Welcome to 2020. It’s a fresh year and a fresh decade. With that, comes a whole host of new opportunities. If you’re a business owner, a new year can mean a chance to grow your business, earn more and build a foundation for long-term success.

Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been in business for years, these tips can help you improve your company.

1. Evaluate where the business is and decide where you want to take it.

The first step to building and sustaining a strong business is evaluating the current position of your company. Get an understanding of how you and your company are performing overall. Here are a few questions to help get you started.

• Are you making a profit?
• Do you have a strong team around you?
• Are the tools you need to do your job in good shape or do you need new ones?
• Are you offering the right services?
• Do you need to update your website?

Once you’ve assessed your business overall, decide where you want to take your business this year and even in the next five years.

• Do you want to increase your staff?
• Are you interested in offering new services?
• Do you need to update or create new marketing materials?

Now that you have your goals and priorities in place, develop a plan to tackle each step by prioritizing your goals, making sure they’re attainable in the timelines you’ve set and start working on them.

2. Focus on your profits, rather than your revenue.

Want to achieve real financial success? Focus on profit rather than revenue. A business’ revenue is a good indicator of cash flow, but it doesn’t always indicate a successful company. If your expenses are higher than your revenue, you’re not making money.

Take a look at what it costs you to run your business and compare it to your earnings—where do you stand? If your cost to do business is more than you’re earning, work to lower those costs. Earning more revenue isn’t the only way to make money.

Here are a few ways you can work to lower your business costs:

• Streamline your team: You’re only as strong as your team. To improve profits and strengthen your business, make sure you have the right people in place; that you’re taking care of them, so they stick around and keep them trained, so they can do the best work possible.
• Maximize your time: Wasted time is wasted dollars. If you or your team are spending hours traveling to different jobsites each day, try to schedule your routes or jobs, so you’re not spending as much time on the road.
• Cut non-essential expenses: It can be difficult to decide what is and isn’t an essential expense, but once you’ve mapped out your business goals it can be easier to parse the difference.
• Improve tools for better output: Make sure you’re keeping your tools and vehicles in good shape. Repairs cost far less than replacement.
• Take advantage of supplier programs and discounts: Rebate programs, bulk-buy opportunities and other supplier programs can help you cut costs when it comes to purchasing products.

3. Keep your workload manageable.

As a business owner, your time and energy are precious and more work doesn’t always mean a good thing. In order to sustain success and the longevity of your business, try not to take on too much at once.

If you’re working harder to balance workload than you are on the actual work, you’re probably spreading yourself too thin. This puts you at risk of injuring someone on your crew, damaging your tools or vehicles and could cost you more in the long run.

4. Continue learning and try new things.

As a business owner, you know your company better than anyone else, but that doesn't mean you know it all. Always remain open to new ideas, improvement opportunities and new technology. Staying on top of trends and being open minded is what will help sustain your business for years and even decades to come.

There are a variety of ways to stay in the know, including industry publications, tradeshow events, supplier communication, and even your younger employees.

While it can be daunting to open yourself up to new things, remaining stagnant won’t help improve your business and could put you at risk of losing business.

What are your plans for 2020? Are you looking to implement new services or expand your business? Are you focusing on improving profit overall? Share your plans with us and let your local Ewing representatives help you achieve your goals.