If you’re a business owner, the end of the year comes with an added set of goals beyond the “read a book a week” items that appear on your own personal list. We’ve been through this process enough to know that after they’re set, goals can easily get relegated to a piece of paper in your drawer (or these days, a dormant list on Wunderlist), so we always try to add actionable next steps to each item: those small things that will get us closer toward the end goal. Beyond that little tip, though, this year we’d like to submit another layer to add into your year-end-goalmaking. Instead of just dreaming it all up again (which is both great and important), ask yourself this question: in what ways is my business vulnerable? Don’t limit yourself to only thinking about improvements on your given business trajectory – take this 2014 out for a spin and broaden the conversation to ask yourself what the future of your industry looks like, and where you fit into that space.
With each passing year, industries can change dramatically, and every business (if it’s not careful) can run the risk of becoming obsolete. So, this year, in addition to our broader 2014 aspirational goals, we took a good look at ourselves and tried to find the areas where we think we’re vulnerable. Here’s what we came up with:
1. Access
As technology continues to move at a breakneck pace, the web is quickly becoming commoditized. How do we continue to compete with an ever-increasing template-based website landscape where off-the-shelf options are constantly getting better, more accessible, and cheaper?
2. Social media
Being a web shop means helping people communicate on the web (in all capacities), and social media is a huge piece of that landscape.
3. Content
Even when developed on the best-designed and best-built content management platform, a website can languish due simply to a business being too successful to dedicate time to its upkeep. Understanding that people need help running a site is more important than that magical backend on which it’s built. Those are just a few from our list. Now here’s the fun part. Take your list and see what you can do to build aspects of your business model that address those items. Do that, and you don’t just have goals – you have a stronger business. Check back with us in a few months; we’ll give you an update on how we’re doing.
