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It’s 2015! Anyone who made a New Year’s resolution has probably been thinking about it for weeks and, in the coming months, they’ll either make that resolution stick or they’ll break it.

If you’re a business owner, you have the option of making two kinds of resolutions: those for yourself and those for your business. Here are five resolutions to consider for a better business in 2015:

1. Review

The best thing you can do for your business to start off 2015 on the right foot is to take a breather and look back on the past year. Seriously – take some time and review. Look critically at your initiatives and the results to determine what worked, what could be improved, and what should be scrapped.

If you’ve already been reviewing these things, double-check your work: review it again, add data where you can, and check the data that’s there for accuracy. Once all the loose ends have been tied up, you’re ready to start 2015 on a path towards progress and growth.

2. Start Planning Early

Plan early

It’s that time of year when everyone is determined to make a resolution for the New Year that will be successful! It’s time for that firm decision we all want to make, resolving to do something or to quit something. But, sometimes, making (and sticking to) a resolution is much easier said than done.

Social media has become so much more than just the latest trend. It’s a way for companies to establish & reinforce their brands, connect with customers on a whole new level, and to participate in the conversations their customers are already having.

We are proud to announce and kick off our Building Better Communities campaign for 2015 by Supporting Boy Scout Troop 102 for the month of January.

While I was preparing to write the Wild Bill Guarnere post a few weeks ago, Debi Lynch Rafferty, Bill’s granddaughter, told me a beautiful story which put me on a meaningful mission.

When it came to holiday commerce, Black Friday used to be it. Now, with consumers spreading out their shopping into a multiple-day adventure, we have the “Cyber Five,” Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday.

Let’s face it, the goal of every business during the holiday season, whether traditional brick and mortar or e-business, is to generate revenue.  However, in generating that revenue, especially in the case of an e-business, the local community is often overlooked as a valuable resource.

When you hear, “tech central,” what’s the first location that comes to mind? For most people in the industry, it’s Silicon Valley. However, thanks to widespread technology, the information superhighway has grown into an information universe and tech epicenters are popping up all over.

Stories are bursting out all over the place about businesses forcing employees to work on Thanksgiving under threat of termination if they don’t. Then, there are the businesses who are proudly announcing that they will be closed on Thanksgiving, stating firmly that their employees deserve to be with their families on Thanksgiving.

Here we are, the holidays are officially setting in this week and the scramble to finish up the year is on.