New Year, New Business
A new year often means new beginnings, and with a new beginning comes new approaches to accomplish things. For small business owners, these approaches can be geared towards getting more organized, increasing revenue, decreasing expenses, or whatever is needed to make your business more productive and successful.
A huge step towards getting your business right is to have a formal, written plan. If you already have one, you can still make changes or update to coincide with your needs and goals for the new year. For those of you who don’t yet have a written plan, use this time to get it set up.
A written business plan can help budget your time and money as well as anticipate any hurdles throughout the year, preventing any unnecessary risks.
Check Out the Competition
It’s so important to research and recognize the competitive playing field of your market. By doing so, you can clearly grasp an understanding of the market, key competitors, and possibly establish new customers, partners, or campaigns.
Contrasting your business with the competition is a common step during the business planning process. You can also find intuitive resources online that offer awareness into the market landscape and competitors.
Evaluate your Payment Options
Now would be a great time to re-examine payment methods that you offer your customers. With the recent technological advances, accepting cards with embedded chips can strengthen security and greatly reduce the risk of fraud.
Look through the options you offer to see which can be updated, discarded, or what options can be implemented. You could increase your business by offering more convenient ways to pay such as mobile payments.
Maintain the Cash Flow
No business wants to end up paying more than they can in any given month. By developing a cash flow projection chart, you can foresee and prepare for any potential shortcomings. You can have your chart cover 12 months and update it at the end of every month, while also coming up with ideas to increase revenue and decrease expenses along the way.
With a cash flow projection chart, you can gain a sense of control over the money spent and received as well as an accurate view of the financial status of your business.
Another resolution should be to remain compliant with your annual tax filings. If you need an extension of time, you can quickly and easily e-file a business tax extension with ExpressExtension and receive an automatic 5 or 6-month extension – depending on your type of business. If you have any employees, or hired any contractors throughout the year, you can e-file 1099s or W2s with our affiliate site, ExpressIRSForms.
Our extensions are made easy, but you’ll always have the back-up support from our team of live professionals located in Rock Hill, SC. We are happy to assist with your e-filing experience or answer any questions you may have. Give us a call at (803) 514-5155, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST, or send us a message 24/7 at [email protected].
