New Year’s Resolution: Get your business moving in 2014

It may be just a flip of the calendar, but we don’t tend to treat the New Year that way. The New Year brings with it the chance for new beginnings. That’s why we make New Year’s Resolutions, right?

Just like we make resolutions for ourselves to exercise more, eat better, finally start writing that novel that you’ve always said you wanted to write, and that kind of thing, we make resolutions related to our businesses.

At the top of the list of those resolutions is the one related to getting more business to come in the door. New clients, new customers, new connections – that’s the lifeblood of any business.

It’s no secret how you do that. You need to get yourself and your business in front of as many new people as you can. They don’t just volunteer themselves to you, unfortunately. (Wouldn’t life be so much easier if that was the case?)

With the economy looking a little better every quarter, the change of the calendar from 2013 to 2014 is probably the best opportunity we’ve had in years to start thinking about what we can do to get ourselves out in front of more people.

Your business website may need a fresh look to make sure that you’re generating the kind of daily traffic that you need to make people more aware of what you do. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Tumblr – you may not have heard of all of these social media networks, but they can work for you, too, getting your word out to new people and getting them to come back for more.

And then making sure that what you do online and with social media works with other things you do to get the word out about your business – print advertising, TV, radio, peer-to-peer networking and the like.

Make it your New Year’s Resolution to make 2014 the year that you get a handle on what you need to do to get your business in front of more people, and translating that increased exposure into increased business.

Chris Graham is the president and CEO of Augusta Free Press LLC, a full-service web design, graphic design, video and audio production and marketing-services firm based in Waynesboro, Va. Email him at [email protected]. More on AFP is online at www.AFPBusiness.com.