10 Tips To Creating Business Success In 2023

As the end of the year approaches, business owners are starting to wind down from the fast-paced holiday season and turning their attention toward 2023.  Hopefully, you’re in the process of doing an end-of-the-year reflection, highlighting your wins, learning from your losses, and recalibrating for the new year.

Having a game plan and knowing how to implement it is the difference between entrepreneurs that have great years continuously and ones that seem to stay stuck where they’re at.  Today, I want to give you 10 tips on how you can set yourself and your business up for success in 2023!

Be Flexible & Adaptable

Business as we know it is always changing, and usually at a rapid pace.  That means that you as a business owner need to be flexible and able to adapt to any of these changes that happen, and quickly.

You may need to pivot things like your social media content or your marketing, and that’s okay.  The thing you don’t want to do is say things like, “We’ve always done it this way and will continue to do so.”  That’s the type of thinking that will have your business stuck in a rut, and quickly.

Things like social media, marketing, technology, and the way we do business will always change, that’s simply part of being a business owner.  The quicker you can adjust your strategy and your business plan to match these changes, the more successful your business will be long term.

Plan Long-Term

When we ask business owners what they’d like to achieve in the next 6 months, they always have an answer for us.  When we ask them what they’d like to achieve in a year, about 80% have a solid answer.  However, when we ask these same business owners what they’d like to accomplish in 5 years, less than 5% can give us a concrete answer.

That’s because our society has conditioned us to think about next week and next month, not next year or 5 years from now.  But let me be clear: the next 5 years are going to happen in your business whether you plan them out or not, so wouldn’t it make sense to create a solid 5-year plan for your business?

Creating a long-term plan for your business doesn’t necessarily mean that everything is going to go exactly as you plan it, but what it does do is it give you objectives and goals to aim at.  It also allows you to create a daily, weekly, and monthly routine that ensures you’re implementing the right habits and action steps that will allow you to see that plan come to fruition.

Too many business owners leave the long-term success of their business up to chance.  Don’t let your business be one of them.  Create a 5-year plan, then figure out the steps you need to be taking every single day to ensure that you give yourself and your business the best possible chance at succeeding.

Strive For Innovation & Creativity

In a world where everyone seems to be doing the same things, the businesses that are going to stand out now and in the future are the ones that figure out how to do things differently.  It seems like businesses are putting out the same tips, the same trends, and the same content, then wonder why they’re struggling to stand out.

Your job as a business owner in 2023 is figuring out how to stand out by being different, by doing things differently, and by creating different ways of achieving solutions for your clients and customers.

This is why the previous point of being flexible and adaptable is so important because when you are, it allows you to make transitions easier into new platforms, new technologies, and new ways of doing things.

If your solution as a business owner is the same as 100 other businesses, then people won’t see you and your products as unique, therefore lumping them in with the rest of the businesses and doing things like choosing based on price, which is something you never want your business doing.  Take the time and really think about how you can create new ways of doing things in your business this upcoming year.

Streamline Your Processes

The business owners that achieve their goals and grow million-dollar businesses aren’t the ones that necessarily work the hardest but rather the ones that are the most productive with their time and have the right systems in place.

When you have a process for something, it takes the thinking out of it, and not only saves you time but then allows you to refine that process to the point of perfection.  You can then pass that process off to a team member and they’re will be no lapse in productivity.

Ideally, everything you do in your business should have a process.  These processes will not only save you time, but they’ll also help make you and your business more money because the less time spent doing inefficient work is time you can be spending on what it is you do best.

Make it a goal to write out all the things you do in your business then come up with a process for getting it done as efficiently as possible.  It doesn’t have to be perfect, just a starting point, that way, as you go through your processes, you can see where they need to be fixed and finetuned.

Invest In Your Marketing & Social Media

Did you know that as a rule of thumb, business owners should be taking 10-15% of their total revenue and re-investing it back into their marketing and social media?  This has never been more important than it is going into 2023.

When you try to do your own marketing and social media, chances are, it’s not your area of expertise.  And while you may be able to do it, that doesn’t mean that you’re doing it in an optimal way that will see your business get the best results.

Most businesses look at it as having to spend money when in reality, you should be looking at it as an investment that can pay you huge dividends.  For example, did you know that every $1 you invest in your email marketing has an ROI of anywhere from $38-43?  You’re literally getting a 40x return on your email marketing when you hire a pro vs. when you try and do it yourself.

However, there’s also one important area we haven’t touched on when it comes to why you should invest in your marketing and social media . . . and that’s your time.  How much time does it take you to create social media content, write captions, post it, write emails, write your blogs, and so on?  Probably a lot of time!

All that time could instead be used by you to grow and scale your business.  The marketing and social media aspects as handled, and you can get back to what you do best.  Marketing and social media are always changing, and most business owners simply don’t have the time to devote to learning everything.  Make this the year you invest in your business and allow it to take that next step forward.

Build Strong Partnerships & Collaborations

You can achieve a lot on your own as a business owner, but you can achieve so much more with the help of others.  That’s why you’re seeing such a huge shift toward collaboration and brand partnerships . . . because I truly believe that this is the future of how we do business.

If you’re a product-based business owner, you should be looking to plug into influencers and other social media personalities that you can partner with.  It takes a long time to build your own following and network on social media, but rather than do that, it’s a much easier option to pay someone who already has that network to promote your products for you.

Like we were talking about before with email marketing, don’t look at it as spending money, look at it as an investment, because if you build a great relationship with that person, you can continue to do collaborations and partnerships in the future.

The same can be said about collaborating with other business owners.  The days of looking at every other business as competition are over, and now business owners are looking to collaborate and plug into each other's networks.  It’s a great way to grow your social media channels and brand as well as showcase another brand to your audience.  It’s truly a win-win for all parties involved.

Make 2023 the year that you really look into collaborating with other people and business owners.  If you’re already a part of a networking community, great!  This gives you easy access to people you can collaborate with.  If you’re not, then my first suggestion would be to find a network of business owners you can join up with, because it’ll make doing this so much easier.

Diversify Your Revenue

There’s no way around you, we’re in a recession (or about to go into one).  That means that people are going to be more conscientious about how they’re spending their money, which means you’re going to have to get creative as a business owner.

Over the last 6 months, we’ve watched a lot of businesses close, and one of the main things we noticed about these businesses is that they really only had one core offer or product to offer their audience.  The problem with this model is that once people have bought it, they’re pretty much done buying from you unless it’s something they need on an ongoing basis.

Make it your goal in 2023 to diversify the products and services that you offer people.  While doing this, you should also make sure to include differently priced products.  You should always have low-ticket, medium-ticket, and high-ticket items.  This allows you to capture all buyers as well as gives you a chance to upsell and downsell products and services when someone makes a purchase.

Diversifying your revenue allows you to serve your audience in different ways while showing them that you’re cognizant of what’s going on in the world.  Now more than ever, you want to overdeliver on all the products, services, and customer service you provide, because lifetime customers will be the reason the business thrives during a recession and are easier to sell to than a brand-new audience.

Stay Ahead Of The Curve

This point coincides with our previous point about being flexible and adaptable.  When change happens, whether it’s with technology or business, there are typically three types of people:

• The first are the ones that pivot quickly and take advantage
• The second stay frozen, letting fear keep them from any decision
• The third isn’t even paying attention, then wonders what happened

Based on these three options, which do you think your business should be?  If you said the first one, you’d be correct!  With how fast things change, one of the greatest skills you can foster as a business owner is your ability to make quick decisions, pivot, and adapt on the fly.

Will these pivots and decisions always work out exactly how you want them to?  No, and that’s not the point.  The point is for you to build up a habit as a business owner of being adaptable and able to make quick decisions.

For example, I still know a lot of business owners that refuse to use TikTok for their business.  However, the businesses that adapted quickly and got on TikTok early are now reaping the rewards and selling a massive amount of products through the platform.

The point is: don’t let fear or indecisiveness keep you from pivoting and making the decisions you know you should be making for your business.

Build A Positive Brand Culture

Do you ever get tired of seeing post after post on social media from business owners selling their products and services?  If so, you’re not the only one.  Millennials and Gen-Z especially are choosing to follow brands that build a positive culture of value and relationship rather than simply selling all the time.

This means that when it comes to your social media strategy, you may have to make some changes in 2023.  Posts selling products and services get the lowest amount of engagement, while posts about value and brand building get the most engagement.

You have to realize that social media isn’t about selling, it’s about being SOCIAL (wow, right?).  It’s about educating your audience, giving them a chance to know you and your brand, as well as giving them a community where they feel like they belong.

You do this by giving, not asking.  There are plenty of places you can sell your products and services, like ads, Instagram stories, email lists, funnels, etc.  Let social media be the place where you give to your audience, then funnel them elsewhere to your products and services if they’re interested.

Prioritize Customer Service & Retention

We touched on this a little bit earlier, but nothing will ruin your business quicker than by having bad customer service.  Especially in a recession, people have so many options that if they have a bad experience, they’ll find another option to go with.

There’s a statistic that might help nail this home for you.  For every bad experience a customer receives, they need to receive 34 great experiences for it to negate that one bad experience . . . isn’t that crazy!?

That means that the one thing customers care about more than anything else is having a positive experience.  Here’s an example that will nail this point home.  This year, I bought Jill three presents for Christmas from a company I won’t name . . .

These were three things she wanted more than anything else on her list.  I ordered them in plenty of time so they arrive by Christmas (for reference, I ordered them the day after Thanksgiving).  Imagine my surprise when all three of them came 2 weeks later and EVERY SINGLE ONE was the incorrect item.

None of the three packages had the correct item in them.

Luckily, we opened presents before Christmas so we caught the errors in time, but could you imagine her opening those on Christmas only to find that the incorrect items had been sent?  Needless to say, not only was I not happy, but neither was she.

She didn’t even want to exchange the items, she simply returned them, got her money back, and used it to buy the same items from a place that demonstrated they could follow simple directions.

This was the first time we had bought things online through this company and I can promise you that we won’t ever again.  We probably won’t even shop in-store at this business ever again either simply because they severely messed screwed up.

That was over $500 spent on those three orders and who knows how much else we would have spent there over our lifetime had they correctly filled our orders.  Good experiences in the past don’t matter when a bad experience like that occurs, so make sure that you’re taking the time to really provide excellent customer service.

Conclusion

The landscape of business is rapidly changing and to ensure that your business succeeds in 2023, you’re going to need to change and adapt as well.  If you need help when it comes to your social media content, marketing materials, or you simply need someone to walk you through how to do it all, we’ve got you covered.
Click the link HERE, schedule a free call with us, and let’s see how we can make 2023 your best year in business yet!