I’m not into predictions and I don’t like the idea of fate, because then the control isn’t in our hands.
Instead, I asked some of the businesspeople who’ve featured in this column what their priorities are for this year.
Perhaps you’ll relate…
Cally Russell – Mallzee
This year is going to be very hard for retailers and clothing brands due to reducing consumer spending and changing shopping habits.
One of our big focuses is to help them improve their performance in these conditions with our Product Future offering.
On the consumer side we’re going to keep innovating with our apps and improving the shopping experience. In the last quarter we saw a 30% increase in time in app and we want to keep growing that.
Personally I’m focused on growing as an entrepreneur. I want to help the team we’ve now built. I’ve signed up for a few very interesting courses and built a very long reading list.
We’ll also be scaling the Startup Dinners series that I started in 2016 to help others develop their skills.
Read our interview with Cally Russell here – [insert page=’story-cally-russell-mallzee-weekly-scaleup-kim-mcallister’ display=’link’]
Karen Knowles – Bon Accord soft drinks
2018 looks to be an exciting one for Bon Accord, we are focusing on growing our business in the UK through the new distributors we have recently won listings with.
We are also exploring new export markets where there seems to be a real appetite for our naturally sweetened soft drinks and mixers overseas.
Personally, as always, I have made a few New Year’s Resolutions! They include continuing to work hard on all the projects I started in 2017 and, of course, spending more quality time with family and friends!
Read our interview with Karen Knowles here – [insert page=’story-juiced-karen-knowles-bon-accord’ display=’link’]
Grant MacLennan – NEU Studio
Number one for me the year is working on my focus. Practically, that means switching off notifications on my phone, deleting social media apps and adding a blocker on Chrome to stop “quick” checks of different sites. It’s those “quick” actions that really destroy your focus and any chance of “flow state”.
When things get tough, or when I really have to grind on a problem, this is when I usually have “another idea” and go off and do that instead. This year I want to look for those tough things and really focus in on them.
In 2018 I really want to make meditation a habit. Last year I used HeadSpace on and off and found it really helped with my mental wellbeing.
Read our interview with Grant MacLennan here – [insert page=’pivoting-scale-daily-scaleup-kim-mcallister’ display=’link’]
Peter Milligan – CEO Miso
Our priorities for 2018 are continuing to build our remarkable team of talented individuals, to engage with innovative litigators around the globe and finally to be able to reveal – after ten years working in stealth mode – our revolutionary platform for preparing litigation cases.
Read our interview with Peter Milligan here – [insert page=’exclusive-advocate-turned-coder-set-disrupt-courtroom-weekly-scaleup-kim-mcallister’ display=’link’]
Kyle Whitington and Russ Peterson at Bad Dinosaur
After growing from a 1-person operation to an agency with five full-time employees in 2017, we’re going to be focused on further growing the business in 2018 from our new offices in Broughton.
We’ll maintain a strong presence at Codebase and we’re keen to help even more startups launch in the digital sector. We work closely with our advisor Graeme Faulds, co-founder of TopQ and Director of Private Equity Solutions at eVestment.
Read our interview with Russ Peterson here – [insert page=’how-to-start-your-scaleup-journey-the-daily-scaleup-with-kim-mcallister’ display=’link’]
What’s your priority for 2018? Let me know in the comments!
Kim McAllister is a Journalist & Communications Consultant and director of Impact Online
