4 business New Year’s Resolutions for 2022

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What do you mean it’s not the time to do New Year’s Resolutions yet?

A new year is the perfect time for a turnaround. You may have been enduring some bad business months. You may be looking to give your business a kick up the backside. Because we associate another year with a fresh start, 2022 is going to be an ideal time to draw better strategies to get you to #goals.

But it’s not always so simple, isn’t it? You may be your own boss but you still have to consider other humans in your decision. It’s okay to text him goodnight at 5pm but you can’t just drop your long time supplier. Your business has a role in the value chain, and it’s best if you are more collaborative than antagonistic with those around you. Yes, even competitors. You figure out, on your own, how to walk on those egg shells.

What’s more? You know there will be unintended consequences. Like, have you tried introducing a new product but it takes too long to get going? You then find the product diverting resources from your other needs – and everything slows down. When you’ll be setting New Year’s Resolutions for 2019, learn how to prioritize things. Ask, what’s more important and answer why that is important.

To help you prioritize your goals, here’s a list of the main things to change for your 2022 strategy. This has to be your year, right?

Value proposition

What’s new? You know that value proposition asks questions about the utility of what you are offering. The answer is typically from your, the entrepreneur’s, point of view. Forbes suggests a methodology to get you there.

Never forget the point of view of your customer and of your business – the law can make it a person btw. The former, customer perception is not as straightforward as entrepreneurs would like it to be. Customers are difficult – the closest we’ve come to figuring them out is that poor people buy things ‘coz they are cheap and the rich buy things ‘coz they are expensive (work backwards from there, haha). In 2022, you may need to redefine who your customer and get more specific. You may end up having to target a different set of customers.

Your business’ concern with value is simpler. Business only wants to be sustainable. So, you need to figure out how to either increase revenue or reduce cost. In fact, why don’t you do both?

Organization

We like to say “colonizer bad” yet there is a case for it. Just compare the estates established by colonialists in Nairobi to the fast-rising outskirts. Yeah, they are fairly affluent but totally devoid of structure. This is evidence that you should never underestimate your responsibility, and challenge, of establishing systems and processes in business.

Your end goal, with this, should be to make whatever you do internally replicable. Don’t you want to test the idea that entrepreneurs work whenever they feel like? Build a business that can operate in your absence. How? The obvious is that you should map things out and find faults. An idea is that you should improve by using simple solutions. Don’t be like the Kenyan Government, which believes every solution needs a lucrative tender, newspaper spread and some committee (the red paint BRT lanes was a little silly, though).

Stand out

Yes, keep your positive reputation going. If yours took a major hit, sorry, you’ll have to tear it all down and start again. Businesses don’t really recover from poor reputation. That may not even be enough. You have a continous job to make your offer harder for the customer to find elsewhere. This may be in terms of customer experience, quality of product or price. It’s really up to you to do your thing. Never forget about product development. Some entrepreneurs have a habit of taking momentum brakes because of “how hard they’ve been working.” Uhm, no!  At least become a Dollar millionaire first. If your industry has a low barrier of entry, find another avenue of improvement like aspiring to economies of scale. Here’s one way to get there.

Predict competition

Yes, yes, girl stop comparing. But don’t stop competing. Only a few women get to be winners and I think you should be in their league. What kind of a woman would you be if you didn’t want to have everything? Good, get information about your competitors. But don’t limit yourself to being reactive. By definition, you’ll always be a step behind them.

Try to change tact for 2022. With the information you gather, predict what you feel they’ll do next. Leave Sportpesa to men, women use your gut feelings to predict business. It starts by finding out what position they are in. Are they selling? Have they gotten a cash injection? Are they laying off employees? You’ll be able to narrow down what their next goals will be. Then you’ll know what to do.

This can’t be all. What other business New Year’s Resolutions for 2022 are you planning? Let us know in the comments below!