As this long, long year nears an end (does anyone else feel like March was ages ago?), we must go back to the drawing board, assess our priorities, and think about how we’re going to prepare our businesses for the New Year.

If you’re reading this, it’s likely that you’re a business owner or you have a key role in the company you work at, and you have a few weeks to wrap up the old and bring in the new. It’s also most likely that you will either be gearing up for the busiest time of the year or slowing down before the holidays. In either case, here are 5 things you can implement so your business is ready to welcome 2021.

Review Your 2020 Goals

Yes, yes, yes, I know. This is going to be a tough one, because many of us didn’t reach our initial goals for 2020. However, in order to plan for a better year, we have to revisit what worked and what didn’t work — even though most of what didn’t work was due to force majeure (aka the pandemic). When we look at our goals with a critical, reviewing eye, we can assess the major reasons our goals were flawed and didn’t work. For example, I had set a goal to start two other businesses in 2020 and a YouTube channel, none of which happened. Could they have happened, though? I fully believe so. However, I spent most of 2020 in a funk thanks to the pandemic throwing our social lives into disorder and confining us to our homes. Realistically, I was aiming for more than I could stretch myself, and that was the problem, not the pandemic. Perhaps, when you review your goals you might realize that it wasn’t just the pandemic to be blamed when it comes to them.

Plan Your Next Few Weeks

This is going to differ according to how you usually spend December. If you’re in retail, this is going to be the busiest month of the year for you, but if you’re in any other industry it may or may not be the busiest. The good thing is that you can be prepared for either of these two scenarios: the ramp up and the slow down. Each has a different approach, but each requires a plan to approach it properly. Make sure you plan well and make sure you use those lessons you learned from reviewing your 2020 goals when planning for these few weeks.

End the Year Off With a Bang

No matter how your chosen way to spend the next few weeks is, make sure to end it on a high note: list your top business wins for the year, and celebrate them, no matter how small or big they are on the financial scale (after all, sometimes success in business is not all about the money).

Be Flexible With Your 2021 Goals

Set goals for the next year, but be smart about them. Set them in a way you can ensure that it won’t go sideways if something (God forbid, another 2020) happens. Don’t just set S.M.A.R.T. goals. Set flexible, specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and timely goals. Then stretch them 2X. And aim for that. You know, they say aim for the moon, you’ll land among the stars? If you want 10 clients in 2021, aim for 20, so that if you don’t get to 20, you’ll at least have surpassed those 10 you really wanted.

Think of Smart Ways to Expand Your Business

Do you want to increase your customer base? Your profits? Your bottom line? Who doesn’t, right? What if I told you there are ways to expand your business smartly without the need for you to spend double the time you already spend doing hard work on and in your business? If you’re on the Internet, you must have heard all about the craze to create passive income that converts while you sleep. There are many ways to do so, but today I’m offering you a new way that hasn’t been discussed before: translate your product/service and put it out there in a different language so you can reach a new target market, effortlessly. All you’ll need to do is hire a translator and digital marketer who specialize in your target language, and you can get some passive income rolling in no time!

If you’re interested, sign up for our mailing list and keep a lookout for the ultimate guide to hiring a good translator that we will be sending out on December 15.