How to Make the Most of a New Season for Driving Business

For many small businesses, the new year is ripe with opportunity. With new goals set, it’s a chance to build on what works and explore additional avenues for driving growth.

Use this time, especially if sales are slow, to set your operations up for success in the months to come. Here are a few ways to spend your time wisely at the start of Q1 that’ll leave you feeling accomplished, motivated, and more prepared for whatever lies ahead.

Review Website Performance and Design

New seasons are a great time to review how your business currently operates. This is even more true when sales are slow and in need of boosting.

Take your website, for example. As the online “face” of your business, it’s not something you should ever set and forget. There are too many gears turning behind the scenes and opportunities for things to go awry that can ultimately cost you conversions.

If you haven’t already set up Google Analytics for your website, that should be step one. You can use their tools to monitor performance and help pinpoint areas of your site in need of revision or amplification. Heatmap tools can also be useful in tracking visitor behavior patterns for the sake of improving design and overall customer experience.

Develop Your Creative Assets Library

Don’t underestimate the importance of quality video and photography. Building out an assets library of creative you can pull from for online advertising throughout the year will save you plenty of headache and wasted ad spend in the long-term.

For video, Wistia’s Learning Center serves as a great resource for marketing best practices and DIY production. Another option would be to consider hiring a freelancer. There are plenty of creatives in the photography and videography space eager to help bring small business visions to life.

Host a Focus Group

There’s no time like the present to survey and gather audience insights. If you’ve struggled to drive interest around your product online, the issue might not be with the product itself but how you’re marketing it.

A low-lift way to better understand your customers would be through an emailed survey. Alternatively, if you want to dig deeper into behavior and customer needs, tools like UserTesting can help you generate virtual feedback in real-time.

Take a Course for Professional Development

When the year picks up, one of the last things you’ll inevitably make time for is your own professional development. Use the time you have now to better familiarize yourself with tools you’re already using or learn something new.

For example, if you use Google Products for most of your day-to-day work, check out Google’s Skillshop. It’s a centralized area for business owners to become certified in everything from advertising through Google Ads to attracting new customers through Google My Business.

Explore Funding Resources

There are plenty of small business funding resources worth taking advantage of—especially during trying times. Even if you’d rather do everything in your power to figure things out before asking for money, it doesn’t hurt to explore your options.

Small things, like reimbursements for personal protective equipment, can add up over time. Not to mention the variety of grants and relief funds available to help keep things afloat while figuring out next steps.