12 Days of Biz-mas! Top business tips for growth in 2019.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year… 🎼
We’re flying through December, and we’re counting down the days ’til Christmas, Hanukkah, and festivus for the restofus! But before we get too caught up in our barbecues by the beach and negotiating family drama, we wanted to add a bit of Christmas Spice to our new year preparations…
We’ve decided to make a song out of it!
So here you have it – Spicy’s 12 Days of Biz-mas!
(For best results, please sing this to the tune of ‘12 Days of Christmas‘)
On the first day of Biz-mas my true love gave to me:
…a culture that customers love.
Have you heard the saying “culture eats strategy for breakfast”? To me this means that no matter how well planned your business strategy is, if your team who executes it is disgruntled, disorganised, or dissing each other, chances are the customer happiness is not going to be able to reap the benefits from those great strategy ideas.
At Spicy, what we have found is that good company culture starts with a “bottom up” leadership style. When employees feel valued, heard, and empowered to make decisions, customers also get those juicy good vibes!
On the second day of Biz-mas my true love gave to me:
2 Future Plans, and a culture that customers love.
Reviewing your business plan is something that often falls to the bottom of the to-do list. So, what better excuse to revisit your business plan than to bring in a brand new year? Not only should you be checking over your 90 day plan, it’s a good idea to take a look at your marketing plans too. Start with your vision and your goal, and focus on 1 main action item per quarter.
On the third day of Biz-mas my true love gave to me:
3 Blog Posts, 2 Future Plans, and a culture that customers love.
Does your business have a blog? If your answer isn’t “totes yes!” you should probably, definitely, absolutely make that happen. And make it happen, like, yesterday. Not only is a blog a great way to add important information to your website (see day 12), but it one of the easiest ways to help your search engine rankings. By using SEO (search engine optimisation) keywords in your blog content: graphic design, logo design on the Northern Beaches, menu design… and do you see what we did there? ;) you can increase your rankings leading to more traffic to your website! Want more info? Get a quick introduction to SEO terms on our blog, or feel free to chat to us directly about SEO!
On the third day of Biz-mas my true love gave to me:
4 Self-Care Days
For a lot of business owners, the mentality is that there’s clearly way too much to do to go for that extra surf, to take off an hour or an afternoon – or god forbid a whole day — to do something just for you.
But does this ever happen to you? As soon as you get in your car and drive away from work you remember something important? Or while you’re in the shower in the morning you have a brilliant idea? That’s because of a little phenomenon called SPACE. We’re big believers in the mindfulness movement, and taking just 10 minutes to clear your mind can make a huge difference to your energy levels, clarity, and prioritisation.
When you give yourself permission to turn off your work email notifications (or just put your devices on silent!) and schedule some time just for you, you might be surprised with the inspiration that strikes.
On the third day of Biz-mas my true love gave to me:
5 Goal Setting
Alright, I know you can’t have 5 of ‘goal setting’, but it rhymes with golden rings! It also means that you can come up with as many or as few goals as you feel is appropriate. Taking time to reassess your goals, both personal and professional, will give you the motivation you need to kick start a successful new year – as long as you keep your goals realistic.
**TOP TIP ALERT: To check you have your goals in check with what your peeps actually want, go to Google Trends. And if you’re in Australia select the Australia dropdown in the top right for geo-specific answers.
6 People Thanking
Want to maintain your professional network in 2019? Make sure you nurture your relationships with the attitude of gratitude. Fancy corporate gifts are great but personally thanking your top 10 clients is a great place to start in cementing your “A+” customers and making your tribe loyal and open with communicating with you.
7 Chatbots Chatting
Bots are taking over the world!!! …not really, but they’re taking over customer service on social media, and in a lot of cases they are doing a pretty good job. If you’ve never heard the word ‘Chatbot’ before, you can read our blog post all about them, and pretend you knew all along. Basically, Chatbots are a way to send instant automated responses to customer enquiries over social media, and help address customer concerns while you’re out of office during the holiday period. Not only does this take some weight off of your workload, but getting an immediate response is useful for your customers as well. Need help setting one up? Send us a message (or alternatively, chat to our Chatbot on Facebook).
8 Brands Reviewing
Today is the perfect day to review your brand. Doing a competitor analysis is a good place to start, but BE AWARE! As Simon Sinek says:
Our best competitors reveal our weaknesses. The goal is not to “beat” our competition but to improve ourselves.
— Simon Sinek (@simonsinek) March 20, 2018
So, doing a brand strategy review is not an exercise in beating your enemies – it’s about thinking about real problem-solving and what your customer wants and needs. Getting real customer insights and using creative copywriting in their own language is the best way to connect with your audience. Example: “Marine Layer” make their products likeable, show their ethos, and are professional while showing personality and quirkiness that gives even more reason to buy their stuff.
9 Sales a-Driving
You want to know what else holiday periods are good for, besides drinking all the egg nog? Sales! Promotions! Yay!
Around Christmas, or any holiday, it’s a great opportunity to leverage some interest by creating events, doing promotions, and making your business even more remarkable. Get people talking about your business and they will do the sales for you.
10 Social Postings
(Side note: you should definitely have more than 10 social media posts by now, but we have a song structure to stick to.)
Your business social media marketing is super duper important during the holiday period. If you haven’t been allocating a generous portion of your budget to online marketing, you’re already a step behind all your competitors. Need some help? Check out our blog posts on choosing the right channel for social media, and how to identify and collaborate with social media influencers!
11 TedTalks Watching
Education doesn’t have to involve going to boring classes, long expensive seminars, or online courses that eat into your precious Instagram stalking time. Researching your industry and learning about new developments are great ways to help you stay on top of your job, and keep your competitive edge. Taking time to educate yourself on subjects that you’re personally interested in is also a valuable tool for your self-growth. There are millions of educational resources available (for FREE!) on the internet, where you can learn anything from how to build a lasting business, to why this Peruvian caterpillar looks like Donald Trump.
12 Sites Updating
Have you ever searched for a business online, only to find that they haven’t updated their website since they made it back in 2005? Annoying, right? Don’t be that guy!
We’ve mentioned this previously, but because it’s so important, we’re going to say it again: It’s essential that your customers can rely on your website for the most recent and relevant information. Isn’t that why you have a website in the first place?
Here are the lyrics from day 12 to day 1 – so you can gather your team, print these out and sing along to your heart’s content!
On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
12 Sites Updating
11 TedTalks Watching
10 Social Postings
9 Sales a-Driving
8 Brands Reviewing
7 Chatbots Chatting
6 People Thanking
5 Goal-Setting
4 Self-Care Daaaaaays
3 Blog Posts
2 Business Plans
And a culture that customers love!
Did you read through the checklist, and decide you need some help getting your business sorted in 2019? Spicy Broccoli has got you covered – get in touch with us on our Contact Page, send us an email at info@spicybroccoli.com, or give us a call on +61 2 8084 5554!
