New Year's resolutions for small business owners

The end of the calendar year is a chance for people to take a look at where they are personally and professionally, and resolve to make changes heading into the following year. Mashable recently compiled a list of small business resolutions for entrepreneurs looking to better their companies in 2012.

Despite constantly battling to divert consumers' attention away from larger companies, many small businesses may not be using independently owned service providers or vendors. Entrepreneurs looking to bring their own practices more in line with their philosophies should look for opportunities to support local or small enterprises where possible.

Business owners who've built their companies from the ground up often tend to have trouble stepping back and delegating tasks to employees. However, handing over day-to-day duties to trusted workers, contractors or assistants will ultimately help free up entrepreneurs' time to focus on growing the business and bringing in revenue.

Between QR codes, mobile coupons, location-based business promotions and social networking sites, the owners of small enterprises may feel overwhelmed by all the new ways to engage in business advertising. Narrowing down which aspects to focus on can seem challenging, but Mashable advises going straight to customers to determine which business marketing avenues will gel best with their demographic.

Although social media networks and other online tools such as YouTube are useful, don't forget the primary goal of online marketing - to draw traffic to your company's website. A website that is dated, inaccurate or visually unappealing could actually push customers away.

As Gabriel Shaoolian of Blue Fountain Media noted in a recent New York Times blog post, "Clutter can make it difficult to compete with more sophisticated sites." Streamlining your homepage to showcase a small selection of products and highlight current deals is likely to result in higher revenue.