By now, you’ve returned to your passion, building your business, after visiting with friends and family over the holidays.  In the spirit of setting personal resolutions for the New Year, I figured it would be good timing for us to propose a number of business-themed resolutions you can implement and tackle this year. (And hopefully not put it off like that gym membership).

After all, it is the year of the Tiger, right? Let’s get brave and commit to making good on these goals for your business so you can enjoy doing business and have more time to spend with your friends, family, hobbies or community.

You’ve had time to look over your 2009 financials, performance and strategize your goals for 2010. I won’t bore you with goals that sound like Lumbergh wrote your resolutions – these are resolutions your business can implement relatively quickly and get results right away.

1. Do it Digital

If you are using notes or paper-based ledgers it’s time to get with it. Give technology an inch here and you’ll go a mile. Clients will thank you for your accessibility and record-keeping; and you won’t have to find the note that fell behind your desk, resting between the dust and your power cords. (Psst! We have a solution for keeping up with customers without using pen or paper.)

2. Strategize Your Marketing & Sales As One Unit

If you’re still segmenting sales from marketing, you’re making a big mistake. These days, marketing needs to be very close to sales in terms of relevance, timeliness and information to deliver to prospects. The more you can bridge sales and marketing, the more productive and agile your operations will become.

3. Network! (Use ‘Em or Lose ‘Em)

This year starts out with a goldmine of opportunity in front you. Networking is a crucial part of growing your connections, resources, vendors, employees and market awareness. Social networking helps, but in-person events are great for building the rapport necessary to close deals. Infusionsoft users are invited to attend our user conference in March – you check out the latest details and register to attend free.

4. Try Something New (for your Business)

Too often, entrepreneurs get into a routine of how things should operate within a business. Small business owners often compartmentalize their creativity so they can make it home at the end of the day which ends up dragging them down. Go with your instinct and just do it this year. Whatever it is – a new product, a new sale, a new marketing twist. As long as you measure and track the results, you can’t really go wrong.

5. Learn Social Media and (Actually) Use it

I know you’ve heard me discuss many topics regarding social media and small business like yet another social media pundit. I have to be very honest here – your competitors are on Facebook (at the very least) and are interacting with your customers and prospects as you read this. You customers and prospects want to hear from you – take my previous resolution and do it. Providing tips and connecting with your closest of friends, family and customers is a great way to do it. Previously, I wrote up an social media action plan that you can build a strategy from … and you might be interested in an overview of how we use social media at Infusionsoft.

6. Manage ‘Say No’ To Distractions.

We’re all impacted by this – distractions. From your never-ending flow of email which is a ball and chain to your daily productivity, to a constant flow of status updates on Facebook. Destroy your distractions. (If you’re like me, you said ‘yes’ a lot and it got you into trouble … make a change this year and say ‘no’ distractions.)

7. Wow Your Customers (with personal service)

If 2009 taught the business world anything, it’s the power of compassionate service demonstrated toward customers. At Infusionsoft, we’ve seen the benefits in delivering amazing personal service to customers who need it. To wow your customers, start by replying to emails quickly and offer flexible payment plans to work around their needs. The goal in wowing customers is to complete a fulfilling customer experience from end to end.

8. Automate Your Marketing

We know marketing is a very time-consuming process for any business of any size. Find the opportunities to automate the repeated activities that you do, such as moving customers from stage to state, prospects to customers and follow-up with relevant marketing pieces that tie the whole experience together.

9. Reflect & React

Often, small businesses don’t dedicate enough time to reflect on their business and improve it. Instead, many ground themselves to being inside their business. There are valuable changes a business can make when the owner steps out of it to improve it from the outside. Dedicating proper time away from the business on occasion could make your time at work more valuable. At Infusionsoft, our leadership team steps out of the business once a quarter for strategy and planning and it has worked well.

10. Follow Your Passion

If you’ve not cashed in on your passion, this is the year to do it. Many services out there make it incredibly easy to launch your entrepreneurial adventure, scale it and have fun in the process. Even if you’re in a rather dead-end job, this is the time to hustle and grow your passion into a business and stick it to the man. Not all passions have to be business; after all, you should enjoy what you do for a living so you can put 110% into it all the time.

These ten resolutions are great for any entrepreneur or small business owner to consider following through this year. I don’t think everyone should necessarily commit to all ten, but I would recommend taking on a few during the new year. Execution is key and it will be the only way your business will grow and improve.

If you have any resolutions you want to share, I invite you to let us know in the comments. I wish you all tremendous luck and good wishes this year!

[Photo credit: Kevin Dooley on Flickr]

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