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How to Be More Successful in 2021

2020 will be staying with us for the rest of our lives. The past year marked a critical inflection point in success for the small-business market. It is a year that blindsided many small-business owners.

Do not be discouraged. 2021 is an opportunity to rewrite the rules and stop settling for less in your business. It is the opportunity to cast a strategic vision that is different from the past and to create more success and growth in your business and your life. Here are three ways to make it happen:

1. Embrace change

Change is hard to grasp for most people, however it is an ongoing endeavour for small-business owners.

You’ve likely noticed that most old reliable ways of getting clients and serving them are fading away and the list of things that need your undivided attention continues to grow.

If change is already occurring for your business, why not get ahead of it? When you react to these changes, you only treat the symptoms. The more effective approach is to embrace change to treat the original problem.

By treating the problem, you employ change to work with you instead of against you. People are likely to welcome strategic change now—especially if the change makes their lives better too.

One great way to welcome innovation into your small business is to implement a quarterly strategic planning and review process into your business. This planning rhythm keeps your efforts focused while remaining agile and able to shift as new learnings come to the table.

As part of the process, ask yourself these questions.

• What would disrupt your business enough to alter its course?
• How can you be on the leading end of ongoing change?
• How can your business remain relevant and profitable 10 years from now?

 2. Prioritize customer needs

The old rules of supply and demand have gone. From issues with manufacturing and distribution, product-based businesses have felt the worst of this past year. Altering client needs and social distancing have left recession-proof businesses struggling, and in most cases even having to close down forever. Service-based businesses are finding that their services are no longer deemed crucial or necessary. No business or business model has been immune to the lockdowns of the world.

A simple solution to this problem is engaging in conversation with your clients to identify potential opportunities. This strategy could be as simple as asking a probing question at the end of every client interaction, but could also be more involved such as implementing surveys or quarterly client advisory groups.

More than ever, staying in tune with the customers’ needs and the problems you can solve is extremely important. This is the true gateway for future growth and innovation.

3. Work smarter, not harder

North American culture is all about hard work.

Since the rise of intellectual capital as a commodity in the 1980s, the ability to be successful is less about our ability to work hard. Many business owners have told us how hard they work only to find success in today’s climate extremely elusive. This is evidence that success is not about hard work anymore.

Sure, success demands focus and determination. However, you must challenge the notion that hard work is one of the requirements. If it were, there would be many more success stories from around the world being celebrated.

Working smarter is about leveraging the talents of people and finding the right ways to collaborate. When you remove hurdles in your processes, you learn to promote ease. That which becomes easy gets accomplished. This translates to being able to accumulate more income with only the resources that you have. You will likely see a boost to team morale and fewer daily fires to put out.

It is important to find out which elements of your client experience and service could be delivered through automation, saving critical points for human interaction.

For 2021 to be the beginning of your comeback story, you need to learn to take action in different ways. Make bold moves that advance and protect your business. Marry your vision to these tips, and you will be able to be successful this year.