As the new year approaches, a new landscape is rolled out for business owners and entrepreneurs. Whether you are starting from scratch and beginning a new playbook, or determined to continue on with what works, there are plenty of wishes a business leader might have in mind for their operation in the new year ahead of us. The wish list for this new year could be long or short, and the variety of wishes can range in a large way from each entrepreneur to the next. But one thing is for certain – each business leader is sure to have some wishes for 2013.
Rescue a CEO and CEO Blog Nation asked entrepreneurs what their wishes are for the upcoming year.
To drive more adoption in the field
As a marketer, my wish list for the business is to drive more adoption in the field. While the executive suite sees the value of marketing, I would like to see the light bulb go off throughout the field to recognize that marketing can indeed help drive demand generation and lead generation. As part of that, I would like to have the field also help us measure performance by closing the loop on campaigns. It is critical to have buy-in at the closure stage, so we can measure our success. And I would be remiss if I didn’t add a bigger marketing-budget request to my wish-list, to do more branding and enhance the campaigns we roll out.
Thanks to Ali Din, dinCloud
Become a great crowdfunding success story
Becoming a great crowdfunding success story is at the top of our wish list for 2013. The JOBS Act’s crowdfunding provision will come into play in 2013, and many sites are poised to help businesses conduct the initial funding from the general public. These sites include Fundable, Rockethub, Launchpad, and WeFunder. If we plunge into crowdfunding next year, we would wish for an incredibly successfully crowdfunding story, where we can meet our million dollar initial funding goals, then team up with a VC for a first or second round of funding beyond that, and finally a nice acquisition or a different “exit” shortly after that. All this is of course assuming the SEC comes up with some sensible rules (which as it stands is not the case).
Thanks to Michael Pesochinsky, GovernmentBargains
Learning to be okay with asking for help
My wish list is to, after 11+ years of taking everything in my business on by myself, learn to accept that it's okay to ask for help. My business is my baby. Every major decision I've been in charge of. But after this many years, I've grown to the point that I'm exhausted from all of the work and doing the behind the scenes stuff like marketing takes me away from my core work of helping people find the right lawyer for their situation. So my wish list is to find vendors I can be comfortable with so I can breathe a bit. Makes no sense to be successful if life is passing you by or you are overwhelmed with work.
Thanks to Michael Helfand, FindGreatLawyers
Scaling my company
My 2013 Wishlist is easy. I am looking to scale my company this year and my wishlist includes finding a couple of similar talents to partner with to expand my business reach. As a solopreneur, I am getting to the point where I can no longer just go “get the deal” I need to cultivate partnerships so that I am not doing everything alone. I started that in 2012 by outsourcing some major tasks that I had been doing, now is the biggie – finding the co-headliner for some of my bigger opportunities.
Thanks to Denise W. Barreto
Make better use of social media
At Cybermark International, most of the work we do revolves around getting our customers increased site traffic, and as such we are always looking for new ways to boost their rankings on search engines like Google and Yahoo. As the CEO and owner of the company, my biggest goal is to better use social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pintrest as stepping stones to heightened site traffic and better search engine exposure. Social media is constantly increasing in popularity, and utilizing it to the fullest for our clients, as well as constantly integrating new sites and programs as they appear is definitely my biggest goal for 2013.
Thanks to Kimberly Judd-Pennie, Cybermark International
Having everything assembled in the United States
When I founded TRÜ PROTECTION in 2009, my goal was to produce, manufacture, and assemble all of our high quality accessories for mobile and handheld electronics in the United States. We grow closer and closer to that goal each year, as our cell phone cases are 100% American made, and by the end of 2013, I hope to be able to say the same thing about all of our products. As our company expands, we plan to grow our packaging facility this year. We have collaborated with artists such as Erik Abel, Jay Alders, Heather Brown, and singer Kellie Pickler (among others) to create designs for our cell phone cases, with a percentage of each sale donated to charitable organizations that we support (such as the American Cancer Society’s “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Campaign” and environmental groups including Heal the Bay, Seathos Foundation, and Surfers for Cetaceans, among others). In 2013, we want to expand our collaborations with like-minded artists to support charitable organizations that affect our communities in a positive manner. As TRÜ PROTECTION expands this year, we will continue to remain dedicated to our values of being both socially and environmentally responsible.
Thanks to Keiko Napier, TRÜ PROTECTION
Making the ‘honest' product a reality
I’ve been a bar and restaurant owner in Chicago since 1995. I have been working on a new off premise bottled cocktail with my business partner Charles Joly, who is a world renowned mixologist. The goal is to take the proper high end cocktails we serve at our cocktail lounge, The Drawing Room, and deliver them in a bottle that can be sold in a liquor store. I’m a big believer in quality and would never serve or drink the stuff I see in stores now. Our product will use real ingredients and will be what we call the only “honest” product in the marketplace. We’ve been tweaking our product to the point that we think people won’t be able to tell the difference between the cocktails Charles makes in competitions he enters and the one we will sell in a bottle. That would be quite a milestone for us as we’ve been working toward this for about 14 months. Here’s hoping we can pull it off. To me it’s invigorating to take my business in a different direction.
Thanks to Matt Lindner, Crafthouse Cocktails
Getting my spouse on board with the business
My wish-list for 2013 is to get my husband fully on-board into my business. He also recently quit his corporate job to work for our company, Prolific Living Inc. Our main goal is to create multiple sustainable passive income streams to fund our mission of helping others get out of miserable jobs and pursue their dreams with tools and courses and resources that we provide. We want to show that 2 engineers who only knew how to be a good employee in Corporate America can build a sustainable successful thriving business and prove that you can too.
Thanks to Farnoosh Brock, Prolific Living Inc.
More business-friendly legislation
In 2013, we would like to see some more small business-friendly legislation much like the original Israeli YOZMA, which is a government-based seed and venture fund designed to invest capital in order to launch and grow startup companies. The U.S. needs to back small businesses, and creating a fund to jump start these businesses can also greatly aid the economy. In addition, if we can see an end to employer-based payroll taxes for companies with less than 10 employees and less than $5 million in revenue, hiring would be less expensive and more desirable. This would also give job seekers more incentive to go work for these qualifying small businesses or startups. In a domino effect, all of this can sprout more businesses throughout the country and decrease the unemployment rate.
Thanks to Ian Aronovich, GovernmentAuctions
Reaching my goal of page numbers
I own a perfume ecommerce site with over 5000 designer fragrances. In ecommerce conversions is everything so I continue to test. A small increase in conversion can mean big jump in sales especially since we run a Google adwords campaign. So now the FIRST thing on my wish list is to have over 5000 pages on the site in same exact format. The Goal is to have all of them done by April in order to get ready for Mother's day sales.
Thanks to Sonny Ahuja, Grand Perfumes
Continue to inspire many
I'm determined to Inspire 1,000 women to create the Life that they love. Being a coach for women in business has opened my eyes to see the gap. There is a need for women to have a support system for their dreams and the accountability to make sure they happen! Kicking off the year with my monthly coaching group will set the right system in place for every women to be inspired. Inspired to create the life that they love. I am so excited! From relationships to business, I Inspire many.
Thanks to Casandra Roache, Inspire Many