There is a saying that if you're not getting better, you're getting worse. Even if your business is doing well, it is a bad idea to get complacent. These are six ways you can improve your small business.

1. Utilize High-Impact Marketing

Marketing is one of the most important aspects of creating a successful business. Effective marketing campaigns not only attract new customers but keep existing customers excited about and engaged with your brand. Thankfully, there are more low-cost ways to improve your marketing impact than ever before. You can send out a sales email or reach customers on social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram all for little more than the cost of the labour involved.
 

2. Maintain Accurate Financial Records

It is difficult to reach your business goals if you don't know what your current financial picture looks like. Keeping accurate financial records will help you track business trends and spot potential areas of improvement. If you don't have the in-house personnel to be able to do this, consider hiring an accountant.

3. Pay Attention to Trends

The market is always changing. If you don't stay on top of trends, it is easy to miss opportunities or become obsolete. Make sure you are staying aware of what is going on in the world and how this may impact your business. Pay attention to changes in local, state and federal laws. Keep track of any proposed changes to tax rules. Watch out for industry trends that could impact your sales or present a new opportunity to introduce a new product line or expand your market share.

4. Motivate Your Team

High turnover can seriously impact your bottom line and degrade the quality of the service you provide. It costs thousands of dollars to find, hire and train a new employee. Additionally, if your team is constantly understaffed or staffed by inexperienced employees, the service provided to customers is likely to suffer.

More employees leave jobs because they are dissatisfied with their work environment than because they are seeking a better opportunity elsewhere. One way to avoid high turnover is to ensure that your team is motivated and engaged. Make an effort to learn what motivates your employees. Solicit their input and act on their suggestions.

5. Avoid Burnout

Whether you are trying to save money by doing all the work yourself or simply are afraid to delegate tasks, it can be easy to allow running a business to take over your life. However, doing this can lead to burnout, which can end up hurting your business. Take regular vacations to give yourself time to rest and recharge. Learn to delegate tasks to your staff so that you are not micromanaging every aspect of your business. Don't undervalue your own time. Trying to do everything yourself may save you some money upfront, but you may sell your own time for pennies on the dollar by doing so.

6. Set Goals

For your business to improve you need to set goals that are specific, measurable, realistic and attainable and create an action plan to achieve them. Unrealistic goals are not very motivating and can even be demotivating, because employees may feel like they are being set up to fail. Goals that can not be measured are not very useful, because there isn't a good way to determine whether you are making any progress or even if you have achieved them.

The best goals are well-defined and challenging enough to provide motivation, but achievable enough that your team doesn't feel overwhelmed. Try breaking your big, long-term goals into smaller, shorter-term goals, so that you can work your way towards the larger goal while achieving milestones along the way. This will allow you to strive towards major achievements, while also racking up smaller victories.

Constantly looking for ways to improve is a good way to keep your business growing and avoid backsliding. These six methods can help you take your small business to the next level.