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By Lily Sachs on January 21st, 2022

Key Points:

  1. Ease into tax season by organizing all of your documents.
  2. Meet with your team!
  3. Encourage feedback from employees and clients/customers.

A new year means new business!  If there’s one thing self-starters love to do, it’s setting goals for their businesses.  This list is long and detailed at the start of the year (like the ones we shared previously).

As for your goal list?  It gets bumped to February, then March, maybe even April. & you’re probably saying things like; I’ll accomplish this soon!  Nonetheless, a few weeks back into our grind can have even those with the most robust work ethics struggling to calibrate while they tackle a huge workload.

Instead of pushing off your goals further and further, you should try taking a bite-sized approach to reach those goals!  If you are unsure of a bite-sized approach, don’t worry.  Below are a few great examples of how you can stay ahead.

1. Ease into tax season by organizing all your documents.

It’s never too early to begin getting organized for tax season!  Getting your print and digital receipts together can take a huge burden off you during tax season.  Make a note of upcoming filing dates for estimated tax payments and sales tax on your calendar.  Determine how you will file your taxes, if you need to update your filing status (marriage or children) or if it will be a different process than the year prior.

2. Meet with your team!

Everyone has their goals set for the year, businesses, and individuals.  But, what should you make a priority to focus on first?  Meeting with your team should be top of the list because there’s no ‘I’ in team.  It’s time to make sure that everyone on the team is on the same page with any upcoming projects or initiatives.  We always recommend breaking up a project into three-month, six-month, nine-month, and year-long increments so that work is strategically spread out throughout a specific timeline.

How do you stay on track after that first meeting?  Hold follow-up meetings to check in on everyone’s progress and determine the ROI those projects bring back to the company.  This is a time to encourage questions from your team, highlight achievements, and clarify anything causing concern.

3. Encourage feedback from employees and clients/customers.

One of the most extensive responsibilities for any business, no matter what time of year, is that they provide excellent customer service.  But how can you improve if you have no idea what their experience is like?

It’s a great time to collect testimonials from your clients and the individuals you have working on their teams.  A great place to start is with those you have developed close work relationships with over the year(s).  These individuals will be overly willing to give you some great feedback or recommendations that you can share on your social media or have them even leave a great review on Yelp or GlassDoor.  But you also require constructive feedback, so make sure you reach out to all your clients and customers.  There is value from positive and negative experiences.  No matter the good or bad, every business can utilize that data to make changes. A final example of a bite-sized goal that, when reached, has a tremendous impact on your company in the long run.