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It’s a New Year. Therefore it is a chance for new goals and to realize new successes. However, the majority of people go wild setting resolutions at the start of the new year only to find they have forgotten what they wanted to accomplish by the time February rolls around. If you want to make 2018 the year you actually achieve your New Year’s resolutions, do the following:

Change your thinking

First, you need to change the way you think about resolutions. There is something about the word that makes it harder for people to follow through on accomplishing them. We tend to think of “resolutions” as all or nothing. That means the first time we start to struggle with following through on them we usually quit. And, if we fail to accomplish them at the end of the year, we feel like failures. On the other hand, if we set goals and don’t meet them we still see our progress of working towards them. We can continue working on them throughout the year.

Most people set very generic resolutions that can be hard to stick to instead of setting specific goals. For example, a resolution might be to get healthier in 2018, but what does that mean? How do you know if you did or not? On the other hand, a goal might be to lose 30 pounds in 2018. The first time you skip exercising and eat junk food you will not have already failed on your goal, but you might feel like you did on the resolution.

Bottom line: Set goals, not resolutions. 

Set limits and stick to what matters

People tend to want to harness the power of the fresh start that the New Year brings. So, they go overboard and set too many goals. They end up with a long list of goals that no person can honestly accomplish in one year. Limit your goals to only 3-4 goals for the year. Make sure each goal is important to you. If you understand the real reason you want to accomplish a goal it will help you stick to it during the tough time and obstacles.

For example: Instead of just setting a goal on how many clients you want to help fund before the end of the year, think about the why behind it. What’s motivating you to set that goal? Is it so you can increase your revenue? Is it so you can help other small businesses succeed? Knowing your “why” can help you stay motivated.

Bottom line: Set 3 or 4 goals that are important to you.

Make your goals SMART

The idea of SMART goal setting is not new, but many people still fail to do it. In order for your goals to be achievable they need to be SMART:

Bottom line: Make each goal SMART

Create a plan

So, you have your goals. You limited the number of them and made sure they were SMART, now what? You need to create a plan of attack. How are you going to accomplish those goals? Your first step is to break each goal down into smaller goals that can be spread throughout the year. If you want to increase your clientele by x% then what percentage do you need to be at by the end of the first quarter and the second? These smaller goals make your large goal achievable because you are always making progress towards them.

Without a plan, you will get to the end of 2018, in the blink of an eye, and realize that you have not made purpose effort to reach your goal.

Bottom line: Break your goals down into smaller goals for each quarter. 

Set an appointment with yourself

Now it’s time to put your goals on your calendar. Reserve time to purposefully work on your goals. Set aside 15 minutes every week to check on your progress. During this time you can see where things are going well and which areas need improvement. Ask yourself what is working and where you are failing? Then, don’t be afraid of the failures, instead acknowledge them and look for a way to address them. The key to reaching your goals is to be purposeful, so actually block this time off your calendar. Also, block of time at the end of each month for you to look over the month as a whole and to plan for the next one.

Bottom line: Check in with yourself throughout the year to review your progress. 

2017 was over before we knew it, and 2018 is bound to do the same. Spend some time with yourself today working through these steps so you can achieve your goals in the new year.

The moment you stop learning is the moment you stop growing. As a business owner, you never want to become stagnant in your knowledge. Thankfully there are some amazing books out there to help you continue expanding your knowledge on owning and operating a business. If you find yourself with a break in your busy schedule over this holiday season here are some great books that will help you get ready for the upcoming year.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Written by Stephen Covey, the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is full of information to help you transform your life. Habits can make or break you in business an in life. Covey breaks down the simple habits that you should incorporate in every day to really start to find the success you are after. For example, he covers being proactive and learning how to prioritize your tasks. You will walk away from this book with easy to follow steps on how to improve yourself.

Tools for Titans

Timothy Ferriss has spent years interviewing some of the most successful people in the world. And, as a serial entrepreneur, he knows a thing or two about business himself. In Tools for Titans Ferriss devotes an entire chapter to a different person and their personal advice and tips. At over 600 pages the book looks like an encyclopedia, but with each chapter devoted to a different person, it’s easy to pick and choose which parts you want to read when. It’s not a book that needs to be read from cover to cover in order.

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

John Maxwell is known around the world for his amazing training on leadership. His book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, is where he shares the lessons he has learned about how to be an outstanding leader. You can skip around throughout the book to choose the areas you need the most. This makes it easy to start making immediate changes in your leadership style.

Good to Great

In the book Good to Great Jim Collins investigates how any business can make the leap to being great. First, Collins and a crew worked for years testing, analyzing, and studying different companies to determine what the difference was between the great companies, the good companies, and the not-so-good companies. Then, they were able to pinpoint a few keys to greatness that they share in the book.

Living Forward

If you are ready to stop drifting through life and really get focused the book Living Forward by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy is a great read. It walks you through how to create a plan for your life. You can use it for your personal as well as your business life. John Maxwell said this book, “will equip you to live your life on purpose, achieving what matters most in every aspect of your life.”

The Confidence Quadrant

Darren Fisher explores our reaction to success and failure in his book, The Confidence Quadrant. He also discusses the impact that they have on our lives. This is a great book to help you develop your own confidence as a business owner. It also helps you learn how to motivate your employees. The book discusses the importance of recognizing our failures along with our successes. In addition, there are practical steps to take at the end of each chapter. And, the book is a quick read for busy people.

Start with Why

Simon Sinek’s book Start with Why explores how great leaders are able to inspire others to act. He wants to encourage people to be more motivated in their work. Through his own personal research, he found that the great leaders of history influenced people by helping them understand the “why” before anything else. This book will help you apply this principle to your company.

The New Year will be here before you know it. So, use the time over the holiday season to improve yourself and your business. This will help you establish strong goals going into the 2018.

The holiday season is upon us and that means it’s time to start thinking about gift giving. They say it is better to give than to receive, but that doesn’t mean it’s easier. Choosing the right gift for a family or friend is hard. Choosing the right gift for your employees seems downright impossible. Good gifts are personal. But, when you are buying for a group of very different people it makes choosing personal gifts difficult. Here are 9 tips on choosing gifts your employees will love.

1. Don’t give them your product

It seems easy to provide your employees with products from your store, but don’t do it. They work with your products all day long. And, chances are good that you are providing them a discount at your place of business already. If you aren’t, that’s a different topic for an article on another day. Choose something that is unrelated from their everyday job.

2. Don’t give them things like trinkets

More and more people are starting to want to simplify life. They don’t want one more item that they need to find a place for in their house. And, most kitchens are overflowing with coffee cups, even in houses that don’t drink tea or coffee. Paperweights, fancy room thermometers, coffee cups, and anything that says the name of your company on it should be off the table for holiday gifts.

3. People love food

Employees appreciate food. It’s something they need and you can use your gift giving opportunity to provide them with something they may not usually choose for themselves, like steak. Some companies choose to provide all employees with a “Christmas ham” or turkey at the holidays. Be creative, not cheap. And, make sure you know your employees. Do not risk offending your employees by providing them with something that they do not eat for religious reasons or personal choice, such as vegans.

4. Let people pick their own gift

Let’s be honest, most employees aren’t expecting you to know their personal preferences. So, use this to your advantage and gift something like an Amazon gift card to everyone. This way your employees can choose their own gift. You can customize the amount of the card based on the position of the employee. For example, you managers would deserve a higher amount than your part-time employees because they have a lot more responsibility within the company.

5. Gift baskets

There is something about a beautiful gift basket full of goodies that is pleasing to the eye. Put together gift baskets, or purchase them, full of treats and fruits. If your store sells items along these lines you can add in some of the favorites.

6. Paid time off

People love time off of work so for a gift you can provide them with a paid day off. They can choose to use the day anyway that they like. If you provide this as a gift though you need to set some ground rules beforehand to know how to handle the scheduling of it. You don’t want everyone trying to use their time on the same day.

7. Dinner and a movie gift cards

Let you employee treat their spouse or a friend to a night of dinner and a movie. Choose a nice restaurant and make sure both places are located nearby. No one likes to receive gift cards that they can’t use close to home.

8. Books

If you enjoy reading books you can use your love of books to choose gifts for your employees. The trick here is to choose a book that is personalized to each person and what they are interested in. Do not give books that are business and sales related unless you know that person is extremely interested in the topic.

9. Cold hard cash

There is no way around it, people like cash.

Quick recap

The basic things you need to remember is when choosing gifts for your employees make it about them and not about you. This is one reason employees hate getting gifts with your logo on it so much. Use this as an opportunity to connect with your employees outside of what your business creates. As you choose the gift think about how much you appreciate your employees that are working to grow your business.

The increased flow of traffic you experience over the holiday season is a good thing. But, it can be too much for your regular staff to handle, leaving you in the position of hiring temporary holiday staff. When you are only hiring for a short period of time it doesn’t make sense to go through your normal training routine. However, you also don’t want untrained temp workers roaming your store. Make sure you train your holiday staff on the following things:

Be on time

Prepare your staff for the holiday traffic. There are more people on the road the closer it gets to the holiday. That means driving to work can be complicated. It also means that finding parking will be difficult. Clearly communicate where they are to park. You want your customers being able to park as close to the door as possible, especially if you live in an area with cold winter weather. Let them know that showing up late is unacceptable.

Put your phone away

Make it clear that your employees are not to be on their phone during working hours. Their attention needs to be on helping the customers, which means they are not to be looking at their phones.

Use the buddy system

It feels horrible to be the new person somewhere when no one has time to show you where to find things. Take the time with your temporary staff to show them where to find anything that they will need. Then have a plan in place explaining who they should go to with questions during their working hours. Since you don’t have the time to show every temp worker the ropes try pairing them up with one of your regular employees. This will assure that there will be someone to answer their questions.

Customer services

There is a lot to cover when you train on customer service. Since you don’t have a lot of time you need to focus on the basics:

Keep the store clean

Part of the job of most seasonal employees is to help keep the store clean. Teach them to walk through their assigned area of the store and picking up anything they notice on the floor. Holiday shoppers are usually in a rush and tend to leave a mess. Let your employees know if they notice a wrapper on the floor it’s their job to pick it up. Or, if a product has been knocked off a shelf or fallen off the hanger they need to pick them up and straighten the area. Shoppers like seeing clean and neat stores, so straightening shelves and sweeping the floors is still making a big contribution to sales.

Tips on selling

Most temporary employees tend to stay away from this aspect of the job, but it’s something you want them to be aware of. When they are talking with shoppers they should keep in mind that the shopper may have a bigger budget than the employee does. People tend to sell to what they can afford to spend , instead they should determine what the buyer is looking for and focus on that. Its also worth giving them a simple training on upselling based on the needs of the customer.

Do not treat temporary workers differently

Most businesses treat their temporary workers differently than their regular employees. When you treat them like temporary workers they are going to act like that. You want all of your staff, even the temporary ones, to really invest into their jobs. That means you need to invest into them. Take the time to train them and don’t set different rules for your regular staff.

You never know if one of your temporary hires could end up being your best employee. You may find someone that you want to bring on full time when you have an opening. But, if you don’t treat them like a real employee they may not act like one. It might seem like a lot of work to train someone that will work for you for only a month or two, but the bigger investment you make into these employees the bigger payoff you will find.

 

The end of the year will be here before you know it and with it comes the setting of new resolutions and goals for 2018. Many people find they have a little time off around the holidays. Although you probably have plenty of holiday parties and family get-togethers to attend, it can be a great time to sneak in a little reading. Here are 8 books worth reading.

1. The 10X Rule

Grant Cardone’s book The 10X Rule explains that to achieve higher results in your life you need to raise your level of thinking. The entire book is designed to help you increase the way you think. There are exercises at the end of every chapter that you work through in order to put it into practice. This book can change the way you look at your entire life, from growing your sales to improving your personal life. You will overcome the limits that you subconsciously set in your mind.

2. How to Win Friends & Influence People

If you haven’t read this book by Dale Carnegie yet, it’s time. The book has been around since the 1930’s and the information within it is as valuable today as it was back then. The key to making sales and growing a business is being personable and forming good relationships with people. It helps you in networking, in dealing with customers, and in your personal relationships. Any book that has stood the test of time and is still so highly recommended is worth reading.

3. Think and Grow Rich

Here is another book that is 80 years old and still growing strong. Napoleon Hill wrote this book only a year after How to Win Friends & Influence People was released. Think and Grow Rich is a motivational and self-help book. It will help you determine how to establish a plan to make all the changes that you want in your personal and business career going into the new year. Even though this book is older the information is still valid and can be used with today’s business practices as well.

4. The Ultimate Sales Machine

Chet Holmes wants to help you get your focus to grow your business. His book The Ultimate Sales Machine teaches 12 key strategies that you need to focus on. He simplifies the process to help you focus on the areas that will have the biggest payoff. If you are ready and determined to grow this is the book for you.

5. Conversations That Win The Complex Sale

Erik Peterson and Tim Reisterer have been working for over 20 years to perfect this sales process. In Conversations That Win the Complex Sale you will learn how to make the sale by telling your prospect their own story of success instead of focusing on yourself. This book will help you separate yourself from the crowd and your competition. If you want to learn how to close the sale without a long list of boring statistics that prospects don’t care about, you need to read this book. You will learn how to speak about what your prospect cares about.

6. The Lost Art of Closing

Anthony Iannarino teaches how to take the pain and awkwardness out of the closing the sale. People don’t like being sold to which makes closing a business deal difficult. However, the book  The Lost Art of Closing shows you the right way to approach closing. You will learn a new process of leading prospects through your steps that work to remove the delay in making a purchase.

7. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Stephen Covey shares the secrets that successful people use in order to achieve their level of success. The book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People will help you get your focus in the right place. If you follow the principals that the book teaches you will see an improvement in your personal and business life. While some of the concepts are simple and basic they are the common things that most people are failing to do in order to find success.

8. Hack Your Habits

Are you ready to make powerful changes in your life, but lack the willpower and motivation to accomplish it? This book is for you. Hack Your Habits by Joanna Jast teaches steps to reach your goal that doesn’t require pure willpower to ge the job done. This book is for every person that has set goals over and over and found after a few days they lacked the motivation and determination to continue. If you lack self-control and struggle to create the right habits, this book is for you. It teaches you how to reduce the impact of the temptations that typically get you off course.

If you don’t have a lot of time to read you can still get started. Choose the book that speaks to your current situation the most. And, most importantly, make sure you implement the new ideas you are learning through your reading.

Are you ready for the holidays? Are the gifts purchased and ready to hand out to your employees before the holiday break? If you haven’t even started yet, you are not alone. Many shoppers procrastinate. And, for many it isn’t because they don’t want to purchase the gift, they just don’t know what to buy. It’s hard enough when you are buying for people you know personally, but times it by ten when you are choosing gifts for your employees.

This can be the year you get ahead on your gift giving. Use these tips to choose holiday gifts your employees will actually want to receive.

Everyone loves cash

It will be hard for you to find an employee that doesn’t love receiving cash. It’s an easy way to give your staff something that every person will use. And, since they can choose what they spend it on you know it will either be something that they really needed or that they want. However, there are some reasons you might not want to hand cash out for the holidays, and the main one is lack of it in the first place. It’s one thing if your employees is able to open an envelope with a few hundred dollar bills in it. But, it doesn’t hold the same excitement when the envelope has a single twenty in it. Then, it’s better to go with purchasing a gift.

Give an experience

People are overloaded with stuff and they don’t always need or want more of it. So instead, offer them an experience. This can be tailored to the staff that you have. If you have a lot of employees with young children consider throwing a holiday party at the zoo. Your employees can spend time with their families seeing the animals and you can kick it off with a meal with your entire group together. There is nothing that people love as much as their families so when you include them in the holiday party your employees will truly appreciate it. This also helps your team grow closer as they get to connect on a more personal level outside of work.

If you want to keep it to just employees take everyone to an Escape Room. Your employees can try to beat the clock, or each other if you are split into groups. When everyone has finished, take them out to lunch or for a drink.

Or, give them a gift certificate so they can have an experience with the people of their choosing. If you are completely honest you know that your employees don’t always like the idea of hanging out with coworkers when they could be with their family or friends. In this case, you can provide them a gift certificate to dinner and a movie and allow them to go with the people that are special in their life.

Give them something they will use

People love getting consumables because they don’t have unlimited space to store more items. Do not give your employees a gift with the company logo on it. Do not give them a coffee mug, paperweight, or any other promotional type item. If you are struggling to think of a gift, go with something that they can consume. If you know they are wine drinkers you can buy them a bottle of wine. Or, follow suit with other companies that provide each employee with a Christmas ham, steak, or prime rib. These are nice touches that you turn into a company tradition and do every year. It makes it easy for you and will become something that your employees look forward to receiving.

Personalize it

If you have a small staff consider personalizing the gifts to each person. Stick to the same budget for each employee, or based upon their position and status in the company. In order to pull this off successfully, you will need to know your employees so you can choose something that you know they have been wanting or something they will love. While this tends to be more time consuming it will also be appreciated by each member of your staff.

Choosing gifts does not need to be a stressful process. However, if you wait until the last minute it will definitely increase your stress level. Start early to make your process smooth and to assure you have gifts for your staff before the holiday arrives.

You’ve heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but that isn’t the only good thing morning has going for it. Establishing a morning routine helps you get your day started off right. It also helps set the tone for the remainder of the day. Highly successful entrepreneurs and businessmen and women around the world follow this advice. While their routines don’t look the same, there are some similarities between many of them. These 7 morning routine tips can help you have a more productive day:

Make getting dressed easy

There are a couple of strategies that you can follow to make getting dressed a breeze. For example, Mark Zuckerberg decided to stop wasting time on getting dressed every morning. He wears basically the same outfit every day. This eliminates the decision making progress. He knows what he is going to wear and can get dressed without wasting time thinking about it.

If the thought of wearing the same thing every day is more than you can handle, choose your clothes at night. Layout every article of clothing you are going to wear down to the accessories. In the morning you can simply shower and put your clothes on. Make yourself stick to it.

Exercise

There are many benefits to exercising, especially in the morning. Making this part of your morning routine can help boost your mood throughout the remainder of the day. Here are a few of the benefits of adding exercise to your morning routine:

Get up at the same time everyday

Wake up at the same time every day, even on the weekend. It’s hard to stick to a morning routine if you wake up whenever you feel like it. Doing so also allows you to follow through on the rest of your morning routine.  While you’re at it, avoid hitting the snooze button.  Set your alarm for the time you want to wake up and then actually get up at that time. Those extra five minute increments between obnoxious buzzing does not make you feel better in the long run.

Have a written plan

Plan your day out the night before. This lets you know exactly what you have coming in the morning. It will also help you to stick to the schedule and waste less time on indecision. You will wake up with an instant sense of direction, knowing exactly what you need to be doing. It will be easier to make purposeful decisions during the day. You can even carry a routine through many other parts of your day. For example, set aside a certain time each day for checking email. Or, keep only the afternoons open for meetings and do not spend the first part of your day sitting and listening to others.

Avoid grabbing your phone first thing

Smart phones have given us easy access to our emails and social media accounts. Many people instantly grab for their phone as soon as their eyes pop open. They are then checking their emails before their feet even hit the floor. When you do that you are putting other people’s to-do list at the top of your priorities for the day. When you start responding to their questions or concerns you can easily find that you have lost most of your morning and been distracted from the things that were on your to-do list.

Ashton Kutcher found this to be a problem, so he simply stopped checking his email in the morning, and you can do. Avoid checking it until you have accomplished the things that you wanted to in the morning. Make it through your morning routine and cross the most important things off your list before turning your attention to the demands of others.

Spend some time with family

Spending time with those we love does wonders for our attitude. There is a lot of information about the importance of sitting around the dinner table as a family together, but the same can be said for breakfast. Elon Musk devotes part of his morning routine to helping his children prepare for their day. Plan time to talk with your spouse and children in the morning. Eat breakfast together, pack lunches together, or drive to school and work together. Make your family a priority because they are the ones you are coming home to at the end of the day.

Go to bed at the same time

A good morning routine actually starts at night. In fact, Michael Hyatt is just as particular about his evening routine. He always tries to be in bed at the same time each night. To make this happens he has a routine of when he starts to wind down for the day. Going to sleep at the same time every day helps your body get used to your sleep schedule, making it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep. Getting enough rest overnight makes it easier to get up in the morning without needing to drag yourself out of bed.

There is no argument that a morning routine will help you get your day started right. However, what you include with your morning routine is up to you. Try out a few things and don’t be afraid to make a change if it isn’t working. Whether you wake up at 4 am or 11 am, a routine can make all the difference.

 

Denis Waitley is credited with saying, “If you are not networking, you’re not working.” While there is a lot of truth to this statement, there is a lot more to it. There is a big difference between networking the right way and simply wasting your time. Properly networking leads to valuable business contacts and a relationship that is mutually beneficial. So, how do you network the right way?

You have to talk to others

This might seem like an obvious piece of advice, but it’s something that business people get wrong on a regular basis. Showing up to a networking event, eating appetizers, roaming around the room, and then leaving is not networking. When you know you will be attending an event you need to cultivate a plan.

Think about what value you can bring to others that will be attending the event. Is there anyone that you want to target out? Is there someone that you can offer to help? Or a connection that you know would be a good fit for both sides? And, if you find yourself talking to someone that you weren’t expecting, be all-in on the conversation. Remember that you never know what connections someone has. You might be surprised at a great connection that you are able to make in an unexpected place.

Focus on the other person

Too many people show up at a networking event looking for what they can get out of the situation. They are only out to better their business situation. People can pick up on this situation in an instant, and they don’t like it. The best way to make a connection when you are networking is to focus on the person you are talking to.

Ask them questions to learn more about their business. Look for the ways that your talents and skill match up with what they are looking for. Can you help them out with an area of their business? Keep your focus on what you can do for them instead of automatically trying to figure out what they can do for you. If you take the time to invest in them, in the long-run it is going to benefit you as well.

Don’t always talk to the same people

It is more comfortable to talk to people that you already know, but it is not as beneficial. It can be good to have multiple conversations when working to build a relationship, but if you are always talking to the same people at networking events you will never expand your network. Spend some time mingling with people you have never met before.

If you find yourself struggling to talk to different people try setting a goal for each event. Choose how many people you want to have real conversations with before you leave the event. Then you will find yourself moving around the room more as you try to meet your goal.

Don’t be afraid to talk about other topics

Everyone networks for the sake of building their business connections right? That is true, but that doesn’t mean that you need to talk about work nonstop. Some of the best connections are established through shared interests, not necessarily related to work. People want to do business with people they like. Maybe you are both fans of the same sports team. Or, maybe your children attend the same school. People are more willing to help those that they have a personal connection with.

In order to do this ask lots of questions to learn more about the person. Purposefully look for a connection that you can make with them. If you both like craft beer than you can always set up a follow-up off-hours dinner at a local brewery.

Be confident

Networking is one of the things that many people dread more than anything. This makes them anxious and nervous as they go into the event. This leads to either being too fearful to talk to others, or talking to the people that you are already comfortable with. Instead, do the opposite. Choose to be confident. If you don’t feel confident, fake it ’til you make it. Stand up tall, put your shoulders back, smile, and make eye contact with people when you walk around the room. Then, be yourself when you are talking to others.

Don’t forget your business cards

This seems obvious when you are networking, but it is all too common that people forget to bring their cards. Don’t be that person. There is no reason to try networking and building relationships if you aren’t going to provide them with an easy way to contact you. Keep cards in your pocket or your purse. When you are finished speaking with someone ask them for their card. The majority of people are going to ask for your card in return.

The best way to leverage networking in your favor is to focus on benefiting someone else. Work to make real connections with other people. See how you can assist them with their goals before asking them to do the same in return. True networking is about making connections. You never know when a connection you have is going to be able to benefit your business.

Black Friday is the best day of the year for some consumers. They look forward to hitting the stores in the early morning hours after Thanksgiving draws to a close. One of their favorite parts of Thanksgiving is scouring the ads that have been released to create their plan of attack. There are great deals to be had at many stores. On the other hand, though, Black Friday creates a challenge for many businesses. Owners are forced to determine if they should close for the day or take part in the craziness of the day. There are pros and cons for opening on Black Friday, so think carefully before deciding.

Pros of opening on Black Friday

  1. You can take advantage of the shared advertising

People everywhere know about Black Friday. They purposely watch for and inquire about what deals are being offered where. People are out and about hitting the stores on Friday, so why not be one of the stores that are open for them to stop in to. Word spreads quickly about where the deals are, so come up with something interesting and you will be able to draw a lot of attention from the sale buzz that is flying around.

  1. People are willing to try new things on Black Friday

Consumers love getting a deal so much that they will buy things they have never purchased before, and even things they don’t need, in order to save money. And, they will be excited about doing it. That means your small business can take advantage of pulling in new clients and convincing them to give your product or services a shot.

This can also be a way to expand your market and gain customers that might not have found you otherwise.

  1. You can move products and clear your shelves

Black Friday is a great day to move out your old products. Consumers are looking for deals. If you run a good sale it is a great way to move out the old product without ending up having to count it as a loss. After all, the entire point of Black Friday is to help businesses keep their bottom line in the black.

Cons of opening on Black Friday

  1. Consumers are looking for a steal

There are a lot of consumers out shopping, but they are looking to score the best deal. They aren’t interested in buying products at the same price that they could get on a normal sale. If you choose the wrong sale to highlight on Black Friday you could end up with no shoppers coming to your store, or not making enough profit because you lowered the price too much.

  1. Intense competition

Competition is good for business, but maybe not the type of competition that you find on Black Friday. On this day shoppers are looking for the best deal, not just any deal. They are comparing prices between multiple stores, something many shoppers don’t typically do. That means if another store trumps your sale you could end up paying your staff to man your store and wind up with little to no activity.

  1. Your staff might not be open to the idea

If you are going to open on Black Friday you need to be prepared and have the proper staff to run your business. With an extra rush of shoppers, you will want to be ready with a store full of employees to help keep shelves stocked, answer questions, and to provide your shoppers with a smooth checkout experience. If your staff hates the idea of working the day after Thanksgiving when they used to have it off think carefully about deciding what to do. If you have great employees sometimes it is better for your bottom line to reward them for their work, then to push them over the edge with a busy work day.

Decision Time

There is no standard right or wrong answer to opening or closing on Black Friday.  With extra shoppers hitting the stores you could have a great day of sales. But, with additional competition and rock-bottom prices you might struggle to make a profit. The choice is really yours.

If you decide to close on Black Friday remember that there are still a couple other options for you. If you own an e-commerce business you can take advantage of Cyber Monday. This is always the Monday after Black Friday. Or, if you are a small business with a storefront you can run a special for Small Business Saturday. This is the day after Black Friday. Determine what will work the best for your business.

Sales can be a tricky thing to navigate as a team. You want to work towards company goals together, but there is a level of competition among those working in the department together. It is common to see a leaderboard up in the break room or conference room so everyone can easily track who has the most sales so far in the month. While this seems like it would be a good way to motivate each person to try harder, it is not the best way to improve sales as a team. If you are ready to improve your business as a whole, make these changes in your sales team:

  1. Set SMART goals

Goal setting needs to happen at three different levels within a sales team.

  1. From the top – The first goal that needs to be established is from the very top of the company, the business owner or CEO. There should be big picture goals that the company is working towards.
  2. At the department level – Once the sales team knows what the goal is of the business they need to establish goals as a team that will help the company work towards their big picture goal.
  3. Individually – Once the sales department knows what the goals of for their department each person is able to set their own individual goals that will help the team reach their goal together.

However, goal setting will get you nowhere if you are setting the wrong goals. In order for your goals to work they need to be SMART.  That means they need to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Here is the difference:

Example of setting a goal that is not SMART – I want to increase sales

Example of turning this into a SMART goal – I want to increase my rate of closing  sales by 10% by the end of the 4th quarter.

If you set the first example as your goal you have no way of holding yourself accountable for the goal. There is no deadline and there is no real way to measure if you are getting where you want to be because there is no specific number you are trying to reach.

  1. Make a plan

Once your sales team has their goals in place it is time to make a plan to reach them. This won’t surprise you, but the majority of people either don’t set goals or they do not achieve the goals they set. That is because they don’t make a plan. Life is busy and happens quickly. If you don’t make a plan each day is going to continue to go by. You will be working hard to keep up with the items that you need to do for the day, but you will not be getting ahead. You will make no progress towards your goal, and if you do it will be by accident.

Break your SMART goal down into actionable steps. If you take the example of the SMART goal above here are some steps you could put into place:

These are just a few examples to get you started. When your goals is in place you need to look at it and think about what steps you need to do in order to realistically accomplish your goal by the deadline.

  1. Don’t let failure stop you – learn from it instead

It takes special people to work in sales. It is the one department in business that has to deal with constant rejection (OK, any maybe the customer service department). That can be difficult to deal with and bounce back from. One of the main reasons that people do not set SMART goals is because they are afraid of failing by not accomplishing the goal they set for themselves. However, not reaching  a goal is not something to be afraid of. It is something to learn from.

Sales teams would find far greater success if they started sharing failures with each other in order to learn from them as a team. If a lead on sale fails to convert or the team as a whole fails to meet their monthly goal, what happens? It’s a failure, so what does that mean? It should mean that you know have new information to evaluate in order to keep working towards your goal. Use this new information to determine what changes you need to make in order to hit your goal the next time.

Be strategic as a team

The main things that hurt a sales team is the fact that they never work as a team. Each sales person is working to accomplish the same goal. When the members of the team come together and are strategically working towards the same goal, a shift will begin to happen in their minds. This is when a sales team really starts to win.

 

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