2021 年電子商務企業家的新年決心堆棧
已發表: 2021-08-15又是一年,又是一個重新開始的機會。 現在 2020 年(終於)結束了,我們正在迅速進入 2021 年,這是一年中調整心態、改變習慣和計劃未來一年的最佳時機。 問題是,大多數企業家將在沒有真正花時間為成功做好準備的情況下進入 2021 年——所以不要成為那個人。 花點時間選擇一兩個新年計劃,並為即將到來的事情做好計劃。
這不僅是一年中為自己的生活做出改變和設定目標的最佳時間,而且也是一年中為您的企業做同樣事情的好時機。 一月標誌著一年第一季度的開始,您有能力掌控這個新的開始,並將其轉變為富有成效且成功的基礎,您可以在此基礎上全年繼續開展業務。
沒有比現在更好的時間以積極的前景和生產力計劃關注未來——這就是我們為您帶來 2021 年新年綜述的原因。
多年來,這篇新年綜述帖子已成為我們博客上的一個傳統,每年我們都喜歡添加並更新我們全年學習和使用的新技巧、工具和資源。 如果你通常在沒有太多反思或目標設定的情況下讓新年溜走,今年我們敦促你不要這樣做。 相反,在今年年初留出一些時間來整理去年的鬆散結束並為來年做計劃。 一個小小的目標設定可以幫助你全年進步,真是太神奇了!
事不宜遲,請繼續閱讀以了解有關如何通過行動計劃邁向 2021 年的更多信息,為未來的成功和富有成效的一年做好準備。
讓我們度過精彩的一年。
反映
為了進入新的一年,重要的是要反思過去的一年,這樣您才能了解自己所處的位置以及應該如何繼續前進。
花點時間反思一下:
你的目標是什麼
你為2020年設定了什麼目標? 你有沒有設置? 在這一年裡,你實現了哪些,又慢慢放棄了哪些? 反思你在去年年初設定的目標選擇,並評估它們是現實的還是理想的,這樣你就知道今年如何為自己設定更好的目標。
你做得好
無論大小,今年一定有適合你的東西。 反思你做得好的地方,並給自己一些榮譽! 專注於不順利的事情並讓小小的成功在沒有慶祝的情況下溜走是很容易的。
列出你在 2020 年完成的所有事情,這樣你就可以在你面前看到今年你努力工作取得成果的一切。 你完成了工作,你讓事情發生了——所以讓自己感受一下你成功的影響吧!
你做得不好的地方
我們都會犯錯。 我們都計劃和執行不佳,但沒有必要糾結於此。 認識到你去年不擅長的地方,並考慮今年你可以如何改變這一點。
沒有堅持你的目標? 承認這一點並考慮今年你可以做些什麼不同的事情,這樣你才能真正實現它們。 犯了一些錯誤? 認識到你做錯了什麼,彌補自己,並考慮今年你會做什麼,以免再次犯同樣的錯誤。
保護您的資產
好了,現在是時候做一些家務了。
這可能不是您在為精彩的新年做準備時所想到的,但是,這是許多企業家全年忽略的極其重要的一步,從長遠來看,這最終可能會花費他們大量時間。
全年,我們中的許多人都因沒有正確更新、備份和保護我們設備上的重要信息而感到內疚。 在您進入又一個忙碌的一年之前,花點時間實際完成那些您一直推遲的任務並開始保護您的資產。
是的,這很乏味,是的,您可能認為這實際上並不那麼重要,但是防止資產受到損害比從中恢復要容易得多——所以請幫自己一個忙,並在為您的一年做準備時將其作為優先事項. 未來你會感謝你。
即使您不能讓自己為您的個人帳戶採取這些預防措施(即最終由您做出的決定),為了客戶的安全,您也必須保護您的企業資產。 為什麼? 當您是企業主時,您不再只是處理自己的信息,還要處理其他人的信息。
此外,您用於在線創收的任何渠道也應受到保護,以確保您的生計。
以下是保護資產的簡單方法。
更改密碼
過去,我們看到一些可怕的數據洩露事件有所減少,並且預計會繼續加速。 據了解,美國是有針對性的網絡安全攻擊的第一目標,這是一個令人不安的地方(來源)。 而且,由於識別數據洩露的平均時間為 196 天,如果您可以提供幫助,您不希望自己的個人或業務數據受到這麼長時間(或根本)的損害(來源)。
好消息是,您可以採取一些措施來幫助保護您和您的企業免受潛在的數據洩露和黑客攻擊。
首先,更改您的密碼。 毫無疑問,我們以前都聽說過這個技巧——它並不新鮮,但很有效。
定期更改密碼並為每個帳戶使用原始密碼有助於防止您的帳戶遭到入侵。 如果您是密碼回收者(大多數帳戶使用一個主密碼的人),那麼您所有在線帳戶的整體安全性可能會非常低且容易被黑客入侵。 如果您的一個帳戶被黑,而您對其他帳戶使用相同的電子郵件和密碼,則這些帳戶也很有可能被黑。
例如,過去幾年主要的數據洩露事件有 5 起:Facebook 數據洩露暴露 5000 萬用戶數據,酒店集團萬豪數據洩露影響 5 億客戶,Quora 數據洩露影響 1 億用戶,英國航空公司數據洩露影響了 380,000 名客戶,Ticketmaster 的數據洩露影響了 40,000 名客戶。 如果您在過去幾年內擁有任何服務的帳戶,您的數據和其他帳戶可能會受到損害。
每次發生數據洩露時,都可以合理地假設數據是在暗網上出售的——或者被黑客自己使用——來運行他們針對網絡上其他程序獲取的數據,以查看用戶可能使用過的其他地方相同的用戶名、電子郵件和密碼。 這就是為什麼不再接受為多個在線服務使用回收密碼的原因,因為它根本不安全並且使您面臨更大的風險。
然而,我們明白了。 記住許多不同的密碼很困難,這就是為什麼我們中有這麼多人是密碼回收者!
如果您有這種感覺,那麼您最好的選擇是使用 Dashlane 等密碼管理服務。 Dashlane 是目前最好的密碼管理服務之一,您可以免費使用它。 它存儲您的密碼,評估您的整體在線安全性,以便您了解您的帳戶的安全性,它可以幫助您更新您當前的帳戶,使其更加安全,並且無論何時您註冊一個新帳戶,它都會有所幫助您生成一個安全的密碼。
廣告
它使用起來非常簡單,每次登錄在線服務時都不必輸入密碼,而且它還會自動登錄,非常方便。 Dashlane 還會保存收據、個人信息和付款信息,以便妥善保管和更好地管理。
當您使用 Dashlane 時,您只需要記住一個您不用於任何其他帳戶的“主”密碼,它會記住其餘的。
啟用兩因素身份驗證
既然您已經整理了密碼,就安全而言,實施雙因素身份驗證(也稱為兩步驗證)是下一步。 使用 2FA,每次對您的帳戶進行登錄嘗試時,您都必須輸入一個額外的唯一 6 位代碼才能真正登錄。
2FA 不是每個帳戶都必須或可用的,並且添加 2FA 會通過創建一個額外的步驟來減慢您的速度,但是,對於存儲非常重要或敏感信息的帳戶,強烈建議啟用 2FA。
這是一個簡短的視頻,可以更好地解釋什麼是 2-Factor Authentication:
您絕對應該啟用 2FA 的帳戶包括:
您的電子郵件帳戶
這是一個巨大的。
如果您和大多數人一樣,您可能會使用 Gmail 等帳戶並通過它過濾其他電子郵件地址。 這意味著對於您使用的任何在線服務,您的恢復電子郵件(如果您忘記了密碼)會轉到您的 Gmail 帳戶。 這意味著如果有人進入您的電子郵件,他們可以更改所有其他密碼,並且由於他們可以訪問您的所有電子郵件,因此他們還可以輕鬆找出您註冊了哪些服務。 想一想:這很可怕。
如果您的電子郵件服務提供商可以使用 2FA,請幫自己一個忙並保護您的電子郵件帳戶。
- 為 Gmail/Google 啟用 2FA
您的電子商務平台和博客
您的在線業務是收入來源,是您的生計,應該受到保護。
您不希望它受到損害,因為它可能導致金錢損失並使您和您的客戶的敏感信息處於危險之中。 根據您使用的電子商務或博客平台,可能有實施 2FA 的選項。 如果有的話,一定要考慮啟用它,這樣你就可以更難讓你的重要信息受到損害。
- 為 Shopify 啟用 2FA
- 為 WordPress 啟用 2FA
您的社交媒體平台
您還可以為 Facebook、Twitter 和 Snapchat 等一些社交媒體平台啟用 2FA,因此如果您認為這些帳戶會受益於額外的安全層,也可以考慮為它們實施 2FA。
- 為 Facebook 啟用 2FA
- 為 Instagram 啟用 2FA
- 為 Twitter 啟用 2FA
- 為 Snapchat 啟用 2FA
- 為 LinkedIn 啟用 2FA
其他重要賬戶
- 為 Apple 啟用 2FA
- 為 Dropbox 啟用 2FA
- 為印象筆記啟用 2FA
- 為 PayPal 啟用 2FA
- 為 Microsoft 帳戶啟用 2FA
Authy應用程序
查看 Authy 應用程序以幫助您更輕鬆地登錄任何 2FA 安全帳戶。 您只需掃描每個帳戶的二維碼,該應用程序就會為每個 2FA 安全帳戶每 30 秒持續刷新 6 位代碼。 無論何時您需要登錄這些帳戶,請前往您設備上的 Authy 應用程序並輸入 6 位數代碼,而不是等待它通過電子郵件發送給您。
我們推薦 Authy 應用程序而不是其他 2-Factor Authentication 應用程序的原因是 Authy 是免費的,它很容易在您的設備上設置,您可以在桌面和移動設備上使用它,並且它會備份到雲中,因此您可以如果您丟失設備或由於某種原因無法訪問它們,您的帳戶將永遠不會被鎖定。 特別是,此功能是使用 Authy 的一個巨大優勢,僅僅因為因為您的 2FA 提供商而被鎖定在您自己的帳戶之外可能是一個巨大的痛苦,並且如果您可以提供幫助,您不想讓自己受制於它。
- 適用於 Apple 設備的 Authy 應用程序
- 適用於 Android 設備的 Authy 應用程序
- 適用於 Mac、Windows 和 Chrome 的 Authy 應用程序
檢查您的信用評分
快點,你的信用評分是多少?
如果你不能回答這個問題,現在是時候得到答案了。 您的信用評分,尤其是作為一名企業家,極其重要,然而,大多數人實際上並不知道他們的信用評分是多少,也不知道他們的信用檔案上有什麼。 這是一個問題,因為您的信用評分會影響您對汽車、房屋、信用卡和貸款的批准和利率。
檢查你的報告很重要,因為錯誤會發生,在黑暗中並希望獲得最好的結果並不是一個很好的策略。 即使您認為您的信用報告非常乾淨,但這並不意味著它確實如此。 唯一確定的方法是定期檢查您的報告。
有關獲取信用報告的更多信息,請訪問以下鏈接:
- 使用 Borrowell 檢查您在加拿大的信用評分(免費)
- 通過 TransUnion(付費)檢查您在加拿大的信用評分和信用報告
- 通過 TransUnion(付費)檢查您在美國的信用評分和信用報告
- 使用 Experian(免費和付費)檢查您在美國的信用評分和信用報告
要了解有關如何破解您的信用評分並將其提升到一個新水平的更多信息,請單擊此處。
投保
您的企業——尤其是如果它為您提供部分或全部收入時——是需要保護的重要資產,您應該考慮為它投保是否適合您的情況。
保險可以幫助您針對與您的業務相關的損害、訴訟和版權侵權提供保護,並且可以完全針對您銷售的產品類型或您創建的內容。
考慮為您所在地區的業務投保,看看是否值得。
組織起來
井井有條有助於提高生產力,進而獲得成功,這已經不是什麼秘密了。 將生活中最基本的方面(例如您的工作空間、約會和待辦事項清單)井井有條,有助於讓您步入正軌並準備好開展日常活動。 嘗試處理未分類的文件、糟糕的時間管理和凌亂的辦公桌對任何人都沒有好處,所以從正確的角度開始新的一年:組織起來。
從手機中刪除未使用和分散注意力的應用程序
您的手機完全有可能是您生活中最雜亂和最分散注意力的領域之一。 如果你想有一個富有成效和成功的一年,你需要控制你如何度過你的時間,那些在你的手機和你的生活中佔用空間的有趣應用只會讓你退縮。
誠實地對待自己的手機上哪些應用程序是必不可少的,哪些應用程序只是把它弄得亂七八糟,並刪除那些有損您的工作效率的應用程序。 之後,在您的手機上設置“屏幕使用時間”功能以限制您在一天中的特定時間使用特定應用程序,或者為您想要管理時間的應用程序設置每日時間限制。 屏幕時間功能還可以為您提供每週報告,詳細說明您在手機上花費的時間,以及在每個應用程序上花費的時間細分,這些信息非常有啟發性,可以幫助您減少分心。
實踐文件管理
現在是整理您的計算機的時候了。 忙碌了一年之後,您可能會在系統的每個角落和縫隙中堆積文件。 花點時間,當你漫不經心地坐下來看一些電視的某個晚上,然後艱難地瀏覽那裡的東西時。 這是一個無意識的過程,但它對於您的計算機和您的思想的健康都是必要的。
徹底清除您的桌面
首先,清除桌面上的內容,如果可以,嘗試徹底清除它。 保存在桌面上的文件應僅供短期使用,因為它們會減慢您的計算機速度並使您的桌面顯得雜亂無章。 為他們找一個合適的地方居住或把他們扔進垃圾桶。 使用 CleanMyMacX 和 CleanMyPC 之類的工具來幫助您刪除不必要的文件,並使您的計算機恢復到新計算機時的運行狀態。
對下載進行排序
接下來,清除您的下載。 同樣,在此文件夾中放置一堆文件會降低您的計算機速度,而且您可能不再需要它們,因此請清理它們正在使用的空間,以便今年可以更好地利用它們。
整理您的書籤
你知道你保存的所有書籤,以便你以後可以回來查看它們嗎? 對它們進行排序,只保留必要的。 要么立即瀏覽它們,看看是否有任何您保存的值得閱讀或觀看的內容,或者只是刪除它們,因為您知道您不會很快再回來查看它們。 一個簡短的書籤列表可以幫助您更輕鬆地找到您要查找的內容 - 特別是如果它們的標題正確,那麼也請這樣做。 也可以在書籤中創建文件夾,使系統更有條理。
廣告
備份您的文件
去做就對了。 我們都曾因有時不這樣做而感到內疚,但請在忙碌的一年結束之前花點時間這樣做。 Dropbox 和 Sync 是將文件備份到雲端並在所有設備上同步的不錯選擇。 我們特別推薦使用 Sync,因為它們提供端到端加密,增加了額外的安全層,保護您的文件免受數據黑客攻擊和破壞。
其他一些流行的雲存儲替代方案包括:
- 一個驅動器
- 谷歌云端硬盤
- 糖同步
- 盒子網
備份您的電子商務商店
當您使用它時,您還應該備份您擁有的任何網站或在線商店,並將該備份安全地保存在您的計算機或云存儲中。 如果您的在線商店是您的生計甚至是副業,那麼備份它真的不應該成為一種選擇,而應該只是您經常做的事情。
Rewind 之類的工具專門用於備份 Shopify 商店、BigCommerce 商店、Quickbooks Online,甚至還有 WordPress 和 Google Drive 集成。 我們強烈建議在您的商店中實施倒帶,因為您永遠不知道全年何時需要它,無論是在更新時不小心刪除了網站的某些部分,心懷不滿的員工刪除了重要文件,還是惡意黑客刪除了您的網站完全。
這不是你想冒險的事情,所以現在就備份它。 在我們的 Rewind Review 中了解有關 Rewind 的更多信息。
整理筆記
如果您保留筆記,也不要忘記整理它們。 無論是商業創意、引述、重要鏈接還是網站代碼片段,您都需要讓這些筆記井井有條且易於搜索,才能發揮作用。
如果你不使用 Evernote,你真的應該這樣做。 另一種選擇是適用於 iPhone、iPad 和 Mac 的熊掌記。 如果您已經在使用像這兩個筆記服務,那麼是時候瀏覽您去年的所有筆記並使用適當的標題和標籤來組織它們。 當您快速記下事情時,很容易在一年中忽略這一點,所以現在花點時間回去正確地組織一切。
清理您的電子郵件收件箱
電子郵件收件箱是一個可怕而令人生畏的地方,在那裡,隨著新電子郵件不斷湧入並掩埋,被遺忘的電子郵件會腐爛。 留出大量時間來徹底清除收件箱。 如果您有時間限制(並且加粗),只需將它們全部刪除即可。 假設您相信您的收件人會發送後續電子郵件,您可能不會錯過太多。
除了簡單地清空收件箱外,您還應該實施適當的收件箱管理技術。 這意味著充分利用您的電子郵件服務提供商的潛力,並利用文件夾來管理您的收件箱。 當客戶服務查詢進來時,將它們拖放到“客戶”文件夾中。 剛剛收到一位老朋友的私人電子郵件? 將其放入“個人”文件夾中。 您下一次旅行的航班信息剛剛發送過來? 把它放在“旅行”文件夾中。 這有助於您保持主收件箱清晰,並組織所有其他電子郵件,以便您可以通過邏輯系統跟上它們。
您還可以通過添加標籤和過濾器來管理和組織所有電子郵件,從而自動執行此過程。 我們使用這個小技巧將我們所有的業務收據自動轉發到一個會計文件夾中,使用我們僅用於此目的的特定電子郵件地址,這樣我們就可以以更有條理的方式保存和歸檔與業務相關的收據,從而使納稅時間更長對我們和我們的會計師來說更容易。 我們在“使用別名(或轉發的)電子郵件地址”標題下的“如何防彈您的在線業務”文章中更多地討論了這種技術。
您還可以使用網絡應用程序 Unroll.me 掃描您的整個電子郵件收件箱並識別您訂閱的每個新聞通訊。 然後它會為您提供一個一鍵取消訂閱的按鈕。 您可能會驚訝於您仍然訂閱了多少時事通訊!
如果您不想使用電子郵件簡報展開服務,您可以隨時手動取消訂閱電子郵件簡報。 這可能需要一些時間,但如果您使用 Gmail,您可以直接轉到收件箱中的“促銷”標籤,來自公司時事通訊的許多電子郵件將隱藏在那裡。 或者,您可以在電子郵件收件箱中搜索“取消訂閱”一詞,因為每個電子郵件通訊都必須提供取消訂閱選項,以便您可以更輕鬆地找到通訊。
如果您正在瀏覽收件箱中的“促銷”選項卡,甚至可能是您的垃圾郵件文件夾,並註意到您在正常收件箱中沒有收到的電子郵件通訊(如我們的!),但您希望它們顯示出來在那裡,不要忘記將它們列入白名單! 這將幫助您的電子郵件服務提供商了解您希望在您的常規收件箱中接收哪些電子郵件,這樣您就不會錯過您喜愛的品牌的新聞和更新。
清理您的社交媒體帳戶
經過一年的發帖、分享和跟踪,我們的社交媒體帳戶可能會被朋友、關注者和標籤淹沒。 瀏覽您的 Facebook、Instagram、Twitter、Snapchat、LinkedIn 和您使用的任何其他平台,並過濾掉與您不再相關的內容或人員。
您在這裡的目標不是將人們從您的生活中剔除,而只是將您的社交媒體帳戶保密,以便那裡的所有內容都以您希望的方式反映您的在線狀態。 取消關注或靜音接管您的 Instagram 新聞源的人,在 Facebook 上與不再屬於您社交圈的人解除好友關係,將您在每次打開應用程序時不需要看到的 Twitter 上的聲音靜音,以及將自己從任何您不想再顯示在動態消息中的照片或事件。 這些都是簡單的任務,但只要控制好它們,就能讓您處於有利的位置來開始新的一年。
刪除未使用的在線帳戶
作為一名企業家,您可能總是註冊社交媒體平台、工具和應用程序來幫助您發展業務。 使用網絡應用 JustDelete.Me 獲取有關如何刪除不再使用的帳戶和個人資料的直接鏈接和說明。
今年,在註冊您第一次嘗試並且不確定是否會使用多次的新服務時,請使用一次性電子郵件地址。 使用 Mailinator 或 10 Minute Mail 等虛假電子郵件服務創建一個即時且一次性的電子郵件地址,以便在您提交之前測試服務。 這些一次性電子郵件服務可以幫助防止您的電子郵件地址被垃圾郵件發送並添加到您的電子郵件收件箱中無休止的通訊列表中。
整理您的工作空間
整潔的空間就是整潔的心靈。 刪除分散您工作空間的所有多餘筆記,將您剛剛推入抽屜的所有文件歸檔,清除檯燈上的灰塵,或者任何情況。 購買一些新鋼筆、文具或任何您經常使用的可以更新的東西,讓您的空間煥然一新,為來年的成功做好準備。
如果您今年一直在家工作並且尚未創建指定的工作區,請考慮將其作為優先事項。 在家裡擁有一個僅用於工作的指定工作區,可以通過設置場景並使您處於正確的工作精神狀態來幫助提高生產力。 如果你剛剛在沙發或廚房的桌子上工作,看看你是否可以在某個地方擠一張只供你和你的公司使用的小桌子。 查看我們關於 10 個在家工作技巧的帖子,了解更多想法。
查看您的費用
您會驚訝於您可能為服務多付了多少費用。 新年是審查賬單的好時機,看看你可以減少什麼以及在哪裡。
- 協商您的手機賬單:致電您的電話提供商並協商您的月費(如果您告訴他們您要離開他們,他們會將您送到他們的保留部門,該部門具有更大的權力和靈活性,可以為您提供更好的交易。
- 銀行更智能:檢查您的賬戶和信用卡的銀行計劃,以確保您獲得最優惠的價格。 為了更好地了解您的財務狀況,您可能還想註冊 Mint.com 或您需要預算。
- 取消有線電視:通過取消有線電視,您不僅可以每月節省大量費用,而且還可以提高工作效率,避免在電視前浪費時間。 作為替代,並獲得一些娛樂,嘗試只為您最喜歡的運動隊提供 Netflix 和/或在線季票。
- 查看您的 Internet 服務:您可能會以更便宜的價格獲得更好/更快的 Internet,這只是查看所有本地 Internet 服務提供商提供的新計劃的問題。 請記住,許多公司為新客戶提供有吸引力的激勵措施,因此如果您找到合適的促銷活動,更換供應商可能會非常有利可圖。
準備您的業務
註冊您一直想嘗試的服務
在這一年中,您可能會遇到一些有趣的服務,例如課程、網絡研討會、工具或資源,您在腦海中標記了這些服務,以便稍後進行調查,但您還沒有真正跟進它們。 這些可能是您為以後添加書籤、保存在電子郵件收件箱中的內容,甚至可能是您已註冊但尚未實際使用的服務。
現在就花點時間,在今年年初,了解更多關於這些服務的信息,並決定它們今年是否值得付諸實踐。 如果是這樣,請開始弄清楚它們,以便您知道如何使用它們並開始將它們應用到您的日常生活中。 如果其中一些服務結果不是您所想或所需要的,請將它們從您的書籤或收件箱中刪除並忘記它們,以免它們干擾您的思緒。
無論您全年節省什麼服務,其中都可能有一些對您的生活或業務有益的東西,所以不要再推遲它們並開始實際使用它們,這樣您就可以在今年做出積極的改變,變得更加高效和多產。
計劃您的帖子
無論您經營何種業務,您都可能在使用社交媒體與受眾建立聯繫並獲得曝光率。 正如我們在內容策略:準備、製作、出版和推廣的終極指南一文中所討論的,製作一致的內容是增加受眾最可靠的方法之一——因此,為了促進您自己的成長,今年制定一個行動計劃根據您發布的頻率以及您希望您的內容的外觀,您希望您的年度是什麼樣子。
根據您用來與受眾互動的社交媒體類型,您發布的次數應該與用戶期望和能夠跟上的內容相關。 如果您想通過 Instagram 擴大觀眾群,您可能希望制定一個目標,每天至少發布一次,如果不是一天兩次的話。 如果您通過博客與觀眾互動,那麼每兩週一次到每週一次或兩次發帖都是可以接受的增加觀眾的方式。
您可以使用發布計劃服務來幫助您始終如一地發布,因此您不必總是記得這樣做。 發布調度程序是確保您的平台上始終有內容髮布的好方法,但您要確保它們不會使您對內容變得懶惰或機器人。 當與您當前發布的自然帖子混合時,它們可以幫助您保持平衡的社交媒體存在,提供預先考慮的內容以及自然內容。
查看這些推薦的調度服務:
- SocialBee: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google My Business
- 緩衝區:Facebook、Instagram、Twitter、LinkedIn、Pinterest
- Hootsuite:Facebook、Instagram、Twitter、LinkedIn、Pinterest、YouTube
- SmarterQueue:Facebook、Instagram、Twitter、LinkedIn、Pinterest
- MeetEdgar:Facebook、Instagram、Twitter、LinkedIn、Pinterest
但是,無論您發布的頻率如何,您還需要計劃下一年您希望內容的外觀,以便您不斷進步。
如果您認為如果您有更好的照片,更多的人會在 Instagram 上與您互動,那麼請計劃如何讓您的照片變得更好。 也許您需要學習如何更好地安排圖像中的道具或人物,或者您需要學習如何編輯圖像,或者使用過濾器創建一致的主題,例如您可以從 FilterGrade 或 Creative Market 獲得的過濾器。 查看我們對這 25 個用於電子商務企業的華麗 Instagram 模板的綜述,了解更多想法。
如果您正在寫博客,請計劃今年要在博客上涵蓋的主題。 This list doesn't have to be super detailed, it just has to have enough information so you know what you want your blog to achieve this year and how you want it to take shape so you're not scattered and all over the place.
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Having topics pre-planned will also help you to post consistently because you'll have ideas ready and waiting for you to write about. We talk more in detail about how to do this in our Content Strategy post, and we also discuss exactly the strategies we use to run this very ecommerce blog.
Set Your Focus for the Year
What is the one thing you want to achieve with your business this year? Ask yourself this question and set your answer as your focus for this year. Understanding what the one big thing is that you'd like to do with your business this year helps give you a direction to work towards and it gives you a sense of what steps to take at the start of the year to help your goals come true.
It can be anything! Maybe your focus for your business is just to launch this year. Maybe you want to grow your customer base, your email list, your monthly reader count, or your social media followers. Maybe you want to branch out to provide another product or service to your customers. Maybe you want to provide better products or services. Maybe you want to post content more consistently.
Whatever it is, set your focus for this year so you know what direction you're working towards and what steps you need to start taking.
Create Your Plan of Action
Your plan of action should directly help you achieve the focus you've set for your business this year. Setting a focus is great, but lots of little steps have to be achieved first in order to achieve a larger goal, so create a plan of all the little steps you need to achieve first.
You don't have to create a plan of action for the whole year because that can be daunting and it will most likely change. Instead, create a plan of action for this month or this quarter, including tasks that you can achieve that will help you on your way to achieving larger tasks. One big achievement is just the sum of a lot of little achievements, so plan out your little achievements and you'll be more likely to stick to them and succeed.
Learn More About a Certain Skill to Help Your Business
It never hurts to be more educated or informed, so think of a skill that would help you be a better business owner and operator and work towards learning more about that skill this year.
Being an entrepreneur requires you to wear lots of different hats to get and keep your business up and running, including but not limited to coding, graphic design, web development, marketing, customer service, copywriting, blog writing, social media management, product design, human resource management, inventory management, etc.
There's a lot to know and learn and it isn't possible to be an expert at everything, but it is possible to learn more about a certain skill just to help you better yourself and your business overall.
Pick a skill you're either interested to learn more about or choose to learn more about a skill you're weak at. Don't aim to become an expert at the skill, just invest some time learning a little more about it so you can expand your knowledge and hopefully be able to apply it to your business somehow.
Find a book on the topic, watch some Youtube videos, or see if you can find an online course about it or any other resource that may be available to you. Some skills we recommend you learn more about and places to find valuable information about them include:
- Skillshare for continued learning covering many different topics
- AdEspresso University to learn more about Facebook Ads
- ClickMinded SEO Training Course to learn more about SEO
- Google's Digital Garage for Digital Marketing
Hire Someone
If you want to 10x your business, hiring someone to outsource some of the work you do as an entrepreneur can be exactly what you need.
Hiring someone who knows more about a certain aspect of your business helps you to produce a better outcome more efficiently which means you save time and get a better result. There's obviously going to be a monetary impact, but if you can hire a freelancer to do contract work, a student who would benefit from the experience, or just someone to start out part-time, then you can still get someone who knows what they're doing for a little bit less of the monetary commitment.
Start off by considering the task (or tasks) you're the weakest at when it comes to operating your business and find a way to outsource it. It can be any task, like photography, social media, graphic design, web development, filming, writing, etc. and by minimizing the amount of time you spend struggling through a task you don't excel at, you give yourself more time to put into the other tasks you're better at.
Check out these places to hire freelancers:
- 釋放
- 加班
- 五福
- 寫手
Use an Email Form
Instead of publishing your email in the “Contact” section of your website, consider providing an email form instead for customers to fill out when they have an inquiry.
This is useful for two reasons:
- It Stops Your Email from Getting Scraped by Spambots: With your email address floating around on your website unprotected, you're more likely to get spammy and junk emails sent to you. An email form prevents this almost entirely.
- It Helps You Create a More Organized Workflow: When you have all your business emails coming into one inbox when you use an email form that links with an email management service like Help Scout, you have one place that you can go to check and respond to emails, making it a more organized process. You'll be much more likely to respond to all emails in a timely fashion and they'll be much easier to categorize.
會計
Stay on top of your accounting from day one. We repeat: Stay on top of your accounting from day one .
Do yourself a favor, and keep up with your accounting. It makes it much less headache-inducing for everyone involved. Granted, the fiscal year does not start in January, so you should already have your proper accounting habits in place, but it's never too late to start. If you don't already have your accounts in order, do it now before you get to the end of the year and everything is a disorganized mess.
One major tip we've found to be helpful this year is having a designated “[email protected]” email. Use this email when sending receipts to yourself, or anything you need to account for, and set a rule in your inbox to have every email coming in from this address forwarded to an “Accounting” folder. This will help you to stay much more organized, plus it's automated so once you set it, you don't have to do anything else.
Otherwise, we highly suggest you check out a service such as Bench to help you take care of your bookkeeping online. They help you to manage your accounts throughout the year so it's less overwhelming when it comes to filing your taxes. When it comes to filing your taxes, we recommend checking out TaxJar for automated sales tax reporting and filing.
Bonus: Want to learn more about how to optimize your accounting, bookkeeping, recordkeeping, and cost management for your business? Check out these posts on our blog:
- Small Business Accounting & Bookkeeping: Accounting for Ecommerce Entrepreneurs
- 小型企業記錄保存 101:電子商務企業家指南
- TaxJar Review: Simple Sales Tax Returns for Online Businesses
- 9 Ways to Reduce Operating Costs for Your Online Business
Narrow Your Focus
It's proving more and more that businesses that focus on doing one thing and doing it well tend to be extremely successful. Consider this concept this year and how it might lend itself to your business.
Oftentimes consumers are so bombarded by all the things they can buy that taking out some, or all, of the choice you offer, is the best thing you can do for your sales. Instead of offering a few color choices, offer your best one or two. Instead of offering a bunch of styles, offer the most popular one. Narrow down the choices to the ones that are the best and your customers will likely thank you for it.
Otherwise, try out the “One Product Strategy” this year: Pick one product to sell, hone in on your niche, and sell it to your customers really well.
Moral of the story? Don't try to do everything—just do your best at one thing.
Set Your Goals
Every year, it's important to set goals so you have a mental map of how you want your year to progress and improve. There are many different facets to life, so setting a goal for each area of your life can help you to maintain balance and progression throughout all areas this year.
These are the 7 areas we recommend setting goals for this year:
- Financial
- 個人發展
- Love/Relationships
- 朋友們
- 家庭
- Professional Network
- Health/Fitness
Although setting goals is important, what's more important is acting on them. After you set goals for each area of your life, consider what you can do right now to start working on them.
It can be anything from ordering books so you can read more in-depth about a specific topic, calling up friends or family members to arrange some quality time, budgeting for your monthly or yearly expenses, choosing a fitness plan to try out, ridding your cupboards of unhealthy snacks, etc.
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Put your goals into action right away so you can engage with them immediately.
Start Planning in Quarters
Each year comprises of 12 months, which separates neatly into 4 quarters; each quarter being 3 months. It works out like this:
- Quarter 1: January – March
- Quarter 2: April – June
- Quarter 3: July – September
- Quarter 4: October – December
When you start making plans for the year, whether it be in relation to goals for your personal life or your business, planning in quarters can make the task much less daunting and much more realistic.
Things change throughout the year, so it's a bit ridiculous to know exactly what to expect for months as far away as next December, but for the upcoming months like February and March, you have a better understanding of what you can plan and achieve. By planning in quarters you give yourself a much more realistic plan of action to follow and you'll be more likely to stick to it.
Planning in quarters also allows you to make changes or additions as the year progresses. You may be adding new methods or habits in the first quarter that may or may not work out, and as you progress into the second quarter you can make adjustments without completely ruining your yearly plan. Planning in quarters gives you much more flexibility while also giving you a regimented period in which you can try things out.
The three-month period of each quarter gives you enough time to implement methods and habits without it being too short to notice results and too long to seem overwhelming and daunting. So instead of planning out your entire year, set plans and goals for Quarter 1 right now, and when you get to the end of it then assess your successes and achievements and make more plans and goals for Quarter 2. This way, you'll be much less daunted by what you have to achieve each quarter, and you'll give yourself a set time to complete each task or goal by.
Stay Motivated
This is the biggest challenge every year.
Making goals is easy, but staying motivated to stick to them is the hard part. When you're trying to do something new consistently, there's a period of time you'll have to spend motivating yourself to do it before it becomes a habit. When you were little, your parents/guardians likely motivated you to do simple tasks like brushing your teeth, but now it's just a habit so you just do it. The same goes for all new things you try to implement into your daily routine. It's going to take some time to get used to being consistent with a task, but once you're consistently doing it, it will become a habit.
This goes for anything, whether it be in your personal life or for your business. Use the following tips as motivation to help you when your own motivation starts to wane.
持續啟動
Persistent starting is the ideology that you have to continuously make yourself “start” a task over and over until it becomes something you no longer have to motivate yourself to do.
For example, if you're trying to get into the habit of posting a blog post every week and then you miss a couple of weeks due to lack of motivation, start again. Then you post on your blog a few more times weekly and then you lose motivation and miss another few weeks, so then you start again.
The point is, we all fall off the wagon and lose motivation, you just have to let that go and start again. You have to persistently continue to start again.
And when you lose motivation after that, start again .
不再有零日
This ideology was born through a motivational comment posted to a Reddit thread that went viral and now serves as motivational literature for people of all walks of life. Here's an unedited paragraph from the whole text, but if you're interested in reading the entire comment check it out here.
“規則 numero uno – 沒有更多的零日。 What's a zero day? A zero day is when you don't do a single fucking thing towards whatever dream or goal or want or whatever that you got going on. 沒有更多的零。 I'm not saying you gotta bust an essay out everyday, that's not the point. 我想說明的一點是,你必須讓自己,向自己保證,你所生活的新系統是一個非零系統。 Didnt' do anything all fucking day and it's 11:58 PM? 寫一句話。 一個俯臥撑。 閱讀該章節的一頁。 一。 因為一非零。 You feel me? When you're in the super vortex of being bummed your pattern of behaviour is keeping the vortex goin, that's what you're used to. 成為宇宙的生產力終極主宰並不是在漩渦中發生的。 它發生在大量一致的非零字符串中。 這是第一條規則。 不要忘記。”
So essentially, just aim to have no “Zero Days” this year. No matter how small your actions may be, doing even a little bit is better than nothing, and over time you'll likely be more inclined to do more and more.
Time-Management Techniques
These are small techniques you can use to help motivate you to work on your goals. These techniques stem from the idea that the hardest part of completing a task is just getting started, but these techniques can help you get started so you'll hopefully keep going.
The first is the Pomodoro Technique. It's a time management technique that breaks down your work period into different intervals: 25 minutes of work followed by a period of time to rest. 在規定的 25 分鐘內,您應該一直工作到計時器結束。 如果您想到其他需要做的事情或想到一些重要的事情,請將其寫下來,然後再切換回您的工作。 計時器響起後,在一張紙上打勾並稍作休息。 一旦你完成了幾個番茄鐘並獲得了更多的複選標記,就需要更長時間的休息。 跟踪和記錄你的進度很重要,因為它會給你一種成就感,你可以直觀地看到你投入工作的時間。
The second technique to use is much less structured and is focused on helping you through the hard part: Getting started. Set a timer for 5 minutes and start working. If, when the timer goes off, you still don't want to work, then you can stop. It's simple, but it can be highly effective. Usually, when you've immersed yourself in your work for 5 minutes you'll already be in your groove and you won't feel like stopping. If you do feel like stopping though, you probably aren't in the right mental state to complete your task anyway and it's a good idea to move onto something else.
Start Something
We've discussed why it's so important for everyone to become an entrepreneur in our Start Something post, and we've also discussed How to Start an Online Business When You're Not Ready to Start an Online Business, so we wanted to take the time again to encourage you to start something— anything— and some ways you can do it right now.
Start an Email List
Start by building an audience you “own.” Email lists are king in ecommerce because they allow you to “own” your audience. You don't have to hope your email subscribers are online when you post or pay for your email to end up in their inbox, people just sign up to receive your emails and they get them.
Also, when you build an audience on a social media platform, that platform owns your audience. If that platform ever goes down, you can't reach out to your audience. Start building an email list so you have an audience of people who are interested in what you do so you can reach out to them when you have something to share or sell to them.
- Use Mailchimp or Klaviyo to build an email list
Build a Landing Page
A landing page gives you a web presence for others to discover.
You can adorn your landing page with your email sign-up or links to your social media pages, blog, YouTube channel, or anything else you want to share. Just like email lists, landing pages help you to build a presence off of social media platforms, and when you pair it with an email list, you give your audience a place on the web they can go to when they want more updates from you.
- Use Carrd to build a landing page
- Check out our Carrd Review to learn more about their features & services
開展電子商務業務
If you're the kind of person who reads as many books and blogs about businesses as possible, you listen to podcasts, you take courses, you have the motivation, the passion, and the drive to start your own business and you can see yourself being a successful entrepreneur, then make this year the year you go for it.
做吧。
Make this year the year you go for it
Start a business, become an entrepreneur, put the reading aside, and put all the knowledge you've been consuming up until this point into use. Start something , no matter how mediocre it may be, just start somewhere and start something . You can always grow and improve from something you've already started, you can't grow and improve on something if you haven't even started yet .
- Use Shopify to build your online business
- Check out our Shopify Review to learn more about their features & services
結論
Time is your most precious asset so this year, use your time wisely. Reflect on the past year so you know which direction you want to move towards, and plan your year ahead in terms of the goals you would like to achieve and the little steps you're going to achieve daily to make those larger goals come true.
廣告
Protect your assets because they help you do what you do. Get organized and delete all the clutter from your life whether it be online or off. Prepare your business for a productive year ahead. Plan your posts, set your focus, create a plan of action, and learn a skill that will help you be better.
Don't worry, you will lose motivation at some point, but if you start persistently and have mostly non-zero days, you'll get back on track until you make better habits. But most importantly, just start something . With as little or as much as you have, it's entirely possible to create something of quality, so just get out there and start.
Let's have a great new year.
