Before setting business targets for the year, it's vital to analyze successes and bottlenecks encountered in the previous year. The reflection will give you insights into the performing areas and the ones calling for more attention.

With this information, you can make practical New Year's resolutions that will take your business to greater heights. If you're wondering how to grow your business and make it more manageable in 2020, here are some resolutions you should make.

Providing Excellent Customer Service

Experienced business owners appreciate the significance of first-rate customer service. Clients want representatives who value them and know their history. They don't tolerate waiting for too long to get assistance or hitting a deadlock in self-service systems.

According to the American Express, 33 percent of customers will switch to a new provider after facing a single instance of frustration. Your customer service may not be on its knees, but there's always room for improvement. How about investing in professional support representatives to assist your clients round the clock?

Chatbots can answer customer questions on websites and your social media channels instantly, but you shouldn't over-rely on them. Maintain a personal touch by having a full-time official to address urgent and complicated problems. 

Getting Compliance Certifications

Compliance in an organization is all about reducing risks. It helps to uphold the standards of a company and to hold the staff accountable. Violations can potentially cause costly mishaps and fines and ultimately ruin the image of your brand.

For this reason, you should train your employees about your policies and protocols for them to get aligned with your business practices.

This year, make sure you obtain SOC 2 certification. It's a crucial compliance requirement for organizations that process, transmit, and store data.

Failure to get accredited implies to consumers that their information isn’t safe with you and your vendors. This red flag is a significant dissuader of potential customers. A certified auditing agency can check your systems and give recommendations.

Delegating And Outsourcing

Running a successful business isn't a one-person show. It involves too many operations that can be overwhelming to the business owner. If you never seem to have time for yourself, consider expanding your team, delegating tasks, and outsourcing some services.

By having someone else do tedious and time-consuming operations, you'll have the opportunity to focus on business growth.

Outsourcing is not a reserve for well to do corporates only. Even with your tight budget, you can hire freelancers for tasks like digital marketing. These professionals provide solutions at a fraction of the cost of keeping an in-house team. 

Intensifying Your Marketing Efforts

For many small businesses, promotion is not always a priority. It comes as an expensive, time-consuming process camouflaged beneath other tasks considered more pressing. But the truth is, you have to market and promote extensively to attract new customers.

New marketing trends have emerged and taken center stage of business promotion in the past few years. Does your marketing strategy include social media campaigns like Instagram and Facebook, for example? If not, learn and implement them in 2020 to put your best foot forward.

Analyze your current marketing strategy and see what works for you. Consider replacing anything ineffective or outdated with more innovative tactics. You can hire a marketing maven to devise a comprehensive marketing plan for your business.

A mix of traditional and digital marketing can work together to help your business attract the type of customers you want. For instance, if you are a local business that has a store, but you also can send products to other parts of the country, you might want to go big with large format poster printing which you can put around your local area, as well as create graphics online to promote your online store. A good mix will benefit your business, and appeal to your target audience.

Automating Processes

Every business owner aspires to maximize productivity, but how can you do it? For maximum throughput, make the best use of the time in your hands. You must get more organized and perform operations faster, but the most unswerving way is to automate processes.

Armed with the right tools, you can computerize tedious and repetitive processes like email marketing, social media posting, invoicing (you can learn more over on Project 2 Payment about specific invoicing software), developing and tracking leads, and payroll processing, among others.

There are plenty of software solutions to perform such tasks. Freed from a load of time-consuming operations, you can devise and implement more effective business procedures to accelerate growth.

Terminating The Unworkable

Not all methodologies, products, and relationships will work for your business. Some goods will be fast-moving while others will expire on the shelves. Your team may not be comfortable with all the techniques practiced in your industry.

Furthermore, some equipment, personnel, and vendors could be the reason for sluggishness and poor performance in your company. Let 2020 be the year to eliminate such bottlenecks.

If a contractor or supplier continually doesn't deliver what you need, terminate your relationship with them. Trying to make do with the unworkable will not only be draining but also expensive in the long run.

The Bottom Line

You have to keep on improving and readjusting to achieve growth in your business. Regardless of your practice, you will flourish if you follow the resolutions suggested in this post.

However, your needs may be unique, and you only need to fine-tune the derailing areas. Ensure that your resolutions are realistic, achievable, measurable, and well-timed if you don't want to give up along the way.