Top 10 Small Business New Year’s Resolutions For 2025

As the calendar flips to 2025, now is the perfect time to reevaluate your business and establish New Year’s Resolutions for 2025 – if you haven’t done so already!

The new year is a time for self-assessment, evaluating opportunities, and plotting a way forward for new challenges in what promises to be an eventful year with a new, business-friendly Trump administration coming into power.

Here are some tips for taking 2025 head on:

1. Revisit Your Business Plan

A business plan is not just a document written at the startup phase in order to raise capital. Rather, it should be viewed as an evolving roadmap for where you want to take your firm. The business plan outlines the strategies and tactics you’ll use to grow your company, helps you anticipate challenges, and sets milestones for gauging your progress.

Your business plan is meant to be updated. As your business grows, use it to fine-tune strategies to continue scaling effectively. The beginning of the year is a natural time to reevaluate your company’s growth trajectory and assess whether or not you are reaching your goals. Begin 2025 by determining what changes should be made to take it to the next level in the coming year.

Related: 5 Common Mistakes That Small Business Owners Make Over And Over

2. Continuously Gather Market Information

If you have a solid and loyal base of customers, use them for feedback about your performance as well as the performance of your competitors. If the other guys are still in business, they must be doing somethings right. So, don’t just ask for information about your own products and services, find out their thoughts about others in the marketplace. Perhaps some of your competitors have introduced new products or improved their customer service – what is your plan in response? Keeping abreast of market trends, evolving customer needs, and successful competitor strategies will help you identify opportunities and gaps in the marketplaces.

3. Manage Your Cash Flow More Effectively

Managing cash flow is critical for the long-term success of your business. Start by creating a 6–12 month cash flow forecast at the beginning of the year. This projection should list expected sales and returns on investments you have made, along with cash outflows (expenses, debts). Keep track of changes in revenue, expenses and, most importantly, your business earnings. If your expenditures are rising faster than your revenues, look for ways to both increase sales and cut costs.

Other cash flow tips:

• Invoice promptly and follow up on delinquent payers.
• Optimize inventory management. Having excess inventory uses up cash. Conversely, having too little inventory can result in missed sales opportunities.
• Negotiate better terms with suppliers and vendors – especially if you are among a supplier’s top customers. Perhaps you might be able to secure discounts for advance payments via ACH, rather than credit card payments. Investigate the possibilities. It doesn’t hurt to ask.
• Review operating expenses regularly, including how much staff you have and the number of hours they work. Labor costs are usually the biggest chunk of a firm’s operating costs.

Related: Four Simple Steps To Improve Your Cash Flow

4. Take Advantage of Technology

Technology can immeasurably help small business owners increase their efficiency. For instance, QuickBooks offers many more features than simple spreadsheets. The software program can track cash flow, automate invoices, and provide real-time insights. QuickBooks links directly to bank accounts and credit cards and keeps accurate records of financial transactions, while helping to reduce the risk of errors.

Rippling is a top-rated integrated platform designed to empower HR departments to have a significant impact on day-to-day operations and drive strategic outcomes. The platform offers a comprehensive suite of tools to streamline staffing processes. Meanwhile, programs like Crew Console Scheduler can save business owners hours spent planning and communicating schedules.

Digitization has streamlined the process of applying for a business loan. No longer do entrepreneurs have to go into a bank branch and bring reams of documents to apply for small business funding. Banks and other lenders that have taken advantage of financial technology (fintech) have now integrated AI, lowered the cost of processing loans, and reduced their exposure to risk. Advances in fintech have benefited borrowers and lenders alike.

5. Invest in Your People

The new year provides an opportunity to assess your company’s talent pool and determine if your workforce is equipped with the skills needed to navigate evolving challenges in the future. This is especially true if you are in an evolving field, such as information technology (IT) or finance.

An embedded recruiting solution could transform your company. By combining on-hand operational support, strategic insights, and a partnership approach, embedded recruiting helps businesses address their immediate hiring needs and build a foundation for sustainable success. These experienced recruiters help attract, retain, and develop the kind of talent that will lead your company in 2025 and beyond.

Take time now to assess your hiring in 2024. Did you succeed or fall short? Were you able to quickly adapt to changing priorities, or were delays and inefficiencies hinder efforts? Now is the perfect time to build a strategy that fills talent gaps. Firms like ZRG have expertise in embedded recruiting in which experienced recruiters and hiring experts work directly within an organization to provide support and strategic guidance to build long-term success.

6. Create a Positive Work Environment

In the post-pandemic era, workplaces are still exploring what the “new normal” is. Businesses increasingly want employees to return to the office. However, they may face strong resistance. Determine if you really need – or want — employees back in the office full time – especially if it is detrimental to morale. If you find productivity is similar, allowing flexibility of work location is a smart compromise. While younger workers might initially want to avoid the grind of commuting, they also endured a pandemic in which they were isolated and would prefer some type of hybrid schedule to interact with others.

If your staff has proven that they can be equally productive from home at least part of the time, it may not be worth it to alienate workers who are happy with their current situation. Flexibility and the reduction of commuting time and costs have become very desirable. Creating a positive working environment that includes hybrid work situations can help keep workers happy and productive, thereby reducing the likelihood that they will look elsewhere for satisfaction.

The exception, naturally, is if your business is one that involves hands-on interactions with customers. This is particularly true for service industries, such as restaurants, travel and tourism, hair and nail salons, and others. Such businesses require personal interactions with the public.

7. Invest in Marketing

Even companies that are doing well need to invest in marketing. If your business is unable to afford TV commercials or other high price advertising, invest in social media marketing and earned media (public relations). If you don’t know how to do these things currently in-house, there is no shortage of 21^st century marketing experts who can help.

Keep in mind that establishing and nurturing personal connections is still invaluable in growing your business. Attend networking events, conferences, and other opportunities to meet with potential customers or partners who can help you reach new heights in the coming year. Establish a goal of making and connecting with at least one new contact each month. Building relationships can help take your company to the next level in 2025.

8. Promote Your Personal Brand

Every business owner has a personal brand to promote. Use social media, such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and even TikTok to build your brand – especially if you are trying to reach a younger demographic. Even if you don’t have the skills to do this, there may be members of your staff who would be interested in utilizing their expertise to help you grow your personal brand. If there is no one on staff who can do it, consider hiring a public relations firm or social marketing firm that offers those skills.

9. Take Care of Yourself

Seemingly every list of New Year’s Resolutions includes losing weight, quitting smoking, drugs or alcohol, and getting into better shape. These elements are important for both physical and mental health. Identify and manage the stressors in your life, at work and at home. It’s not easy for business owners to relax; as an entrepreneur, I know this well. However, it is important to take time to enjoy what you have accomplished in the business world and try to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

The pandemic taught everyone, particularly small business owners, that it is important to focus on what’s important outside of work. People realized that spending time with family, building in down time, and focusing on health are as important as reaching sales goals.

10. Take Care of Others

Gen Z tends to be more socially conscious and politically active than previous generations. They are using their voices and social media influence to bring attention to issues such as climate change and social justice. They typically prefer companies that support causes — financially and through volunteer efforts — that they believe in. Consider establishing a company volunteer day to support a local cause. It doesn’t have to be on Martin Luther King Day or 9/11. Perhaps choose a date of significance to your firm or to your employees. It can help boost morale and provide a sense of caring about your employees and their interests.

Of course, there are an infinite number of New Year’s Resolutions that a company can make. Every business is unique, after all. But to make your resolutions effective, try the following:

• Set Specific Goals. Resolutions should be clear and measurable.
• Be Realistic. Set realistic, achievable goals to avoid disappointment.
• Don’t Make Overwhelming Goals. Create a plan and break resolutions down into smaller steps with deadlines.
• Track Progress Regularly. Assess and adjust your goals as needed.
• Celebrate Milestones: Acknowledge achievements and reward progress.

Each new year provides a fresh start. If 2024 was disappointing, put it in the rear view window. When making New Year’s Resolutions, remember the lessons learned during the past year and be prepared to utilize them to build a better future for your business.