Business Tips: Beginning 2026 as a Phoenix Rising

One of the definitions within the Oxford dictionary for a phoenix is “...something which is renewed after apparent annihilation.” It also has a definition stating, “A person or thing of unique excellence or matchless beauty; a paragon. Now rare.” 

The concept of Phoenix Rising is a timeless narrative that speaks directly to the heart of our struggles and triumphs. When you have faced adversity, navigated profound change, or sought the strength to begin anew, the phoenix offers a potent message of hope, resilience, and transformation. As business owners and individuals we all have overcome adversity and emerged stronger, wiser, and more resilient throughout our lives. No matter what happened to you or your business in 2025 or so far in 2026, we encourage you to think of the message of the phoenix rising. We want to share a few tips and actionable items for you as you think about resilience, transformation, and the foundation you need to support this. Below are 5 tips to strengthen your foundation for 2026.

1. Clarify Your Vision and Goals: Define clear short term and long-term goals and metrics to guide your business decisions and investments. Turning big picture goals into a clear operational and technology roadmap. While doing this, put thought into how you have been managing your time and see how you may better embrace the 4 Ds of Time Management.

2. Get the Right People in the Right Seats: You do not need to do the work of running your business alone. Whether you use staff; contractors; or your own personal board of advisors, once you have a clear vision and know what is best to delegate, get the right people for each task. If you have a team, evaluate whether team members are working in their zone of excellence or not and adjust. Remember, with the right people in the right seat it could actually result in higher performance for your full team (see here).

3. Use Tools to Increase Team Communication, Collaboration, & Accountability: Tools like Asana or Monday.com may be useful for placing your vision and goals into trackable systems for your full team. There you can put things like your 90 day plan and quarterly goals in place for the team to help you execute on these plans.

4. Streamline Operations: Many business owners may be aware of some inefficiency but are too busy to pinpoint exactly where they are. Set aside space and time this year to do that. Below are some tips: 

   
   

   1. Do a team time audit to see where you all spend most of your time;

   2. Estimate the time and cost of those processes and if it aligns with your vision and goals;

   3. Prioritize processes that impact revenue, customers, or compliance;

   4. Identify systems that need to talk to each other; and

   5. Build a simple 2026 automation roadmap

5. Clean Up Your Numbers: You cannot stay ahead of the curve if you are always guessing where you stand financially. Clean, timely numbers are a competitive advantage.

   
   

   1. Ensure your 2025 books are clean and reconciled;

   2. Build a 2026 budget that matches your goals; and

   3. Decide on reporting cadence; choose a specific day to focus on finances and do not let anything get in the way of honoring that time (see here).

Remember, you can do this. You are that rare individual who chose to be an entrepreneur. You can rise like the phoenix through anything you are going through now.