It is the first week of January. It is a time when we all have this blank slate in front of us, which is 2011. Our actions in this first month will however, have a major impact on what we end up achieving this year. I believe that New year resolutions are personal promises, made to ourselves, and can have long term benefits. During this period I also write down very specific goals of what success should look like this year in the businesses that I run.

We all hope to double our revenue growth, increase profit margins or get outside investment to accelerate our growth path. However, what you need to do is be realistic about where you are and what you can actually achieve this year. This can only happen by taking stock of where you are first. How did you do in 2010? What were your sales figures? What are your profit margins at? How many customers did you bring on and how many did you lose? Depending on your business, take key metrics and set specific and realistic goals that you will work towards in 2011.

Create a roadmap for 2011, this will help towards achieving a much higher probability of making meaningful strides towards growing your business to where you want it to go. This exercise beats pulling random numbers and lofty goals without taking into account whether they are achievable or not. Wishing all my readers the best of success in the new year!