Three things you can do now to better your business 2019

As we close out 2018, here are three things you can do now to better your business in 2019.

1. Embrace Opportunity

Have a penchant for parlaying predictions into reality? If so, then managing those “big wins” might be an opportunity for even greater growth.

With nearly 60 percent of Omaha/Council Bluffs CEOs saying their 2018 sales revenue increased relative to 2017, it’s no wonder many area executives are feeling awash in opportunity.

To get that good feeling about growth, don’t be afraid to dream big and “taste the delicious challenge” of a potentially prosperous future, says Lynda Shafer, Greater Omaha Chamber’s leader of leaders, who also helms the long-running Omaha Executive Institute.

“When opportunity comes, turn your face toward it, not away from it,” Shafer says. “Embrace it. Be excited. Some leaders may think it is hard to find people to trust who can carry out their vision. This means they take on more and more…and more. Allow others to execute, find trusted colleagues who can help carry your vision through. Turn ‘uncertainty,’ into ‘opportunity’ to experience unexpected success.”

2. Make Cybersecurity a Priority

Talk to anyone who’s experienced a cyber-attack, and the adage, “It’s not a problem until it’s a problem,” manifests in many different ways, not the least of which is ransomware.

To protect yourself from cybercriminals looking to lock you out, Pete Thompson, chief information officer, Greater Omaha Chamber says, “The biggest key is to make sure you have backups that are off of your network, so they’re not affected by whatever ransomware might get into your network.”

He adds, “Typically, that’s an off-site backup. If you have any data that cybercriminals can destroy that you don’t have backed up, that’s what people are paying to get access to. If you have current backups, there’s not as much they can hold you hostage for. That’s the biggest line of defense – to have that backup piece in order.”

The financial impact of ransomware is profound, with Cybersecurity Ventures estimating worldwide ransomware damages exceeding $5 billion in 2017.

“Ransomware is alive and well,” Thompson says. “When it first came out, they were going after big companies and setting these high ransoms for those companies to get access to their data and remove the ransomware. Now, they going after a broader range of targets and setting much lower thresholds because, I think, they found people are lot more likely to pay those.”

Proactivity is protection. Have a backup plan.

3. Stay Competitive

With more than half of Greater Omaha CEOs optimistic “their companies are growing faster than others in their industry,” the race for relevance just might signal a rising tide of revenue if executives recognize reasons to remain competitive.

Lisa Scheve is executive director, Gateway Development Corporation. She says relevance is real, and organizations unable – or unwilling – to evolve are most at risk.

“Know your competitors. Know your region. Understand your challenges and communicate the advantages of your industry,” Scheve says. “There are many stories of once-thriving organizations that misunderstood their position in the marketplace and lost their dominance. Standing still is not a way to get ahead. Strategizing is.”

Scheve says assessing competitors’ advantages relative to your own can create opportunities.

“Maybe your competitor excels in a particular area; however, maybe your performance in that arena is just as exemplary, and you have another selling point you can stack on top of that, something outside of your organization, such as talented workforce or powerful incentives,” Scheve explains.

Scheve notes understanding both your market position – and your marketplace – can up the odds of success, an assertion supported by her progressive colleagues, many of whom subscribe to the Inc. magazine adage, “If you’re not disrupting, you will be disrupted.”