
I love this time of year, from Thanksgiving to Christmas right through to the new year. It’s a wonderful time of reflection and celebration, a time to look at the year that has been, be grateful for the good already received and maintain (or re-acquire) a mindset of expectation for progress in the coming year.

While this is fairly universally understood in our personal lives, it is a good blueprint for our professional lives as well. There are several holiday “tasks” that can help grow our business, if only we will do them.
Holiday Task #1: Be Grateful
Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful for what we have experienced in the past year. Certainly, the pilgrims were grateful for the harvest, to have made it through the difficulties of establishing their colony and working to thrive in a seemingly hostile climate. Are you grateful for the year that has just past? Certainly, economically, this year could be seen as a hostile climate in which to conduct business. But don’t forget to take a moment and be grateful for what you did have, for what you did accomplish.
Beacon Marketing is now over two years old, and we are so grateful for the fantastic opportunities that we have had, such as:
- Helping a leader in the toy industry continually identify their strengths and understand the economy’s implications for their business
- Motivating literally hundreds of professionals to greater personal performance in finding their own Signature for Success
- Guiding a two-year old start up through an overhaul of their branding strategy, complete with new logo design
- Teaching leaders in public relations, insurance, the toy industry and many other walks of life what the value of digital branding is and communicating social media best practices
- Coaching an executive to that next level of exposure, performance and ultimately, promotability
- Redesigning a non-profit’s web presence for greater navigability and higher impact in their world
- Increasing exposure for a company that helps youth marketers reach their kid target audience in schools
- Identifying growth opportunities based on consumer insights for a property-driven “kid” company
Holiday Task #2: Recognize Where Your Good Comes From
No matter what brand of spirituality you celebrate, whether Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa or something else, the December holiday season provides an opportunity to actively acknowledge where good comes from.
That same exercise can be done in your business. Where does the good in your business come from, and have you paused to appreciate that goodness? Usually, the growth in our business comes from a combination of several areas:
- Enthusiasm for our product or service from our customers & consumers
- Excellence delivered every day by our employees
- Value provided by business partners
- Investors who believe in our success
Take a moment to think about where the good in your company has come from, as this will set you up for the next “holiday” task (and don’t forget to thank those involved in providing you with that goodness!).
Holiday Task #3: Set a Plan for More Growth
New Year’s resolutions abound, providing a time to look forward with an expectation of more good in the coming year. How will you achieve your goals? If you did Holiday Task #2, you will know what you did right in the past year and will have identified areas upon which to grow for 2010. Build on your strengths and go out from there. Whether you are looking at the year from a personally professional point of view (how can I grow in my career?) or from a business standpoint (“How can we grow the business 20% in 2010?”), setting objectives based on current assets and planning to take advantage of business opportunities in 2010 is a vital part of actively managing your brand and your business.
I think most people in the business world are eagerly anticipating the arrival of 2010 with the belief that “it couldn’t possibly be worse that 2009.” Regardless, take some time in this holiday season to reflect on what DID go right and what can you build on for 2010. Be grateful for what your business experienced, identify where your strengths come from, and plan expectantly for progress in 2010.
If you’d like some strategic help in setting and accomplishing your goals, please know that we stand ready and willing to help! We’ve got a team of experts in many fields, ready to apply their own special brand of excellence to your business.
Happy Holidays!