As a CEO of a growing business, it goes without saying that you want your company to be as successful as possible.

Now that 2019 has begun in earnest, this is a perfect time to assess your business strategy to determine where you were successful and where you fell short of expectations to help your business grow and thrive.

Here are a trio of tips all small-business owners may want to embrace this year:

1. Engage with Your Team as Much as Possible

Do all of your employees share your same passion for small business? While they may burn the midnight oil like you, experts suggest coming up with new ways to make your team feel more committed to your overall vision and goals.

Ultimately, this will help ensure your employees are not merely showing up to collect a paycheck; ideally, you want to share your workday with people who share the same passion — and who want to be instrumental in your business succeeding.

One way to do this is to launch an employee appreciation program that recognizes employees who showcase exemplary workplace performance. You can reward these high-performing employees in a tangible way will help them feel valued, which, in turn, will inspire them to care more about their everyday work.

You can also reward your entire team for a job well done with a catered lunch to celebrate a milestone or for finishing a project on schedule and with great attention to detail. Employees who like their jobs will be more likely to be efficient and hardworking, so it’s well worth the investment for some perks every now and again.

2. Adopt a Cloud-based Call Center

One effective strategy to make your small business run more smoothly in 2019 and beyond is to implement a call center in the cloud. Adopting such a solution can help your business better handle inbound, outbound and blended interactions with your customers or clients skillfully and efficiently.

To that end, instead of spending hours and hours every day answering and relaying customer service calls to different departments, outsource this essential practice to a reputable third-party provider so you and your team can focus on other meaningful tasks that will help grow your company.

Look for a cloud contact center that offers a variety of solutions so that you can choose the one that best fits with your small business. Ultimately, this will ensure your customers receive top-level service and support and, in turn, will become loyal customers for years to come.

3. Automate Wherever Possible

You likely perform a number of repetitive tasks on any given day. To celebrate a successful 2018 — and look forward to an even more successful 2019 — look for ways you can automate certain tasks and responsibilities to make better use of your time.

For example, if you regularly hold a number of customer and team meetings, skip the tedious back and forth of sending emails to determine a meeting time by using an app like Calendly, which lets you schedule meetings through a single interface.

From there, you can share a direct link to Calendly, which is connected to your calendar, so clients and co-workers can find a day and time that works for them.

2018 was Great — But 2019 Will be Even Better!

As a small-business owner, you never want to rest on your laurels, thinking you have mastered everything you need to know and have grown your company to its maximum potential.

Instead, by assessing what has worked and where you have fallen short of expectation during the past year — and by vowing to start off 2019 with some new tips and tactics — the next 12 months may be the most successful ones yet.