Let’s say you run a busy restaurant, and your mission is to provide diners with exceptional service and food. You might find that over the course of the year your business has become skewed to the takeaway market.

This means now is the time to think about strategies you can put in place to attract customers back to the restaurant.

Could you offer customers a two-for-one meal deal if they eat in? Another idea might be to offer a free dessert with every main meal.

The next step is to revise your revenue goals. It’s likely that over the course of the year things have changed in your market that will have put pressure on revenue.

At the same time, opportunities for you to increase revenue will also have opened up. You need to revisit your revenue goals to make sure they reflect any changes in your market sector.

A good example is the entrance or exit of players in your industry.

Let’s say you run a local sports goods store. During the year one of your key competitors may have gone out of business. At the same time, a new competitor may have opened for business in your local area.

You might be able to increase revenue by picking up market share from the out-of-business competitor.

But the entrant of the new player might restrict the amount of new business you will be able to attract. Revenue goals for the new financial year will need to reflect this shifting market dynamic.

Now is also the time to identify initiatives you can put in place in the new financial year.

Could you develop new products and services that will help you increase revenue throughout the course of the year?

You need to work out what the development costs for any new programs will be to ensure start-up costs don’t outweigh any potential gains new schemes will deliver.

But don’t expect new products and services to generate income immediately – it takes time for new initiatives to gain traction in a market.

A new year is also the perfect opportunity to celebrate the successes of the previous year and define what success means for the upcoming financial year.

Make sure you recognise all staff who achieved their targets in the previous financial year and clearly outline targets for the upcoming year.

It’s also a nice idea to host a small lunch or dinner to mark the passing of the previous financial year and to help generate enthusiasm for the year to come.

Content supplied by American Express