How to Prepare Your Business for 2016

Moving Forward: The Trending Market

2016 is shaping up to be an interesting year with a continued emphasis on social media activity, an exciting economic future, and promising spending trends.

If you haven’t already, it is an absolute must to establish active profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, which will become increasingly important as social media companies
expand and consumers continue to make buying choices based on the content.

Concerning the economy, there are varied projections concerning what it will look like in the near future, but the consensus is largely optimistic that the economy remains healthy and growing as unemployment rates steadily decrease and consumer spending remains stable.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that the global economy will grow by 3.1 percent in 2016–a modest improvement, but decidedly stable, nonetheless. Backing up this figure, Fortune magazine predicted in their December issue, “ a slow but steady global economic growth” which, considering the perils our economy has experienced in the past decade, is a pretty good prospect.

Go Mobile

You’re trailing behind already if your website, content, and purchasing is not mobile-friendly. More consumers research and buy products on their phones and tablets than ever before, and the trend shows no sign of relenting.

In fact, it’s worth noting that as of April 2015, Google now gives higher ranking positions in searches for sites that are optimized for mobile devices. Do your business a favor in the coming year, and make sure that all of your content looks beautiful on phones and tablets, with outstanding functionality.

How to Cut Costs This Year

Sifting through expenses has always been the focus of businesses owners attempting to trim the fat from the budget, but it’s not always easy to decide where to make the cuts, especially when you’re already routinely making those cuts. The following are a couple of suggestions that may help you pick up some slack in the coming year, without downsizing your team’s salary or benefits:

DIY Troubleshooting and Repair
Problems with equipment at the office? Faulty toilet? You might surprise yourself when you try your hand at small projects, even if you’re unfamiliar with a certain area. Many times, when you encounter computer software problems or minor construction projects, getting past the intimidation factor of lacking experience is half the battle. If you started your own business, then chances are, you will be able to teach yourself how to tackle some projects around the office.

Heating/Cooling
Inefficient or unchecked air conditioning in your office (or home office) can quickly blow tons of money straight out the window. The savings you can gain simply by taking the temperature down a notch or two from its typical setting, as well as maintaining good insulation, could save you a load of money.

Monitor Business Expenditures Carefully
It’s very easy to let expenditures get away from you, especially when many are being carried out in the background. Do you have recurring payments that are set up to automatically debit an account? Keep your eye on those. More times than not, we can forget to cancel charges for something that is no longer being used but is continuing to pull money from the business. It’s just a good idea to always watch where even the smallest amounts are going because they can quickly add up over time.

What Worked This Year? What Didn’t?

You made it. You had successes and failures, but you hopefully got through 2015 basically unscathed. Now is the time to look back at your promotions, marketing campaigns, and strategies to thoughtfully examine how everything performed. Looking at analytics is particularly important and a revealing source of data to find out what people were clicking on, searching, and buying. Knowing the facts is all you need to learn from your mistakes, and knowing the facts will show you what you’ve been doing right.