instant support and increases efficiency.

Make cyber security a priority: More than 40 percent of today’s cyber attacks target small businesses. In fact, cyber attacks on small businesses represent the largest number of all attacks. Because this disparity highlights a lack of resources, as well as a lack of knowledge about new digital ways of working, small business owners must become educated about new security risks and invest in better digital security.

Lead effectively: Employees are critical to your business growth. To help cultivate talent and build strong teams, you should keep employees happy and engaged; help employees grow; foster teamwork and collaboration; build trust and respect; promote from within; take charge and lead by example; inspire others; and encourage listening and brainstorming.

Serve a Meaningful Purpose

Today’s employees are interested in working for organizations that have a meaningful purpose, such as creating a better world or developing a better way to do something. As a result, concentrate on aligning with these initiatives. By supporting social causes, companies will have a greater chance of attracting and retaining employees who are committed to these very important principles.

Listen to the Wants and Needs of Employees

A recent survey from Citrix Systems found that 90 percent of respondents have no interest in returning to the office full time once the Covid pandemic is over. In fact, more than half (51 percent) prefer a hybrid working model where they can work from home most—or all—of the time. In addition, the study found that career stability and security, as well as work-life balance, matter most to employees. Consequently, companies must take these preferences into consideration when attracting and hiring talent.

Invest in Employee Mental Health

Mental health is critical in today’s business world. In fact, in a recent Calm survey of full-time U.S. employees, more than 95 percent of respondents believe that employers should be working to improve the mental health of their employees, and more than 75 percent say that mental health benefits are critical to them when evaluating a new job. “We spend half of our waking hours at work, and the data is now clear—mental health benefits are table stakes for employees,” explains Scott Domann, chief people officer at Calm. “As employers, we owe it to our teams to foster a supportive, inclusive work environment, and that starts with championing the mental health of our teams.”

Establishing business priorities is the key to moving your organization forward and ensuring profitability. Realistic priorities can help every business stay on the right track and find long-term success.

There’s no question about it – Incorporating should be a top priority when starting a business. At Nevada Corporate Headquarters we have a team of business consultants who can provide the information you need to properly register your business. Start your NEVADA LLC online or call us at 800-508-1729. We’re here for you and your business.