Forget resolutions: 5 things not to do with your business this year

Lewis Crompton is the CEO and founder of STARTrading

While ambition is great, most businesses don’t struggle because they aimed too low. They struggle because they keep doing the wrong things, just with more enthusiasm and energy!

Here are five things to stop doing in your business this year.

Don’t chase every new opportunity

One of the fastest ways to stall growth is by constantly pivoting. It can also drain your resources both energetically and financially. Not everything good is great for your business. Think about what opportunities align with what you want to achieve this year.

Businesses rarely fail from lack of ideas; they fail from lack of focus.

Every time you pivot, momentum resets, your audience gets confused, your team loses clarity and systems never get time to work from the last opportunity.

Instead, ask yourself what is already working that we can funnel more resources into instead of just starting something new for the sake of it, or because of boredom.

Don’t confuse being busy with making progress

Long hours can fool you into feeling productive. A packed calendar makes you feel important. Activity and progress are not the same thing.

Many founders spend their days answering low-level emails, tweaking logos and websites, and sitting in meetings about things that don’t drive growth or revenue.

Meanwhile, the real growth drivers like sales, product improvement, and creating new business get squeezed into ‘when I have time.’

This year, stop rewarding yourself for being busy. Instead, measure your week by outcomes. Did you generate leads? Did you improve conversion? Did you move the needle of revenue and profit in some way?

If your business stopped growing, would your calendar explain why? If the answer is yes, you’re working hard on the wrong things.

Don’t avoid the numbers

Many entrepreneurs love the vision, the brand, the product but quietly avoid the numbers. They feel like things are going well. Revenue is coming in. Clients seem happy, but secretly the wheels may be starting to come off. That is because they don’t have control or view over cash flow, profit margins, cost per acquisition, customer lifetime value and other need-to-know figures.

Hope is not a financial or business strategy. A business can be growing and still be heading for a cash crisis. A product can be popular and still be unprofitable.

This year don’t hide from the data. Look at the numbers monthly. Understand what drives profit, not just revenue. And if you are rubbish at the numbers, hire someone good at them. Clarity creates confidence. And confidence leads to better decisions.

Don’t try to do everything yourself

In the early days, wearing all the hats was normal. But too many founders stay in solo mode far too long. They are the marketer, the salesperson, the admin team and the customer support department all rolled up in one. Not to mention all the hats they are wearing in their personal life too.

At first, it feels scrappy and heroic and makes you feel amazing, if not drained. Eventually, it becomes a growth ceiling. If your business depends on you for everything, you don’t own a business; you own a very demanding job.

This year, stop asking, ‘How can I do this?’ Start asking, ‘Who could do this better than me?’ Delegation is a growth strategy. Even a few hours a week of the right support can free you to focus on high-value work that moves the business forward.

Don’t sacrifice your health ‘just for now’

This is the silent killer of long-term success. And it’s something I am truly guilty of but fixing this year.

Many founders treat burnout as a badge of honour, I did.‘I’ll rest once we hit this milestone.’ ‘This is critical’ (isn’t everything?!)‘I just need to push through this quarter.’

But businesses don’t grow because the founder is exhausted. They grow because the founder can think clearly, make good decisions, and lead with energy.

Your brain is your most valuable business asset. If you’re running on caffeine, stress and four hours sleep, your decision making will suffer, and so will your business and team.

Don’t treat your health as optional. Get better sleep, better food, regular exercise; these aren’t lifestyle luxuries. They are performance tools. A burnt-out founder with a great strategy will lose to an energised founder with a good one.

Top tip from my mindset coach, ‘rest is part of the strategy’.

Resolutions often fail because they focus on adding more. More goals. More strategies. Also known as… more pressure. But growth often comes from subtraction. Stop chasing everything. Stop glorifying busy work. Stop ignoring the numbers. Stop doing it all alone. Stop running yourself into the ground.

If you simply remove these five behaviours, you might be surprised how much faster and calmer your business grows this year.