2020 has been a difficult year for all businesses with a lot of change and uncertainty, 2021 is starting on a more positive note with things looking to hopefully return to some normality towards spring. In this article we take a look at 21 business tips for 2021 to help propel your business through what’s set to be a tough first quarter.
1. Be honest – set employees expectations for the year ahead, be honest on the business outlook and tell employees what they can do to help the business survive or thrive.
2. Communicate – communicate any issues with customers as quickly as possible and more importantly communicate how you plan to resolve any issues.
3. Encourage reviews – set up a platform for customers to review your products and services. Facebook and Google are both great options. Getting honest feedback on your products and service can help you tackle any issues and positive reviews help expand business.
4. Market research any new ideas – Ask as many of your potential audience as you can before seeding money into a new idea or product. Feedback and ideas from those who are likely to use your product or service can help avoid potential pitfalls later in the process.
5. Understand your industry – become an expert in your industry, subscribe to industry news publications and take part in web conferences. This will help build your brand and bring new ideas to the table.
6. Know who your customers are – identify your audience, knowing who your top customers are and how to keep them satisfied can stop customers switching to your competitors.
7. Plan for issues and unexpected costs – with any business or venture unexpected issues and costs are going to arise, especially in these uncertain times. Plan for this and you won’t be set back if it does happen.
8. Take advantage of free marketing – social media and Google My Business are great free online marketing platform, but don’t forget word of mouth, encourage happy customers to recommend friends.
9. Explore your employees’ skills – before spending on recruitment explore the skills within your business, your employees might surprise you.
10. Create good informative content – publishing relevant informative content about your industry will help your business get recognised by customers and will improve your search engine rankings.
11. Evaluate the competition – keep a close eye on what your competition are offering, you might be able use their ideas to improve, or find out for free what doesn’t work.
12. Consider collaborations – collaborations with other brands can help both businesses succeed and use each other’s audience to gain more brand awareness and potential customers, win win!
13. Try a new social platform – consider expanding your online activity to a new social platform, social is a great way to increase brand awareness and gain new potential customers.
14. Review all of your online directories – make sure potential customers can find you when they are searching the web. Phone numbers, address, emails, website address and opening times all need to be kept up to date wherever you are listed online.
15. Be adaptable – every business has needed to adapt this year in some way or another, continue to be open and adapt to suit the needs of your business and the changing situation during 2021.
16. Build your brand identity – identify what sets you apart from your competitors and work on building brand values and a brand identity that speaks to your audience.
17. Prioritise employee wellbeing – at the centre of every business are the employees that keep things running effectively, consider supporting their wellbeing more in 2021. We have some tips on how you can do this.
18. Update your website regularly – add news information, product launches, customer reviews, blogs and other helpful information to your website whenever possible.
19. Reward customer advocacy – customers who shout about your brand and help drive new sales are worth rewarding where possible.
20. Focus on business strengths – when things slow down focus on the products or services that your business delivers best, these are likely to be the best sellers and make the most margin.
21. Don’t give up – keep going, you’ve got this!
