We asked six local business owners to share one action they’re taking to finish the year on a high and build momentum for success in 2022. Here’s what they told us.

Moving to larger premises

Caroline Heslop, founder & director, Sketch Collective

For us it’s an amazing time to take the leap into larger premises and we are excited to move on 1 January. Our new digs will accommodate our growing team and the street frontage location will revolutionise our brand. A lot of our business comes from word of mouth and we’re looking forward to adding walk-bys to the mix.

Our customers are excited to get back to face-to-face meetings and our new location means we can host more meetings, offer workshops and entertain. As we grow, we know a space that brings our brand to life is crucial. It’s part of putting on a show - the better the show, the more people will be enticed through the doors!

Working smarter, not harder

Alexandra and Stephanie King, co-founders, Ask Marketing

We’ve introduced a nine-day working fortnight. The motivation behind it is to ensure our team is able to effectively recharge. Lockdowns have blurred the line between personal and professional time, and everyone is feeling the impact of digital fatigue. So it’s important our team can hit the reset button as often as possible.

Productivity and motivation have skyrocketed, and with no cost to the business. It will help us to continue achieving business growth because our team can be at its best – thinking critically and creatively, and always delivering to an exemplary standard.

Making the most of change

Clare Jones, marketing & operations manager, OfficeSpace.com.au

We’re looking to capitalise on the growing number of businesses looking to return to the office in 2022. We’ve restructured our website to focus on the more flexible spaces tenants now expect – think short-term leases, open-plan designs, custom amenities and world-class end-of-trip facilities.

Prior to making these changes, our marketing team conducted a comprehensive market analysis to identify sought-after locations and trending workspace characteristics.

We anticipate a return to growth once the holiday season is over and businesses begin to make major moves for the future. We expect competition to be fierce in 2022 as businesses and freelancers look for more agile and affordable office solutions.

Fortifying for stability

Phil Stormer, CEO, Stormer Music (right)

Delivering an incredible program with serious attention to detail to a greater number of students. We will continue to offer our full program online via live and pre-recorded lessons, digital sheet music, online concerts, electric instruments and more.

No matter what the future holds, our commitment is to provide stability and security to our students. We can do that online or in person. We are battle hardened and ready for anything!

Having coffee meetings

Nathan Schokker, founder, SafeTicket

For us, it’s all about going old school: getting off virtual calls and back to face-to-face coffees and meetings!

We are listening to our clients and prospective clients. They are tired of the virtual sales pitch and a lack of interpersonal channels, so we’re taking it back to the classic ‘business coffee date’ style.

It feels a little ironic given our solution is a digital tool for events and ticketing, but people are keen to grab a cuppa and shoot the breeze before any selling happens. We anticipate that our team of four will clock up more than 2000 coffee dates in 2022.

Automating email marketing

Casey Patch, founder, Little Lifelong Learners

We will be refreshing our email marketing to ensure we’re nurturing our existing audiences as well as new audiences. It’s much easier to convert an existing customer than to find new ones so we’ll be focusing our attention on those incredible souls who’ve been part of our community for many years.

This means working through copy, client avatars and messaging then revisiting all our existing email sequences and automations including welcome, nurture and post purchase sequences.

We have content upgrades that sit within our blog posts and help us build our email list every day with traffic from Google and Pinterest. The next step will be to revise the automations for these subscribers to make sure each touch point of the customer journey is in alignment.