Start the year off as you intend to carry on

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you had a great Christmas and New Year period, whether it be peaceful and relaxing, or exciting and adventurous!  Whatever suits your style.

My husband and I went on a cruise to New Zealand and had opportunity to just relax and sleep in, if we wanted, but some days were spent on going on tours onshore and exploring parts of New Zealand we’d not seen before. I think, for us, the highlight was visiting the Hobbiton Movie Set, which was a new tour made available while we were on the ship heading to New Zealand.  The most beautiful places were Akaroa and Milford Sound. But there were so many other things we saw and experienced that were great too. And we made new friends with 3 other couples and plan to keep in touch with them also.

Now, have you thought about the year ahead and how you plan to tackle it? Have you got plans you want to fulfill?  I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions but I do usually set goals for each year.  I haven’t done it yet for this year but will soon. I usually spend a day in contemplative thinking, and prayer, and put together a goals list for the year, print it off in full colour, laminate it and stick it on the wall in my office so that it’s in front of me all year round. But what other things can you do?  I saw this list on the recent newsletter sent by the Knox Economic Development group with City of Knox and thought it such a great list. I really can’t add to it and agree with all it says.  I thought it worthy of sharing with you.

• Don’t be afraid to delegate
• Learn at least one new skill
• Become known as the expert in your field
• Promote your business regularly and consistently
• Understand your businesses financial statements
• Make business planning a regular event
• Invest in one new customer touch point
• Refresh your website
• Set realistic goals
• Social network in the real world
• Give something back to your community
• Put time for you on the calendar

Sourced from www.advancewesterndowns.com.au.

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I loved the point ‘social network in the real world’ :-).  I think, as Virtual Assistants we can often get so caught up in wanting to do business virtually, that we forget that we don’t have to do everything virtually. We can actually get up, go outside, and meet people face-to-face.  If you haven’t been doing that, I encourage you to do so. Much of my business was built by face-to-face networking in the early days of my business (1994-) and I still do it today.  It’s great meeting new people and getting to know them.

Looking forward to catching up with many of you real soon!