Getting your small business off to a good start - 2013

We hope that you had a festive and safe holiday season filled with family and friends.  The season of peace and reflection now has given way to the start of a new year, new hope, and new opportunities.

How can small business owners help themselves get off on to a good start for 2013?  Here are a few tips:

Budget - Have a realistic budget for your small business and stick to it.  How do you go about creating a budget?  You need good data and information to start with.  Making sure that your business expenses are booked correctly helps.  Don't fret if unexpected expenses such as a repair comes up during the year.  These are one time events necessary to keep doing business. 

Get value for your dollars - when you look at your expenses, don't look to cut costs, look to see if there are opportunities to increase the value you get for the dollars you spend.  Shop around and find what works for your small business.

Remember customer experience matters - take care of the customer's needs first and make sure their experience is positive.  Give your customers a reason to come back to you, think of you for other needs or recommend you to others.

Stop, start and continue - Take some time to think about your business and make a list of things to stop, start and continue.  Stop the things you are doing that are not working or is not providing value to your small business.  Once you stop things that aren't working you will have some time to start things that you need to do for your small business.  Also, continue the things that are working and are valuable to your small business. 

These are just a few tips to getting a small business off to a good start for 2013.