Don’t leave it to luck this St. Patrick’s Day. Stack the odds in your favor with these ideas to make your business evergreen.
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March
17, 2021
5 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
We are all looking for a bit of luck on St. Patrick’s Day — this year more than ever. Most of us have been working from home for a full year. Some of us are feeling burnt-out and many are looking forward to better business days ahead. Wherever you fall on the spectrum, now is the perfect time to reflect on the status of your company and how it can be improved beyond relying on the “luck of the Irish.” Business success typically has nothing to do with luck, but with these five strategies, your company could be bringing in pots of gold this St. Patrick’s Day and beyond.
1. Celebrate success (even the little things!)
Take this time not only to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day but also to reflect on your own personal successes. Celebrate the present while looking to the future with your employees. Take some time to sit down and set goals, share these goals with others to help keep yourself accountable. What is your goal for the next business cycle? Where do you want to be next quarter? How do you envision your life in a year? Getting together, even virtually, to celebrate a holiday such as St. Patrick’s Day might be the perfect time to weave in some goal-setting while sharing a virtual Guinness. If done right, you just might not need the luck of the Irish to achieve your goals this season.
2. Get your business into the media
It is also a great time to reassess your public relations strategy. PR is the perfect way to expand your consumer awareness in a cost-effective, credible way. Don’t just write a press release and blast it to the media. Instead, carefully create a target list of media outlets that you think would like to hear about what’s going on with you as an entrepreneur and your corporation. Fine-tune your media pitch and then reach out to each outlet with your story. This time of year people are consuming more media (alongside their corn beef and cabbage) than ever before, so get your brand out there.
Related: 10 Ways to Get Global PR Exposure
3. Diversify your social media offering
Knowing your audience can make or break your social media presence. None of the local restaurants are advertising wine specials heading into March 17. Taking the time to research and learn about trends will significantly strengthen your social media understanding. Rather than using singular photos on Instagram, try and get creative with Instagram stories. Using photo editing and design apps, you are able to add eye-catching fonts, stickers and fun effects. This will make your content stand out and be significantly more engaging. Be consistent, but not repetitive. There is something to be said for consistency on social media, but as a rule of thumb — post three times a week — less is sometimes more. Establishing a strong, consistent, professional social media feed will undoubtedly take your business to the next level.
Related: Beginner’s Guide to Social Media Marketing
4. Don’t be afraid of change
The Irish courageously immigrated to countries around the world to find better lives for their families. Change can be really hard for many of us to accept, especially when it comes to our business endeavors. Change can sometimes lead to mistakes, but without this we lack progress. We all make mistakes, and oftentimes this can cause us to stop progress. Instead, recover and learn from these mistakes and fail forward in your business strategies. Do not procrastinate. This is the time to get ahead of spring cleaning in your life and in your business. Reflect on your strategies and what you have been doing. If there is something that is not operating efficiently, get rid of it. Now is the best time to start the projects you have been putting off this winter. Push yourself to spend those extra hours improving now rather than later so you won’t need any extra luck on your side this season.
5. Check in with employees
This year March is hitting hard for many of us. Appreciate your team making it through the winter successfully. This is the perfect time to survey for employee satisfaction, and show them through action that this information is taken into account. Talk about the responses with your employees, a little empathy can go a long way. Discuss their concerns and exactly what you are planning to do to combat them. We all are looking for a little extra affirmation these days, and action speaks louder than words. Your employees are your business’s everything, so you need to show them you appreciate them.
This St. Patrick’s Day brings in a dawn of a new era. Spring carries with it a level of optimism and could be the symbolic fresh start of your organization. Implementing the five strategies above may help you bolster your business without relying on the luck of the Irish.
Related: 5 Lessons I’ve Learned from Working with Novak Djokovic