So, as we head down towards the Festive Season we’re all looking forward to getting together with family and friends, and taking time out from the day to day treadmill which is running our business. Whether we are doing well or whether there is room for improvement, for most small businesses this is a period which is quieter than most, most often because our clients are too busy having festive fun. So of course we switch off, don’t we?

Well of course we don’t. For most business owners, we rarely switch off completely, always thinking about ways that the business could be improved, whether it be making more money, or just getting the business running smoothly. And this time of year has its own challenges as well. Think of it as The Christmas Curse

As the New Year approaches we start to think about what we have achieved and what we want to achieve, and the difference between the two. And of course, because things are quiet in the business, we have some time to think these things through. And typically we ask ourselves some of the following questions:

• Where did the year go?
• Given that we’ve all been working really hard, why isn’t the bank balance better?
• What will the accounts say at the end of the year?
• How are we going to cover the loan this year?
• Why am I still working all the hours made?
• Why haven’t we achieved what I decided we wanted to achieve when I contemplated this last Christmas?
• Can I really face another year of achieving very little?
• ….add your own to the list, but you know what I mean.

So this year, add another question to the list:

• OK, so what am I going to do this year to make it different?

To quote Albert Einstein:

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”

The point is, if you change your approach something will change; but if you want the change to improve what your business delivers you first of all need to know what it is you want to achieve. There’s a really interesting article here on this topic which outlines the need to have a Vision of what you want from your business. And of course, once you have a Vision then you can decide on what you have to do to achieve it.

Or can you? In most businesses there are a lot of contributing factors which interact, and for your plan to work (for that is what you are doing, formulating a plan) you need to take all those into account:

• There is no point in building an effective marketing strategy, for instance, if you can’t raise the working capital to fund the growth that extra sales will entail.
• There is no point in trying to remove yourself from the business if there is nobody else lined up to do what you do
• There is no point in selling more if for every item you sell you lose money

So where do you start?

Well there is hope. We are here to help business owners like you understand what you want to achieve, and to translate that Vision into a practical development plan for your business,  and allowing you access to further funding to help pay for training of your management team to put the plan into action.

And it all starts with a free consultation to determine in outline what you want to achieve. Just complete our short online Questionnaire and we’ll contact you to do the rest.

If you do nothing else this Christmas, start your business on the road to your Vision and banish the Christmas Curse!