It's that time of the year. Before you jump on the same bandwagon as everyone else and resolve to workout more because you’ve had one too many gingerbread cookies this season, consider making financial resolutions a priority in 2017.

Do You Neglect Your Personal Finances?

As entrepreneurs, we often neglect our personal finances. We max out our credit cards to pay for business expenses. We take out second mortgages to expand our companies. We go without a paycheck to keep the lights on during times when cash is tight.

But those things take a toll on both our net worth and our stress levels. Next year, consider devoting some time to taking care of yourself by focusing on your finances.

Not sure what resolutions to make? A recent survey of 1,001 Americans making financial resolutions for 2017 worked to find out what kinds of financial resolutions are popular.

Hopefully, what we found will inspire you to make your own financial resolutions.

What Kinds of Resolutions Should You Make?

The most popular resolution that people were making this year was to save more money. In total, over 52 percent of Americans felt like that was their most important resolution. Coming in second, over 35 percent of respondents wanted to pay off debt and over 11 percent wanted to spend less money.

As entrepreneurs, these are all things that we should be prioritizing. It is often difficult for us to put enough money aside for important things like our retirement or our children’s college education.

Trace Steffen, CEO & Founder of HowFactory, knows the difficulty of managing personal finance and entrepreneurship. “It's easy to lose sight of our personal needs and goals. Financially stressed founders don't do anyone any good,” said Steffen. “We just have so many inputs throughout the day, it's difficult to dig in a few more hours a month and look at your personal finances.”

In 2017, consider setting up automatic contributions to your savings or retirement accounts.

If you currently have debt, make a plan to start paying it off this year and commit to allocating money towards your debt each month.

Having personal debt could impact your business since too much debt could damage your credit score and make accessing business credit more difficult.

We asked Ryan Bednar, CEO & Founder of RankScience, about the impact of entrepreneurship on personal finance. “It's definitely difficult.

"At my previous startup, I was in my mid-twenties with very little saving, and living in NYC -- it was stressful,” said Bednar. “I've now been around the block a few times, have some actual savings, and am able to take a higher paycheck. You always have to think company first.”

Be More Economical

2017 is also a great time to start being more economical as this will allow you to save more and pay off debt more effectively. Consider making a budget and holding off on large purchases. Put the skills you use to cut costs in your business to use in your personal life.

We asked Jeremy Yamaguchi, CEO & Founder of Lawn Love, about the crossover in skill. “The exercise of managing a company's finances actually translates fairly well into the same for personal finances. Budgeting, profit, and loss are universally useful concepts.” Said Jeremy.

Create Specific and Measurable Goals

Resolving to get out of debt or save more money is a good step, but it’s too vague. We all know that nothing gets done unless there are actionable steps and measurable outcomes. So, what specifically did respondents plan to do?

• Over 21 percent planned to make and stick to a budget.
• Over 19 percent wanted to save for a large purchase like a down payment, a household upgrade or a car.
• Over 18 percent wanted to pay down credit card debt.
• Over 16 percent wanted to build an emergency fund.

Other goals included saving for retirement, paying down student debt, and saving for college.

While all these goals are good, try focusing on one or two goals in order to increase your chances that you’ll actually stick to them and succeed.

If you focus on too many things, you could get overwhelmed.

How to Stick to Your Resolutions

Worried that you won’t be able to stick to your goal? Use some of the strategies that our respondents plan on using to stay on track:

- 37 percent give themselves a reward for reaching their goal. In addition,

- 20 percent segment big goals into smaller goals,

- 19 percent use technology to monitor goals or save money, nearly

- 14 percent utilize family and friends as motivators and just under

- 9 percent have consequences for not reaching their goal.

We also found that if you set your financial resolutions with a spouse or significant other, you are more likely to hit your goal. Talking about your finances with a spouse or significant other may be difficult, but in the short and long run your will feel more financially secure and be in less debt.

While you don’t have to use all of these strategies, pick one or two that you think would work for you. If you’re unsure which to pick, think about what you do in your business to make sure that you stay on track when it comes to your company’s goals.

Good Luck!

People who successfully stick to their resolutions are willing to work hard on them but they also tend to repeatedly check in to monitor their progress. Schedule monthly or quarterly touchpoints where you can evaluate your progress towards your financial resolutions and adjust your goals.  

While not everyone succeeds at their resolutions, the odds are in your favor. Of the respondents in our poll who set a financial goal in 2016, over 57 percent were able to meet or exceed their goal.

Those are pretty good odds. With hard work and good luck, hopefully, you’ll be able to say the same this time next year.