5 New Year Resolutions for Businesses in 2020

What the new year brings to you depends a great deal upon what you can bring to the new year!

The first few weeks of every year are full of resolutions that crash and burn almost immediately. So if your new year's resolutions aren't doing very well, here are a few practical new year resolutions that you can incorporate into your business - hopefully, in time for the upcoming financial year.

While most articles outline a bunch of resolutions and then provide you with a bonus tip at the end, we are starting with a pro-tip first because this one is a new year's resolution that actually makes sense.

Pro-tip: Make practical and achievable business resolutions
Big or small, your business needs to be practical while setting a new year's resolution. From crazed business targets to rebranding, a lot of business resolutions can be a tad impractical if not completely over the top. It is always great to have resolutions that are achievable and practical in nature. Remember, these resolutions are additional responsibilities to your existing business responsibilities and cannot be the only point of focus for the new year. A mission statement along with a projected timeline can give you a solid footing of how you can achieve your business resolutions.

Practical new year resolutions are those that will stick and definitely encourage you to work toward improved business operations, here are some that should help you get started.

1. Listen to your customer
There's good reason why the age old business philosophy of ’the customer is always right’ exists to this day. It is more important than ever to listen to your customers. Today, most customers know what they want and they will not hesitate looking for an alternative option. Focus group sessions, feedback forms, surveys, customer support programs will give you the answers you need to grow your business. Remember, the internet has empowered customers to be vocal about their feedback - if you aren’t listening, you aren’t making progress.

2. Use technology to automate tax function
One of the easiest ways to boost productivity and efficiency is by opting to use technology to run your business operations. Mundane tasks like GST return filing, e-way bill generation, order and inventory management can be optimized by digitally transforming the functional departments or even by using automation or AI enabled systems. Start with smaller yet significant steps like automating easy yet time consuming tasks like recording transactions digitally and expand the scope of technology enabled operations moving forward. Smart moves like moving from on-premises to cloud management systems can work wonders for moving up your business’s productivity index. 2020 will be an important year for businesses all over the country as the Government will be introducing live invoice reporting and a revamped GST compliance system. It's time to start on the path toward a digitally transformed business.

3. Encourage work life balance
In an acclaimed letter to his HR department, founder of Infosys, Narayana Murthy had said the reason most organisations struggle with achieving work life balance because they don't encourage adhering to timelines. Many professionals are willing to work late hours, irrespective of the work pressure, thereby setting ridiculous levels of work expectations. As employees progress in their personal lives, they start struggling with keeping up with these expectations. Thus begins the challenge of achieving work life balance. Simple initiatives can help rectify such situations while being cost effective to your business. Timelines, wellness coaching, flexible work hours, ensuring the mental health of employees, etc. are just some initiatives that can help encourage work-life balance.

4. Giving back to employees
A significant and very achievable resolution for a healthier work environment is to incorporate the practices of diversity and inclusion. A sustainable work culture is one that believes and practices equality across a diverse workforce of employees. Supporting employee resource groups for women, veterans, specific communities like LGBTQ will help provide with opportunities to grow in the workplace regardless of gender, background, or life preferences.

5. Community outreach
A lot of businesses wish to reach out to the community and work toward creating a path giving back to the community with social responsibility activities. Businesses are responsible for the impact they have on the community where they are doing business and making profits. Giving back to the community using community outreach initiatives like setting up of rural empowerment programs, education programs for the underprivileged, initiatives for a reduced carbon footprint and a greener planet are just some rewarding ways that can be incorporated by a business.

To summarize, automate your tax systems, encourage work life balance, start giving back to employees and community. Remember, opt for practical, achievable and most importantly, measurable business resolutions.

Click here to know more about what Avalara can help you automate your GST compliance process.