10 Important Things To Start Now, So Your Business Can Succeed In 2018

When opportunity meets preparation, success happens! This statement has held true for so many decades. Success never entirely occurs by chance (except when you win a lottery), but by a conscious effort to stay prepared for any opportunity that may come your way.

The year 2016 has gradually come to an end. It had some ups but a lot of downs. So many people have faced more challenges than they have ever faced in their lifetimes. With the crashing currency value triggered majorly by the fall in the crude oil prices, the year has taught a major lesson; that preparation is key for success in business and life.

That said, it’s time to start planning for 2018!

If you’re still thinking of how to scale financially or grow a successful business in 2018, here are 10 important things you must start now so your business can be a remarkable success for everyone to reckon with, by the end of next year:

1). Revise Your Business Plan:

What plan have you been working with? Were you making headways? Are you well on track? Are there major lapses?

Small, medium and large businesses need to sit down and reassess their business plans.
They need to determine if their efforts have been in vain or not, and what they should do to improve their marketing and sales strategy, which would advertently affect their revenue growth.

If you haven’t even started a business, this is the right time to draw up a business plan, organise your team, and map out your total strategies.

By preparing ahead of time, you’re setting yourself well on track to grow a successful business.

See Also: The Dos And Don’ts Of Writing An Amazing Business Plan

2). Start Gathering Information On How To Raise More Funds:

The life-blood of every business lies in the resources that are available to run its operations. One of the most important resource every business must have or it dies, is funding!

No matter how brilliant your ideas are, or how intelligent your team is, if you lack the ability to raise the required funds to grow your business, you’d never really scale.

To grow a successful business in 2018, it’s important you start gathering information on all the funding sources widely available. Having this knowledge and acting on it now will increase your chances of securing funding for your business.

See Also: How To Get Seed Funding For Your Small Business In Africa

3). Ensure You Have A Product Or Service That Can Sell:

Start testing your products and services in small markets. Find out how people are reacting to them.

Do your products despise prospects? Do they find them highly irrelevant? Or is what you’re offering what everyone has dearly been looking for?

Knowing the market demand for your products or services now will help you plan better for a successful 2018.

See Also: How To Do Market Research For Any Business Idea

4). Focus More On Profitability ASAP:

A recession is not a time to play the revenues game, because of the high negative impact of the economic crisis on multiple organisations. It is a time to focus on profitability and ultimately stay afloat.

Rather than mapping out a revenue strategy that doesn’t plan for profitability in the short-term, think rather, how to grow a profitable business in as little as three months.

By focusing on profitability, you can filter out business ideas that could be a major gamble, and focus more on executing business opportunities that are placed directly for positive growth.

5). Start Saving:

Start putting aside a percentage of your income for emergencies and sudden business opportunities that could crop up.

If you run a business that already generates substantial revenues and subsequently profits, it is important that the amount being set aside by the company for other uses, be increased immediately. No one truly knows what 2018 holds, and as such, must be prepared for anything.

See Also: How To Save Money Fast In An Economic Recession!

6). Train Or Retrain Your Team:

No matter how smart you think your team was in 2016, you must go into 2018 with an even smarter team. You need to know how to better serve your customers, improve your products, sell better, and improve the management of your company’s overall affairs.

Doing this places you in a better position ahead of 2018 and will contribute a lot to helping you grow a successful business.

See Also: 3 Hires That Can Make Your Small Business Revenues Explode

7). Beware Of Dangerous Expenses:

Uncontrolled expenses will ruin your business. Period!

Now is the time to identify every expense that can be gotten rid off, without compromising your company’s operations.

Is it the extra stationery, unwarranted allowances, online ads, or more? Whatever that’s eating deep into your profit margin should be eliminated.

By identifying your unwanted expenses and taking steps to get rid of them, you’re getting your business ready for a more profitable 2018.

See Also: 7 Sure Ways To Cut Your Small Business Expenses And Increase Your Profit

8). Figure Out A Source Of Recurrent Revenue:

By now, you should have figured out a good source of revenue that’d flow recurrently into your business. This knowledge would help you plan how to grow that source sporadically in the first quarter of 2018 and better position your business for growth and ultimately success.

9). Create A Budget:

No soldier goes to war without a plan, and a part of it is to ensure he or she never runs out of ammo before the enemy is totally destroyed. The same applies to entrepreneurship. You need to ensure you never run out of money because that reality is highly unsettling.

Create a budget for your business and stick to it!

10). Get A Business Coach Or Mentor:

What better way to ease out your journey to growing a successful business than to get a mentor or business coach experienced in the field you’re setting out in. Doing this will help you make lesser mistakes and place you on a definite path to success.

By getting a business coach or a mentor, you can jump through many hoops that would have gotten your business crashing down.

See Also: Why You Should Hire A Business Coach And How To Find The Right One

What are your thoughts on these 10 things to start now so you can grow a successful business in 2018? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

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