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2014 Resolution Update

4 January 2015

Happy New Year and welcome to the wonderful world of 2015. Where all our dreams will come true, all customers will pay on time and all traffic will flow smoothly.

Of course life may not be exactly like that for us and yet we can still improve things with a handy New Year resolution or two. We do have some power over our business destiny!

Before we make any rash promises to ourselves I suggest we stop.

Stop and think about what has worked well for us in 2014 and what was less effective. It seems pointless to have any kind of resolution that past experience tells us is highly likely to fail – instead we can learn from the past and improve the future.

When I think back 12 months, to what I changed for 2014, the answer I come up with is a solid and determined focus on sales activity. Sounds a bit simple I know and yet I meet a lot of skilled consultants who take a haphazard and half-hearted approach to getting more business. What has worked well for me was hiring a sales PA to help me focus on monthly sales review meetings. We spend time discussing progress and setting activities for the next four weeks and (here’s the thing) because it’s a team effort it is…

A) Much more fun than doing it alone.

B) More likely to happen as it’s more fun.

…I like company and there’s no reason why business has to be a lonely trudge to retirement…where’s the fun in that?

My PA is great. And so am I. And so are my clients. I’m keeping my 2014 resolution for another year, as it would be madness to stop now!

So, this week have a think – what did you do well in 2014 that you need to keep doing this year? What did you learn from last year’s resolutions?

Next week: Change one thing…