Here at in-business.org.uk we would like to wish all of our readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

If you are looking for some ideas on New Year’s Resolutions then these might help…

1. If you have an idea for a new business and if till now you have been putting it off…make a resolution to commit to taking your business idea forward in 2010! Read about How to Start a Small Business.

2. If you are bad at doing your filing (Like me) then how about promising to keep up-to-date with your filing in 2010.

3. If you have been thinking about ‘Writting a Business Plan‘ and a cash flow forecast for your existing business and been putting this off…stop putting it off and get to it! Make 2010 the best year ever for your business…write a business plan and set your business in the right direction – Don’t fail to implement!

4. If you are too busy doing things in your business and doing what I consider ‘Working In’ your business…promise to start delegating in 2010 and start ‘Working On’ your business in 2010. Learn how to delegate task in your business!

5. If you are not sure about where your customers are coming from and you do not measure your advertising costs versus your new client inflows…consider s New Year’s resolution of starting to ‘Measure and Manage’ your business. Also consider starting a ‘Marketing Calendar’. Develop your business Key Performance Indicators or KPIs.

Whatever your New Year’s resolution for 2010 and whatever you do in your business

All businesses should have a marketing calendar!

So what is a marketing calendar?

During the course of the year you should track where your enquiries come from and which ones lead to customers. At the same time you should record which month the enquiries come in to your business so that you can build a picture of which months are your busiest and which ones are the least busy.

Once you have compiled this data you can put this into the form of a calendar and then use this to your businesses advantage. By knowing which months in the year you already get most enquiries; you can then plan further advertising in those months to really capitalise on the months in which your customers are looking to buy.

Secondly, you can look at the months where you are short of enquiries and look at complimentary products to shore up your business in those lean months.