Start/Stop/Continue for 2025

Happy New Year!

We’ve been hard at work behind the scenes [in Santa’s workshop] tinkering and updating Margo OS to relaunch in 2025. The Marketplace is ready for new Marketers to join, and will be ready for business owners to start using soon! 

Marketers: If you offer marketing services — from SEO to creative, or analytics to channel strategy — the beta Marketplace is now open. Create and update your profile to start getting paid for the valuable templates and tools you’ve already created. 

Now for the first 3 Ideas Newsletter of 2025, we thought it would be fun to think a bit more broadly using the Start/Stop/Continue framework to guide our recommendations. 

Things to START doing in 2025: Build resilience with collaborations and community.

Join a local (or topical) business alliance or community: Partner with nearby or complementary businesses for joint promotions, shared resources, and collective power. Attend or kickstart regular meetups to share challenges and solutions with other local entrepreneurs — building a business is hard, but it’s easier when you have a community.

Engage in community problem-solving: Identify local/regional challenges and leverage your business resources to help address them. This could mean exploring your local community for ways to connect with a new regional audience or identifying challenges in your digital community spaces. 

Create collaborative customer experiences: Partner with complementary businesses to offer joint workshops, events, or service packages that provide more value than any single business could offer alone.

Things to STOP doing in 2025: You don't have to go it alone, there's strength in connection.

Making all decisions in isolation: Stop trying to solve every business challenge alone. Seek input from employees, customers, and other business owners before making significant changes. Find support from experts or people with context of your business challenges.

Operating in a silo: End the practice of keeping business strategies and challenges completely private. Share experiences with local entrepreneurs to build a support network and learn from each other.

Working without a advisory group: Stop running your business without community input. Create an advisory board of stakeholders to provide perspective on needs and opportunities. It doesn’t have to formal and serious, but even an informal group of people to provide feedback on your content or social posts helps. 

Things to CONTINUE doing in 2025: Focus on what matters — your growth and relationships.

Data-Driven Decision Making: Smart businesses are leveraging analytics more than ever. Track key metrics consistently, analyze patterns, and make informed decisions. Focus on actionable insights that drive growth and efficiency. Remember - not all data is equally valuable; prioritize metrics that directly impact your bottom line.

‍Customer Relationship Building: As technology advances, your personal connections matter more than ever. Maintain regular contact with your core customers, seek feedback, and adapt to their evolving needs. Strong relationships build resilience against economic uncertainty and help weather market changes.

‍Skills Development Investment Continuous learning is no longer optional. Regular team training and skill development directly impact productivity and innovation. Focus on technical and soft skills aligning with your business goals and market demands.