New Year's Resolutions for Small Businesses

Made it through 2003? Congratulations!

Best-selling business author Stephan Schiffman has three great ideas for a happy and prosperous 2004.

Here are three New Year’s resolutions that will help small business owners get the most out of 2004.

1. Set nonbusiness-related goals, too. As you start the new year, you should have a good idea where your business is going and where you as a person are going. Focusing exclusively on your business is simply not healthy. Commit to having a social life, too, and to (gasp!) occasionally taking a day off. Set your business goals, but be sure to take a look at important nonbusiness-related priorities, like those related to family, exercise, diet and spirituality.

2. Whittle your to-do list down to size. Owners of small businesses, as a group, are, in my opinion, the business professionals most likely to overcommit themselves. Often, this overcommitment problem is what keeps their businesses small. This year, make a commitment to learn to delegate more effectively and to decline to put things on your list that simply don’t belong there. Whether or not you consider yourself a great “multi-tasker,” the odds are good that you will get more accomplished by putting your to-do list on a diet.

3. Find a fellow business owner and swap ideas. The strain of running a business has a remarkable way of vanishing when you have at least one trusted peer you can talk to. If you do not have a friend or ally who faces roughly the same kinds of difficulties you do, go find one. Join a networking group, or reach out to one of your suppliers and ask to set up a lunch date. Share what’s going on in your world with someone who understands what you're going through; you’ll be more effective.

Revisit these three resolutions at least once a month as 2004 unfolds. If you do this, you will increase the odds that this will be a happy and prosperous year for your company and a more satisfying one for you as a person.

Stephan Schiffman is president of D.E.I. Management Group, a U.S. sales training company.  For more information, contact 800/224-2140, e-mail contactus@dei-sales.com, or visit http://www.dei-sales.com.