How to Create new habits for your business in 2016

After just a week of 2016 it’s unlikely that someone has given up all of their resolutions, but today I’m most concerned about the habits that you’re building in your business.

To me, habits are so much more powerful than resolutions or even goals, because once established, they persist even when you don’t feel like doing them. You’ve probably experienced this in your personal life, even if you don’t recognize it at the time.

Ever gotten out of bed to wash your face and brush your teeth before going to sleep? Double check the door locks before you leave the house? Snap on your seat belt, even if you’re only going a short distance?

These are all habits that become ingrained in our behavior, and when you create (good) habits for your business, then it increases your success and reduces the need to think about what should happen next.

Creating a new habit can be as simple as picking one thing you want to do consistently, and then practicing it for a month. Over time the habit becomes easier and once established you can pick up a new business habit.

(Please, please don’t attempt to overhaul your entire business in a day. It’ll just lead to frustration and failure.)

My favorite book on this subject, if you want to dig in deeper, is The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. I’ll cover one of my favorite tools that Duhigg shares, and then we’ll brainstorm some habits for your business!

Create triggers

In The Power of Habit there’s a good amount of space dedicated to using triggers to establish habits in your life. For example, if you wake up and next to your bed is your workout clothing and shoes, then you’re much more likely to put them on and go workout. Triggers come in all forms, a crying baby wanting food, a bill in the mail, and software update reminders.

I believe that this works because we’re inherently lazy – if you’ve got to think about where something is saved and find it, then you’re a lot less likely to get that task done.

For some of my habits, the trigger is a Post-It note near my computer, other times a calendar reminder works well. One of the best triggers is actually utilizing my team by asking them to harass me when I must review or create something for the business.

You don’t have to adopt every habit yourself in your business – this is a great time to determine the habit, teach the task, and outsource it to a team member.

In fact, the more you establish routines for your team, the less time it takes to manage them. One way we do this at She’s Got Systems is with weekly check-ins for our regular team members, which follow a specific set of questions. If you know that you’ll be asked for an update on the same project each week, then you can prepare.

Habits for Adoption : Bring one home today!

1. Send a regular newsletter to your audience
2. Check customer service inbox and respond daily
3. Post on social media regularly with content, re-shares, and promotions
4. Engage on social media by answering questions, greeting new followers, etc. regularly
5. Reconcile all payments, invoices, and statement balances monthly
6. Unsubscribe from emails you don’t need daily
7. Quickly answer emails requiring you attention instead of procrastinating
8. Get to inbox zero every Friday
9. Post a new video or blog weekly
10. Check in with leads who have not said yes every 3 weeks
11. Connect with one person in your network weekly
12. Pay all invoices and check business accounts once each month

This is, of course, just a starting place for the habits that you can try out, and they can all be tweaked to fit your business. For example, some companies will need to reconcile payments on a daily basis while others do so monthly.

Get started by choosing a habit from our list or creating your own and implementing it in your business this week! Share in the comments what your new habit will be and check back next week for my favorite tips on establishing habits!