Are You Open to Ideas

How was your year?

Are you excited about next year?

As a business owner, or manager or even someone without a title, every once in awhile we should stop and plan for the future.  Problem is many people do it alone, or with limited input.

Last week subscribers of my Sound ADvice weekly newsletter got some advice that I’m sharing today including a link for more tips.  If you would like to receive this newsletter free of charge, send me an email to Scott@WOWO.com and simply ask for the newsletter.  It arrives every Wednesday morning except for holiday weeks.

Here’s the Sound ADvice for planning your new year:

Before you owned or were managing a business, you may have been on the other side as an employee, and you probably had a lot of ideas on how you could improve your employers’ businesses.

There’s an old saying, “None of us is as smart as all of us”, or, “Both of us are smarter than one of us.” 

Guess what, like you, your staff just may have some ideas on how to improve your business. They’re in the trenches facing customer complaints and questions every day and oftentimes may have thoughts on how and what it would take to create happier customers.

There are several ways you can benefit from inviting more staff input on how to grow your business:

1.) Odds are some of your staff are from a younger generation than you and may be better at coming up with ideas that appeal to their generation.

2.) People whose opinions are solicited and respected are likely to respond positively and be better employees.

3.) When you act upon a suggestion made by your employees, they have a moral obligation to see that initiative through to success.

As the new year is approaching, now is a wonderful time to set in motion ways to improve your business in 2024.  Start by including your trusted employees in a brainstorming session.

If you want to make 2024 better than 2023, click here to read some helpful tips on how to set up, implement, and execute a successful brainstorming session.