As we draw near to another completed year and a whole new decade! Small businesses need to take the opportunity to look at what 2020 means for their operations and business development. For business owners, it's essential to plan for the year and we give some areas to focus on.

Small businesses should start with a reflection

First, plan a meeting and reflect on the prior year. It's important to take time going over accomplishments and targets. Give a clear indication to your employees, investors and business partners where you want your business to go in 2020. Make sure the goals set are realistically achievable within a 12-month time frame.

Plan a marketing schedule

Make it easier for your business to hit touch-points and plan a marketing schedule. Look at previous marketing campaigns and see what worked well and what did not. Giving you a clear outline of where to ad spend and channels to focus on.

Invest in cloud services

2020 is a big year for communications with the shutdown of the landline first approaching. Make sure your business isn't left behind by investing in cloud solutions to unify and improve communications. Cloud phones have a range of benefits your small business can take advantage of such as remote working, call and video conferencing etc.

Build your community

Spend 2020 focusing on networking and attend industry events to meet like-minded individuals. Networking can offer a load of benefits such as venture capital, new business partners and insights into your market. Build a community around your small business which can both inspire and enable goals to be met.

New website

Start off the new year with a makeover and redesign your existing website. It's been proven that Google favours updates when it comes to search engine rankings. Furthermore, the search engine will be moving to Mobile-first Indexing by default. Making your website optimised for mobile is essential as 27.8 billion more queries are performed on mobile than desktop.

Focus on existing customers

While it's exciting to acquire new customers don't forget existing ones. Studies have shown that a customer who has been with your business for five years is more valuable than a new customer. Take the time in 2020 to appreciate and connect with customers by offering exclusive offers through touch-points i.e: email campaigns.

Prepare for automation

Automation is one of the top marketing trends of 2020.  Audit your processes to find opportunities where technology can make processes easier and heighten the chance of ROI. Small businesses should be open to incorporating cloud solutions into their business. Make tools work for you rather than manually populating spreadsheets.

Email and social media are crucial channels for small businesses

As stated in a study by Mailchimp, email and social media are crucial channels for small business. For example, 87% of pinners have purchased a product because of Pinterest. Social media can create a big presence for your brand so make sure to focus on key channels such as Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram.

Final thoughts

2020 is a big year, make sure your business is best prepared to succeed. By focusing on these points you will have the chance to re-brand, improve customer retention and reach new audiences - all needed for success in the modern age of business.