6 New Year’s Resolutions Needed for the Success of Your Company in 2020

6 New Year’s Resolutions Needed for the Success of Your Company in 2020

Christmas is around the corner and if you work in Kenya you are probably planning to either travel for the holidays or feast over a goat or two with your extended family. As you unwind this Christmas remember to take some time to reflect on the milestones and challenges your company has faced in 2019. Start thinking about your new year’s resolutions for 2020.

A new year is a chance to embark on new opportunities. A chance for growth and a new perspective for the success of your business. The key is to work on the right resolutions early enough and create an actionable plan ahead of the new year. Here is some inspiration for new year resolutions that your company can adhere to to ensure success in 2019.

Resolution 1: Better cash flow management

For a growing company, cash is king. Any delay between when you pay your employees or suppliers and the time you collect money from your customers is detrimental. Better cash flow management means delaying outlays of cash as long as you can while encouraging anyone owing you to pay you faster. As part of your new year’s resolutions, this should rank at the top if this is a problem you experience.

A tip would be to create projections for the upcoming year to help alert you before trouble strikes. Start your projections by adding on cash on hand at the beginning of the period with other cash to be received from other sources. In the process, you will be able to gather information from the salespeople, service representatives, collections, and your finance department to determine how much of the bad debts and other sources you are able to get in and when.

Another tip is to improve your receivables by asking for deposit payments, credit checks on new non-cash customers, get rid of old outdated inventory, issue invoices promptly, and track accounts receivable regularly.

Resolution 2: Get the best office space for your team

If you’re stuck in a bad lease arrangement, and it’s due for renewal, it just might be the time to move your office to a better place. An office space accounts for a large part of your operational costs. An office space determines your company’s image and the kind of business you attract. Choosing the right office will also determine the productivity of your employees. This coming year choose the right office space for your company. At Nairobi Garage we have offices for all budgets, from shared plans to private offices. We offer flexible short term lease arrangements.  As a member, you can access and work from our different office spaces located in Spring Valley, Westlands, Kilimani and Karen.

We have a new office space in Spring Valley opening in January 2020

Resolution 3: Empower your employees

Empowering your employees requires a culture change. You will need to cultivate trust, master clear communication and create a system of strategic delegation. You will need to give your employees clear expectations by defining the boundaries they can act in. This will help give them permission to make their own decisions while ensuring the decisions are in line with the company’s goals.

Another proven way to empower your employees is to give them access to resources and current skills. Here in Nairobi garage, we provide free monthly workshops that you and your employees can take advantage of. We bring in field-specific industry leaders to cover a topic that affects businesses in Kenya, ensuring the growth of your company’s skill set.

As part of your new year’s resolutions in 2020, expose your employees to more training and the benefits will be immense.

Mr. James Mowria delivering a workshop on business success in Nairobi Garage

Resolution 4: Promote diversity

To have a dynamic high performing company, you need to incorporate diversity while building your team. People with similar backgrounds tend to look at problems in the same way. You need to add a person that sees things differently, that’s why it’s important to have the right gender or cultural balance. One of the secrets of building a successful team is combining employees with compatible (not similar) personalities. For example, if you pair two aggressive leaders in one team, they will be mired in constant power struggles.

Also, knowing that one individual cannot possess the bandwidth or necessary skills to execute a project is important. As a leader, you need to assemble the appropriate players based on their skills. Observe to see what someone is really good at and supplement their weakest skills with appropriate team members.

Resolution 5: Be More Flexible

The world is now connected more than ever before. With your employees being able to work remotely in different locations. Here at Nairobi Garage, we have different global companies with remote workers seated at our different spaces managed from different countries. While office face time is still critical, allowing your employees that flexibility dramatically improves their productivity and your company’s retention rate. I have seen some companies here in Nairobi giving one remote day per week to their employees to help save time and money on their daily commute. This helps in promoting work-life balance while giving your employees a sense of freedom.

Resolution 6: Provide experiences and benefits

More often than not I have heard different companies say they want to be like Google or other silicon valley companies in terms of culture. One easy way to do this is by adding experiences in your office space by adding small perks. You could subsidise lunch for your employees, create a gaming room, include an office bar, create prayer rooms, mummy rooms and do much more. If you don’t have the bandwidth to create such facilities, move your office to Nairobi Garage and let us do it for you.

The aim is to build trust and understanding among teammates while building a sense of family in the workplace. This way you can improve productivity, employees will want to stay in the office longer and you can greatly improve retention rates.