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Setting Goals for You and Your Business in 2024

The new year is a new beginning. If you are a business owner, this is often the time of year when you reflect on where you are at and think about your business goals for the year ahead.

Setting goals is an essential part of personal and professional growth. These could be lofty goals, or even setting out a plan to achieve some more mundane (but equally important) projects. Whether that is getting paid faster, reassessing expenses or bigger things like automation of processes and new markets. You may be looking to expand your business or create more time for yourself.

Having a clear vision and actionable goals can help you achieve your long-term plans. Here are some tips to get you started:

Envision your future: Reflect on what you truly want from your life and how your business can help you achieve those aspirations. Consider where you want your business to be in the next five or ten years. Having a clear endpoint in mind will make it easier to set goals that align with your vision.
Set measurable goals: Vague goals can be challenging to track and evaluate. Instead, focus on setting goals that are measurable. Think about the key metrics you already monitor in your business and how you would like to see them improve. For example, aim for a 3% increase in net profit year-on-year, a 2% reduction in expenses, or acquiring two new customers per month or grow your prospect database by 50%. If you set specific targets, you can easily track your progress and make adjustments as needed.
Develop a plan for each goal: Once you have identified your goals, it’s crucial to create a plan of action to achieve them. This can be as simple as jotting down your ideas or engaging in a brainstorming session with your team or advisors. Having a well-defined plan in place will help you stay focused and motivated to follow through.
Monitor your progress regularly: It’s essential to regularly check in on your progress towards your goals. Set reminders on your calendar or align your monitoring process with your invoicing cycle. By consistently evaluating your progress, you can identify any areas that need improvement or come up with fresh ideas to help you reach your targets.
Celebrate your achievements: Celebrating milestones along the way is crucial for maintaining motivation and momentum. Plan a reward for yourself when you achieve a significant goal. It could be treating the team to a morning tea, having a day out of the office together or planning an event for the end of the year. Choose something that brings you joy without breaking the bank.

Not sure how to get started?

We can help you with the strategy and identifing the information you’ll need to track, so you can monitor your progress.

Setting goals is just the first step. By implementing these tips and staying committed to your vision, you can turn your long-term plans into reality.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

Can an AI Assistant Streamline Your Business?

A business AI assistant is an artificial intelligence-powered software tool that’s designed to support and enhance different areas of your business administration and management.

These AI assistants (sometimes known as virtual assistants or chatbots) use natural language processing (NLP), machine learning and automation to interact with you, your team and your customers. They can give answers to simple questions and FAQs, perform efficient automated tasks and carry out detailed reviews and analysis of your business data.

How do AI assistants affect your business?

In a busy business environment, having a helping hand to reduce your workload is a huge bonus. AI assistants help you extend your capabilities and productivity, without the need to expand your team. Assistants pick up your key admin, operational and customer service tasks, freeing up your time to focus on high-value customer and business development jobs.

Tailored AI assistants can help in various areas of your business, taking on the heavy lifting while you do what you do best – talking to customers and growing the business.

For example, AI can:

Provide AI customer support – voice AI assistants use NLP tech to talk to your customers. An assistant like Alex from Curious Thing can answer your business phone, offer customer service support, resolve customer queries and answer common FAQs.
Streamline your bookkeeping – tools like Xero and Dext use a mix of optical character recognition (OCR), AI and machine learning to automate the digitalisation of your receipts and the matching and reconciliation of your transactions and bank statements.
Automate your content writing – AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Google Bard help you write professional-sounding marketing and communications materials. With quality prompts, you can generate blogs, emails and advertising content.
Record and transcribe meetings – AI transcription assistants like Otter.ai listen to your business meetings and provide a transcript in an instant. The AI can pull out important action points, summarise the key points and provide a record of the conversation.
Manage your inventory – AI inventory optimisation tools like Remi can help you monitor your stock levels, track sales trends and forecast which products and times you should order in. This keeps your business well-stocked at all times, automatically.

We can help you review your business processes, software systems and productivity goals, to find the ideal places where AI automation could make a difference.

Get in touch, we are here to help.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

Which Social Media Platform is the Best ‘New Twitter’ for Your Business?

We all know the importance of social media for your company’s marketing and brand awareness. But the world of social media is constantly changing.

A number of new Twitter-a-like social media platforms have popped up and they are vying to become the new social platform of choice. So, do you add these new channels to add into the marketing mix?

Which new social apps are worth considering? Let’s take a look:

- Threads – Threads is a social media platform launched by Meta in mid-2023. It’s a text-based conversation app that’s closely linked to Instagram, also owned by Meta. Users can log in to Threads using their Instagram account and post text updates, images and videos up to 5 minutes in length and even short voice messages. The user experience is not unlike Twitter, but feels less polarised than the ‘X’ incarnation of Twitter.
- Mastodon – Mastodon is a decentralised social media platform made up of independent servers organised around specific themes, topics or interests. People can join servers, follow each other, engage in conversations and do all the usual things you’d expect to do on a social network like Twitter. Unlike Twitter, Mastodon is not owned by a single company – it’s a decentralised network, run from a network of independent servers, making it more independent and less prone to censorship and bias.
- BlueSky – BlueSky is another decentralised social media platform that was founded in 2021 by Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter. BlueSky is based on the AT Protocol, a new standard for social media that allows users to create their own accounts on different servers, which can then communicate with each other to create a seamless user experience. Unsurprisingly, BlueSky’s user experience is very similar to Twitter, with users able to send ‘skeets’ (tweets) and upload photos. The main drawback of BSky (as it’s shortened to) is that the beta is currently invite only. So you’ll need an invite or to join the waitlist to check out if BSky is the place for you and your business.
- Post – Post is another new social media platform for 2023, but with a difference. Post is designed for longer-form posts and connects users to ad-free content from publishers through micropayments. Users can purchase individual articles for a small fee, or they can subscribe to a publisher for a monthly fee. Post is also known for its robust moderation tools. If you’re looking to post longer, thought-leadership pieces, Post could well be the place for you – while also generating a small amount of additional revenue.

Finding your new social media home

As with all technology, the social media platform that suits you best will be down to your own personal preference. You might enjoy the simplicity of Threads, or the more detailed, decentralised experience of Mastodon. Or you may prefer the long-form articles of Post and the very Twitter-like user experience of BlueSky.

Ultimately, it’s about diving in, trying out these new platforms and finding out which app feels like the best fit – and then doing your best to build up a following for you and your brand.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

How to Handle Bad Reviews About Your Business

When was the last time you made a purchasing decision based on positive customer reviews?

Most of us can remember when we decided NOT to buy something based on negative reviews. It works both ways.

Online reviews have become the new go-to on social and they have tremendous power when it comes to influencing decision-making behaviors. Research shows that over half of all consumers are likely to seek out additional information, and that online reviews matter most before buying products and services.

If your business reviews don’t currently have 5 stars and you’ve received a number of disappointing reviews, here are some tips.

For each negative review that has been posted, you should:

- make sure you take the time to thank the reviewer for taking time to explain the situation.
- reach out to them personally to apologise and understand what happened.
- to ensure the person feels heard, list some actions that you will undertake to review the process so that their experience doesn’t happen to other customers.

Further research shows that 50 percent of buyers will forgive the actions that caused them to post the bad review if the situation is resolved properly.

It is possible to create a positive impact with a large portion of disgruntled buyers, making even bad reviews positive in the end.

In addition to being able to identify and correct what went wrong in the first place, bad customer reviews give you insight into the outside perception of the company. Negative reviews can be helpful to reveal what needs improving, whether employees are doing a good job, and how to strengthen a strained relationship.

So, paying attention to customer reviews and dealing with them in the correct way can help to improve the number of positive reviews in the end, as well as manage expectations. Never underestimate the power of turning a negative into a positive.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

Holiday Cash Flow for Your Small Business

Are you heading away for a break from the business this year?

This time of year can be hard on small business. Your expenses continue and your cashflow can suffer when your debtors go on holiday.

Leading up to the holiday period, is your business cash flow in good health to carry you through? With a bit of pre-planning and being proactive, you can set yourself up for a financially stress-free holiday.

Planning your cash-flow over the holiday period

Invoice early – Send any invoices that you can, and in advance if possible. Perhaps consider whether you have any regular clients or customers that you could offer a retainer or similar deal to if they book services or make a purchase from you in advance.

Chase payment – Use this opportunity to chase up any outstanding payments. Strong communication and relationships matter – talk to clients and chase invoices.

Talk to suppliers – A little honesty can go a long way. Perhaps they can extend a line of credit for your payments to them. In most cases, a good supplier would rather offer a little flexibility to keep an ongoing business relationship.

Review your costs – Make sure you have a clear picture of your payroll, and any other planned expenses that will need to be accounted for. It’s also a good idea to do a general review of expenses. Business costs can creep up, and it’s a great idea to make a time to check on your expenses regularly, no matter what your financial situation. Review all of your regular payments and subscriptions as well as upcoming costs. There may be travel, functions or purchases which you can decide on an alternative approach to.

Talk to the bank or tax department – If cashflow is tight, make sure you have conversations early so you have everything in place to see you through.

We can help you navigate the holiday period and help you alleviate cashflow worries. So you get a well deserved break.

When you’re planning for a break, book an appointment with us.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.