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Putting a price on business.
I love making New Year’s resolutions. No matter if 25 percent of resolutions are forgotten within a week, and 88 percent go by the wayside entirely. It’s a time to wipe the slate clean, reset expectations and get excited about what lies ahead. It’s a time for hope, and I’ll take hope for any reason. While I have run across a number of excellent lists for both business and personal resolutions this week, I thought I’d share some of mine and invite you to share yours. Bring on 2012!
Learn: At the top of my list for 2012 is learning how to play golf. I grew up watching my dad play golf, although it wasn’t until later in life that I wished he had taught me the game. I love playing sports and am competitive by nature – just ask my husband. I’m also intrigued by whether golf is the great game of business that everyone says it is. Also on my list is getting better with my digital SLR camera, as well as learning how to edit my photos using PhotoShop Elements. Blog posts look better with a photo, after all.
Enjoy: I am officially done with this recession. I’m done wallowing in fear and uncertainty, wondering whether my business will survive — which it thankfully has so far — and when the business-for-sale marketplace will turn around. I’m ready to move on, regardless. I’m going to tune into the noise less and enjoy life more. Among other things, there are a beautiful new art museum in my home town that I’ve only begun to explore, friends to connect with and vacations to be had. Sorry crumby economy, I’m over you.
Save: One good thing about these lean years has been figuring out how to squeeze every last expense out your business. Last year I got my company’s e-mail and documents moved into the cloud with Google Apps for Business and Dropbox, both of which I’ve been very happy with. My annual information technology expenses now total a whopping $170.40. At home we finally weaned ourselves off of the land line. In 2012 I’m going to tackle telecommunications at our business by exploring cloud-based solutions like Ring Central. I’m also going to look into using a credit card for both business and personals expenses that racks up either cash rewards or airline miles. I’m starting my research here.
Read: I mean books, as in the kind you can hold and smell (I can’t be the only one who loves to pick up a book, hold it close, flip the pages and take a whiff). I aspire to read a book a week, like a colleague of mine, but I’m a realist and have set a goal to read at least 15 books in 2012. The first three non-fiction titles on my list are “Linchpin: Are You Indispensable” by Seth Godin, “Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time” by Keith Ferrazzi, and “Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World” by Michael Lewis. Part of my 2011 savings plan was to cut down on buying books and get reacquainted with the adult section of my public library; I’ve been stuck in children’s books for about seven years now. It’s a beautiful relationship that has been a happy byproduct of last year’s resolutions.
Fix: I do most of my writing from my home office on a MacBook Pro. After almost three years of heavy use, the seven key is failing and things seem to be taking longer than they should. The old gray laptop just ain’t what it used to be. Time to visit my local geeks and get an overhaul, something my Web site is also in desperate need of. I’ve set my marketing budget for 2012, and these guys will be getting the lion’s share. It’s time to get serious about integrating my online marketing and social media strategies, regardless of how well the band-aids have worked up to this point.
I can think of plenty of others, like clean, play, write, sleep. But these are some of my New Year’s resolutions in a word, or two. What are yours?
Barbara Taylor is co-owner of a business brokerage firm, Synergy Business Services, in Bentonville, Ark. You can follow her on Twitter.
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