1

53%

23% 21%

3%

Yes Not every year but every few years

No Other

Do you make New Year's resolutions for your business?

2

65%

33%

2%

Sometimes Yes No

Are you successful at keeping your business New Year's resolutions?

3

• “Ask for more help” • “Invest in staff training” • “Network more” • “Be more organized” • “Send regular newsletters” • “Add another product line” • “Better response time to customer requests” • “Create a new website” • “Blog more frequently” • “Find out what personally motivates my staff” • “Create a marketing plan” • “Drop what isn’t working and move forward”

When asked what resolution they kept in the past that helped their business, replies included:

4

53%

27%

20%

Business resolutions are easier to keep

Business resolutions are harder to keep

I don't make personal New Year's resolutions

Are your business New Year’s resolutions harder or easier to keep than personal resolutions?

5

26%

18%

16%

10% 10%

8%

6% 5%

1%

Growing annual revenue

Running my business more

efficiently

Getting more customers/clients

Trying different marketing tactics

Creating better planning

Providing a better customer/client

experience

Achieving a better work-life balance

Other Being a better boss

What are your business resolutions mostly related to?

6

• “Work-life balance” • “To network with my local business community more often” • “Focus on customer referrals” • “Revamp my website and provide a mobile app for my customers” • “Take the necessary time to allow creative thinking in major development projects” • "Contact customers more often" • “To dig deep and learn how we can better serve our existing customers and clients” • “To streamline social media and outreach marketing, and to capture campaign results to analyze what works best” • "To increase social media presence on all levels by 15%“ • “Put more resources into the most profitable projects”

Share your top business New Year’s resolution:

7

About the survey This Constant Contact-sponsored survey was administered in November of 2013 to 1,305 small business participants in the Constant Contact Small Biz Council – a research panel of US small businesses recruited from the Constant Contact customer base. This survey is part of an ongoing series about the state of small businesses and the ways they connect with, and grow, their audiences.

8