Reflect on where you were at this time last year in your business, in your confidence, in your financial well-being, and in how you were able to serve others and provide the gift of your business to them.  You’ll no doubt see some remarkable offerings you put forth. 

To continue to move ahead in 2010 you’ll want to apply these tips as you prepare your new year’s resolutions.  Many of these were inspired by a discussion among Women Entrepreneurs on Linkedin, as they looked over their learnings from the trenches and re-chose what’s important to focus on.

Tip 1.  Commit to better acknowledge your skills, talents and your contributions to others even more than you focus on areas of improvement and new learning.

Tip 2.  Let go of everything having to be perfect – including you – and learn to prioritize.  Do your best prep work and then get on with taking actions.  Don’t let your desire for getting it right hold you back from accomplishing the bigger picture.  In this way, you can aim the growth of your company to be even higher!

 3.  Remember that listening is twice as important as talking and it’s the best way to learn about your customer’s needs and how to serve them, rather than putting forth your great ideas and hoping your customers want that.  After all, business is all about meeting a need in the marketplace and their ideas could be your bigger moneymaker!   Call them, email them, mail them regularly.  Establish a true relationship model of service in your business and be determined not to lose touch with your customers.

4.  Review your friends and those who you know well.  Are they truly your ambassadors or merely acquaintances?  How often are they there to lend a hand to you in some way, suggest a possible new client referral, or listen and applaud your projects?  Donna Roberts said, “A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails.”  In addition to having value-added friends, be sure to hire the right assistants who care about you and your business.

5.  Balance is definitely a critical learning.  Entrepreneur Gail Mayhugh, a certified interior designer, wrote in this Women Entrepreneur’s chat thread, that she learned this year, “That it’s O.K. to take time off and not work 24/7.”  “…the fires, emergencies and unrealistic deadlines that other people create do not make them mine.”  While drawing clear work and personal boundaries is often challenging, we have to learn not only how to service other people well, but ourselves.

There will be many starts and stops this upcoming year, as there has been this year, but don’t forget to cut yourself some slack as you make changes.  I’m meditating more often because the silence is so useful in hearing my own inner questions and answers and trusting it.  So honor your own intuition as you move into the new year!

Have a blessed, healthy and prosperous one.

Tags: entrepreneur changes, new learnings as an Entrepreneur, new year resolutions, prepare your resolutions, success in 2010

This entry was posted on Monday, December 21st, 2009 at 8:12 pm and is filed under Career Tips, Personal and Professional Growth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.