My 2026 resolution is to create a 'Second Chance Homeownership' pathway where I'll personally mentor five Detroit families--teaching them credit repair, budgeting, and investment basics--so they can transition from selling their distressed properties to me into eventually purchasing rental properties of their own. My engineering background taught me that the best systems create multiplier effects, and I want to build a cycle where today's sellers become tomorrow's investors in their own community.
Do fewer things, finish more. In 2026 I'll: 1) cut 20% of open projects, 2) give each project one owner, one metric, one due date, 3) protect two daily no-meeting focus blocks, and 4) hold a short Friday "kill or ship" review. Success = 90% on-time finishes, 30% fewer after-hours messages, and a 10% bump in on-time delivery.
I run a small SEO business and love writing content for it. The challenge is that this takes me away from other work I know I should prioritise. My New Year's Resolution is therefore to delegate at least 80% of our own content creation to the team.
My 2026 business resolution is to record a short video message for every seller immediately after closing, sharing a word of thanks and offering a simple resource to help them with their next chapter--because sometimes hearing genuine encouragement can turn a stressful sale into the start of real hope.
My 2026 resolution is to build "unexpected hospitality" into everything we do. I want guests to walk in and feel a small, pleasant surprise each time--maybe a quick handwritten note, an offbeat seasonal beer, or an extra minute to talk in the Relaxation Lounge. Small gestures, almost no cost, but they spark the kind of word-of-mouth money can't buy.
For 2026, I'm committing to bringing the same test-and-learn mindset we use in product R&D into the rest of our operations at Happy V. I want real customer data shaping how we improve education, retention, and overall experience. If we apply that level of curiosity across the whole business, we end up building more responsibly and with more clarity for the women we serve.
Head of Business Development at Octopus International Business Services Ltd
Answered 4 months ago
For 2026, I want to weave real cross-training into our international structuring work--mainly between risk, onboarding, and commercial. Too many deals wobble simply because context gets lost between teams. If we're aiming for long-term client trust, our own departments need to trade information as easily as we expect clients to.
My plan is to eliminate all manual workflows that still exist in my business. There is no reason for something to happen twice, or to be done manually, if i can automate it. There is no better way to scale without exhaustion than by automating outreach, content generation, link discovery, and category expansion, and I intend to remove the last human bottlenecks in 2026. The only way I have managed to grow at this pace is through automation and structure as I run one of the largest product comparison platforms online. Last year, I built engines for HARO responses, mass outreach, vertical expansion, and real-time product updates, but there are still some legacy processes that slow progress. My 2026 goal is to complete the overhaul and make every recurring action rule-based, logged, and fully automated. It protects my time, increases consistency, and allows the platform to grow from thousands of categories to the six-figure range without risking structural strain. Albert Richer, Founder, WhatAreTheBest.com.
My 2026 Business New Year's Resolution: To integrate more humane, AI-assisted pet behavior insights into our operations so we can personalize every pet's care experience even better, not to scale faster, but to deepen trust and emotional safety for pets and their families. Skandashree Bali, CEO & Co-Founder, Pawland https://mypawland.com
My 2026 resolution is to implement mandatory "handshake accountability days" where I personally visit every customer we serviced in the previous quarter. When I shake your hand at Blair & Norris, that's my promise--and I need to look people in the eye months later to know if we kept it. I started tracking our BBB A+ rating against actual long-term satisfaction last year and found something surprising: customers gave us five stars immediately after service, but six months later, 11% had questions they never called about. Small things--pump efficiency doubts, septic maintenance confusion--that festered because they felt "too minor" to bother us with. Since my grandfather started drilling wells in 1945, we've grown from his one-truck operation to a multi-million-dollar company, but I've lost something he never did: regular face-time after the invoice clears. He'd stop by farms unannounced just to check his wells were still running right, and people trusted him because of it. I'm scheduling 40 visits per quarter starting January--no upselling allowed, just coffee and honest questions about whether their system is performing as promised. It'll cost me two days monthly, but I'd rather catch problems during a friendly visit than read about them in a review.
My ONE business resolution for 2026 is to bring back quarterly "founder floor hours" where I'm not managing or coaching--just training alongside members as a regular participant in our group classes. When I first opened VP Fitness in 2011 as a master trainer, I was in every session, spotting members, feeling their energy shifts, hearing their real conversations between sets. Now as we've grown into franchising, I've noticed I'm solving problems from spreadsheets instead of from the gym floor. Last month I jumped into a 6am boot camp unannounced and learned three members were carpooling from the same company--a corporate wellness opportunity I'd never have finded in our CRM. I'm committing to four hours per quarter in random classes across different times and formats. No clipboard, no "checking in on things"--just me doing burpees and hearing what people actually talk about when they think no owner is listening. The parking complaints, the class they wish we offered, the trainer they're too polite to request. These conversations happen in rest periods between sets, not in feedback forms. That's where I'll find our next four growth initiatives for 2026--straight from members who don't know they're giving me our business roadmap.
My ONE business resolution for 2026 is to personally host quarterly "reverse pitch" sessions where our vendors and partners pitch ME on what EMRG Media should be doing differently. After 16 years in event planning and working with hundreds of vendors across NYC, I've realized I'm always the one driving the creative direction--but some of our best Event Planner Expo innovations came from a lighting designer's offhand comment about attendee flow. Last year, our AV vendor suggested we flip our conference registration process based on something they saw at a tech event in Austin. We tested it and cut check-in time by 40% for 2,500 attendees. I never would have thought of it because I was too close to our "proven system." The best partnerships happen when you admit you don't have all the answers. I've shared stages with Gary Vaynerchuk and Mel Robbins, but my catering team in Brooklyn has taught me just as much about reading a room and timing experiences. In 2026, I'm formalizing that wisdom-gathering instead of stumbling into it.
My 2026 resolution is to launch "lifecycle transparency reports" for every property management client--quarterly documents showing exactly what we spent fixing their property, what we prevented through proactive maintenance, and what's likely coming next year with cost estimates. After 17 years managing properties at Direct Express Rentals, I've realized our best landlord relationships aren't with clients who have the newest properties--they're with owners who understand their property's story. When an owner sees we spent $800 on HVAC maintenance but prevented a $4,500 replacement, they trust our judgment on future recommendations. Right now that conversation happens reactively when something breaks. I'm building these reports because our integrated model (realty, construction, property management under one roof) gives us data most management companies don't track. We know what the property sold for, what we've fixed since purchase, and what similar properties needed at the same age. Our construction arm's project history becomes the property management division's predictive maintenance roadmap. The goal is zero surprise emergency repairs for owners who've been with us over a year. Tenants stay happier, owners budget better, and our maintenance crew works on scheduled projects instead of 11pm crisis calls. Transparency turns property management from a necessary evil into strategic asset management.
My 2026 business resolution is to create a "tenant appreciation audit" where I personally shadow each client for half a day to understand how they actually use our space versus how we think they use it. After five years managing ViewPointe, I've realized our biggest service gaps come from assumptions. We had attorney clients who needed mail twice daily but never mentioned it--they just worked around our once-daily schedule. I only finded this during a casual hallway conversation. How many other invisible pain points are we missing? Starting in January, I'm blocking two mornings per week to observe clients in action--watching how they interact with our conference room booking system, tracking when they actually need reception support, noting which amenities sit unused while others are overbooked. I'm treating it like my old HR days conducting workplace assessments. The goal is to find three operational changes per quarter that we would never identify from surveys or feedback forms alone. Real behavior tells you what people actually need, not what they think they should need or what's polite to request.
My 2026 resolution is to eliminate "blame switching" in our supply chain by implementing shared financial stake in quality outcomes--where we and our overseas factories split the actual cost of defects 50/50, not just argue about who pays. Over 38 years at Altraco, I've noticed most quality disputes with factories waste weeks because both sides immediately lawyer up and point fingers. Last year I tracked this across our accounts--the average quality issue took 23 days and four conference calls to resolve, even when the fix itself only cost $800. We were spending thousands in time fighting over hundreds in corrections. I tested a different approach with two factories in Vietnam late last year. Before production started, we signed agreements stating that any defects found during our third-party inspections would be split 50/50 automatically--no negotiations, no blame meetings, just immediate fixes and shared costs. Both factories caught errors earlier in production because they knew they had skin in the game, and when issues did arise, we resolved them in 2-3 days instead of weeks. The fascinating part was that our total quality costs dropped 67% because factories started doing their own multi-point testing without us asking. When you're genuinely partners in the outcome instead of adversaries protecting margins, everyone works harder to prevent problems rather than explain them away.
My 2026 resolution is to cut our project planning meetings in half by implementing "dirt-first decision making"--where we start every client conversation at the actual site with shovels and equipment, not in conference rooms with blueprints. Last year at Patriot Excavating, I tracked how many change orders came from conditions we could've spotted during initial meetings if we'd just been on-site. We averaged 2.3 changes per commercial project, each delaying timelines by 4-7 days. Most were simple issues like unexpected clay layers or drainage problems that any experienced excavator sees immediately when walking the ground. I tested this approach on three projects in late 2025--meeting clients at their sites first, digging test pits during our initial consultation, and mapping utilities with our equipment running. All three came in without a single change order, and clients told me they felt more confident because they saw our crew's expertise immediately instead of just hearing us talk about it. The resolution costs us maybe an extra hour upfront per project, but it eliminates the expensive back-and-forth that happens when reality doesn't match the assumptions we made in an office. Plus, contractors and property owners respect someone who shows up ready to dig, not just ready to discuss digging.
My 2026 resolution is to stop testing variations and start testing visitor segments--because our 18 years of data at SiteTuners proves that the "average visitor" doesn't exist, and optimizing for them is leaving money on the table. Last year, I reviewed conversion tests across our 2,100+ client base and found that winning variations typically improved conversions by 15-20% overall, but when we segmented the data, we finded some user groups converted 40% better while others actually performed 8% worse. We were celebrating wins that were actually masking significant losses for key audience segments. I'm implementing segment-first testing in 2026--starting every optimization by identifying our client's three most valuable visitor types (like first-time vs. returning, or high-intent vs. browsing), then designing separate experiences for each before we ever run a traditional A/B test. We piloted this approach with a baby furniture client's email signup, and by creating segment-specific messaging around "more joy" instead of generic "newsletter signup," we saw immediate lifts that our previous broad tests never achieved. The shift costs nothing in tools or time--just requires asking "which visitors?" before "which variation?" Most businesses are optimizing their site for an average that represents almost none of their actual customers.
My ONE business resolution for 2026 is to eliminate all consultations that happen before 10am or after 4pm at BodyLuxe--sounds backwards, but hear me out. I've done over 3,000 awake body contouring procedures in Chicago, and I've noticed a pattern: patients who book early-morning or evening consults are often squeezing us between work calls or rushing from their commute. They're distracted, they ask fewer questions, and months later during recovery they tell me "I wish I'd asked about X during my consult." When consultations happen mid-day, patients arrive calmer, they actually look at their 3D photos longer, and they ask harder questions about recovery logistics--which leads to better surgical planning and way fewer "I didn't realize" moments post-op. Our same-surgeon follow-up compliance went from 71% to 94% when we shifted consult slots to 10-2 only. I'm protecting that window in 2026 even if it means fewer total consults, because a smaller number of deeply informed patients beats a packed calendar of half-present ones. Better decisions up front means better outcomes on the table.
My ONE business resolution for 2026 is to say "no" to at least three bookings per month that don't align with our strengths--even if it means turning down revenue. After running Brisbane360 for years, I've learned that chasing every dollar spreads us too thin and waters down what we're actually great at. Last year we took on a corporate contract that looked perfect on paper, but it required vehicles and timing that forced us to juggle our regular school groups and seniors tours. We delivered everything, never cancelled, but our team was exhausted and our service quality for loyal clients slipped just enough that I noticed. That's not the Brisbane360 standard. We built our reputation on passenger transport excellence--school camps, senior day trips, university transfers, custom Stradbroke Island tours. When we stay in that lane with clients who value our expertise over just price, everyone wins. The work is more enjoyable, our drivers perform better, and customers actually appreciate what makes us different from the big multinationals. Saying no strategically means saying yes to being genuinely excellent at fewer things. That's worth more than a packed calendar of mediocre jobs.
My 2026 resolution is to eliminate phone tag by implementing same-day video floor assessments--customers text a 60-second video of their concrete, and we send back a detailed quote with coating recommendations within 4 hours. Right now, we lose about 30% of leads between the initial call and the on-site estimate because scheduling conflicts drag out for weeks. A commercial client in Thornton last month went with a competitor simply because they could start sooner, even though our price was lower. Speed kills deals more than price does. During my 20+ years at 3M, I learned that eliminating bottlenecks in the customer journey always had the biggest ROI--usually 3-5x better than process improvements downstream. One cross-functional team I led cut response time by 48 hours and saw customer satisfaction jump from 94% to 99%. This video-quote system costs basically nothing to implement but turns our biggest weakness into a competitive advantage. Homeowners get clarity immediately, and we capture projects while competitors are still playing phone tag to schedule estimates.