Well it’s nearly at an end. Christmas and New Years Eve has come and gone. Northlanders have been able to take time out and reflect on the year that has been and the year to come. Maybe there have been a few new years resolutions? Lose Weight? Give up smoking? Spend more time with family? Start a business?Some interesting facts on new years resolutions. Most people make several resolutions. Two-thirds of resolution makers commit to start something, and one-third wants to stop or decrease something. Persistence pays off in the resolution business. After six months, 57 percent of the promise keepers were still keeping their resolutions intact.
2008 what does it hold? We know from the regular quarterly Chamber of Commerce confidence survey that businesses have become more cautiously watchful in their planning and outlook. Don’t let these sort of results from surveys affect your business. If you take the time to look at your own vision, have a plan of attack to get you there and take on board others experience and advice then, you and your business will succeed, no matter what the latest business confidence survey says.
How about the business you work for or own? Wouldn’t now be a good time to take some time out with your team and make a few resolutions? Or to put it another way invest some time in strategic planning.
How do we make a new years resolution for your business.
Here is a simple two step process
Step 1 – Begin at the end. What will your business look like when you are finished with it? To describe this you need to ask yourselves questions like; why am I in business? Is it to earn an income for the rest of my life? How much income? Is it a vehicle to create value through capital growth? What value do I want to build my business up to? Will I sell my business? When? Will I pass the business over to family? What plans are in place for these?
Step 2 – With the end in mind put in place a plan to drive your business to that ultimate outcome. One way to do this is to spend some quality time with forward looking accountants, business coaches and anyone that can bring in generic skills involved in building businesses. Invest some time in the Northland Chamber of Commerce and talk to the staff that can put you in touch with some of our member businesses who can assist business reach their aspirational goals. In other words experts who can assist you in driving your business towards that vision you described in step one.
The Northland Chamber of Commerce offers a one stop shop for those looking to start business or needing some direction. Through our Biz Networks agency we are able to steer you in the right direction.
With an active Chamber in your community, there are many things that will happen. Certainly not everything will help to propel your business to some new level of corporate utopia, but many things will indeed create steps for you to get there. Whether through business to business networking or taking advantage of all the work going on behind the scenes (government lobbying, member discounts, strategic planning) the Chamber can only be as strong as the many voices it represents.
So another suggestion for a new years resolution is to get involved in making the business community you work in stronger by building a strong Chamber of Commerce in your community. Your involvement does not have to translate to a major time commitment. Simple responses to a member survey will often be enough to decide how a community stands on important issues. You could also go another step and consider running as a board member at the Chamber of Commerce AGM in February this year.
Enjoy 2008. The Board and Staff of the Northland Chamber of Commerce look forward to seing you at one of the many networking events this year.
The Northland Chamber of Commerce is the networking, education, advocacy and marketing group for Northland business, and is part of a nationwide network of 30 and a world-wide movement of 21,000 chambers. Subscription to the free fortnightly chamber e-news can be arranged on info@northchamber.co.nz. Enquiries to 09-4384771 or www.northchamber.co.nz, www.kaiparachamber.co.nz and www.farnorthchamber.co.nz
You can have a say on this by going to the Northland Chamber of Commerce Feedback website on www.northchamber.blogspot.com
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