Well, what a truly amazing year 2009 was!

I am sure we have all experienced the ups and downs that the year brought to us and I am sure you join me now in feeling much more optimistic about 2010 now that we have had a few festive days worth of business. Just like me, you will have set yourself New Year’s resolutions and will be determined to stick to them. As always, most of mine (apart from eating and drinking less) are all geared to how I can make more of my business, make it more efficient, profitable; and maintain growth, so that 2010 can be an even more successful year for me.

We all start the year with great plans and enthusiasm and by the end of January, most of us have given up on our resolutions. New gym memberships are all the rage for the first two weeks of the New Year and then memberships decline as the weeks go by. Most new resolutions fail because we either set ourselves unrealistic targets for too many for us to keep on top of.

I always make the point of only setting two key factors in each area of my business, that way, my self and my staff have less to make sure we stick too. I also break these resolutions/goals down in to small, meaning full chunks. For instance, rather than set a goal for my self of running the New York marathon, I would set my self the goal of running for 10 mins. every other day and then increase this by 1 minute every run. By the time you have got past a few , will regularly be running for a good period of time. So to choose a more realistic goal, and example would be, if I want to grow my business I need to get my sales team to get 1 new customer per week that’s the goal! That is the challenge my team can remember. This is achievable and will make a difference to my business. If I can get each of my sales people to get 1 new customer a week, by the end of the year we will have 52 new customers per sales person and that will make a great difference to my business!

For you, let’s set a goal of getting 1 new customer per week per technician into your salon or 1 new mobile customer – you have to do this to make your business grow. Next, let’s set the target of getting an existing customer to purchase a more expensive treatment or to try an additional service. We now have two simple New Year’s resolutions: 1 new customer a week and 1 customer a week to have an additional treatment.

I am not saying they will transform your business in the first two weeks of the year, but unlike all of your other New Year’s resolutions, keep these ones going all year and see what a difference they can make at the end of 2010. While doing this, add a little retail in there for good measure. You and your staff need to sell one extra retail item a week. Write these goals down: 1 extra customer, 1 extra service, 1 extra retail. They are not big resolutions and not something that you can’t commit to and more importantly, not something that is too hard that you give up after two weeks. My New Year’s resolutions and yours are to keep our New Year’s resolutions… I am out and about all over the world again in 2010 and I am sure you will see a lot more of me. If you do, please come over and say hi and if I can help you with your business then I will be more than happy to do so!

Happy New Year 2010!!