As a leader in your company, you often feel like you need to play every role to run your business smoothly. How do you ensure that you and your business are successful in 2014? Here are some great tips to help you dominate business in the coming year:

1. Setting your goals

Set your goals, set them early, make plans for them and keep track of them. According to a Staples survey, 80% of business owners do not track their goals and 77% have not reached their goals. Make sure to get others involved in your goals, so you can take some pressure off yourself and focus on strategy. Set reasonable and desirable goals, so people get motivated and do not feel like they are being set up to fail.

2.  Focusing on core values

Trends are constantly changing, but your business’s core values will not. Things that will always be important to your business and its vision are time management and budget management, putting the customer first, and creating value for your consumers.

3. Being open to change

It is hard to change the industry you are in if you will not accept change itself. So reflect on lessons you learned, then use them to improve your strategies and goals in 2014. And pay attention to the industry: what is different from 2013, what is going on with competitors, what 2014 has in store and what you can do to adapt. Try the Edward Deming management model: plan ahead for change, execute the plan, check results and act to standardize or improve the process.

4. Networking

Maintain past connections and create new ones in 2014. Attend industry specific conferences, forums, and networking events. Try to make 3 new connections at an event and make follow-up meetings or lunches. Ask what you can do for them, to foster partnerships. Remember, 2014 is full of businesses waiting to be contacted.

5. Attitude

If you want something this year, go out and be it or do it. Leave your doubts in 2013. Face fears now so you can be better prepared and more productive than before. You do not want to be your own obstacle, holding you back from dominating business in 2014.

All in all, it can be hard juggling everything when you are a business leader and there is no single formula for success. These simple and helpful ways to dominate your industry can help ensure some success in 2014. Make sure to set reasonable, manageable goals for you and your team and keep your business’s core values in mind. Be open to change by planning ahead using lessons you learned and studying your industry’s past and potential future change. Maintain past and foster new partnerships and connections and finally, have a go-getter attitude, leaving your doubts at the door.

Look for next week’s post on trends from 2013 and what’s to come in 2014. Happy New Year.

References

Averson P. (1998). The Deming Cycle. The Deming Cycle. Retrieved January 1, 2014, from  http://balancedscorecard.org/thedemingcycle/tabid/112/default.aspx

Howes, L. (2013, October 20). Planning Ahead: 5 Steps to Dominating in Business in 2014. Entrepreneur. Retrieved December 26, 2013, from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/229642#

Pozin I. (2013, December 13). 7 Networking Tips from the Most Successful Super Connectors. The Next Web. Retrieved December 27, 2013, from http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2013/12/20/7-networking-tips-successful-super-connectors/?fromcat=entrepreneur#!q0Spc

Turley, A. (2013, October 1). Setting Goals Your Employees Can and Want to Achieve in 2014. Refresh Leadership RSS. Retrieved December 26, 2013, from http://www.refreshleadership.com/index.php/2013/10/setting-goals-employees-achieve-2014/