It’s time to reflect on all the things you did or didn’t do thus far in 2017.  What else should you be considering to take your business to the next level before the end of the year?

Here are a couple of ideas, a checklist if you will, on how to reboot your business for success before the year ends.

1. Listen to customers and determine what they really want to buy from you. That means catching curve balls – ideas that seem least likely to pan out but just might if you took a different perspective. Be on the look out for analyst predictions because even though they may not always be right, you can still adjust accordingly and at the very least, rethink approach.
2. Determine the best marketing method and develop a campaign (e.g., email or newsletter marketing) that whirls customers worldwide to your virtual door. These types of tools, such as email, for example, help you to target and keep in touch with customers in a sophisticated albeit economical fashion.
3. Spot significant trends that will affect the way you conduct business (for example, Amazon buying Whole Foods and Walmart applying for a U.S. patent for a floating warehouse that could make deliveries via drones to shoppers’ homes) and implement a collaborative plan that speaks to those trends in a way that generates new revenue streams.
4. Redesign outdated logos, websites, blogs and other social media platforms. When the time is right, improve the look and feel of your online business presence and make your site mobile-friendly to accommodate the growing smartphone market.
5. Be the king or queen of accessibility for your employees, customers, suppliers and colleagues so that when they need you, they get you. Nothing gets accomplished without constant communication (hint: take a look at Drift.com – a lot of startups are using it).
6. Innovate to break free of the pack. Offer something for which there are no direct competitors. What will it be? The key to creating a competitive advantage is to develop innovative strategies to build new markets or reinvent existing ones. Don’t just focus exclusively on following your competitors. That gets you more of the same. Challenge your long-held beliefs – shake it up – that’s the only way to break free from the pack.

Once you have completed the above checklist, have your team review your answers for completeness. Then, modify your plan based on feedback. Remember, your snapshot into the future is a living document that must be constantly tweaked or it will become useless.

For the balance of 2017, focus on what really matters – the people, the opportunity (as noted above), the big picture along with a call to action and you are sure achieve spectacular success in the year and for years to come.