As is pretty much the norm at this time of year I keep being asked what I’m going to do for my new year’s resolutions.  As you’d probably expect, if I want to do something, I usually just get on and do it and don’t wait for 1^st January to make it happen.  However the questions have made me think about what I learned in 2012 that I’d like to build upon during 2013.  There were five activities that I’d like to share with you – they’re in no particular order …

Create strong partnerships – we can’t do everything ourselves and there are people out there whose strengths complement our own.  So if you’re recruiting people, don’t hire someone like yourself.  Find a person who will be ambitious about the same goals but who will think differently to you and help you move forward and achieve them perhaps in a different way.  Likewise seek out people to partner with outside of your business so that you can streamline what you do and enhance your proposition.

Love what you do – it’s true that when you love what you do you have a different energy and focus.  You’re curious to know everything there is to know about your subject from every angle and then find ways to bring it to life with a passion and enthusiasm that makes everyone leave you wanting to know more.  I find when I’m taking myself (not my work) less seriously I get the best results and feedback.  And a knock on effect of having fun with my material, is that my customers relax and enjoy it too so are more open to trying out their new skills in the session.

Just do it – it can be scary to do something new or out of the norm and often takes a lot of courage.  Make a plan, break it down into dolly steps and then crucially take the first one! And when your plans don’t achieve what you expected, review what can be changed to give a better result or rip them up and start again.  Don’t let yourself dwell on the negatives, brush yourself down and get back to trying again.  There are plenty of successful people out there who didn’t get it right first time!

No surprises – we all have topics that we avoid both in our personal and business life.  However avoiding them or thinking that we’ll deal with them as and when it happens isn’t a good strategy.  It’s left as a niggle in our own mind and ends up living rent free in our heads until it’s dealt with.  One topic that I always found difficult to talk about was money. I don’t know whether it was part of my upbringing but I’ve never felt very comfortable about talking to people about my fees.  However, this year a dear friend taught me that money isn’t a dirty word!  My new strategy is to have an agenda for every meeting and ‘budgets’ form part of it.  Such a simple change but it now makes talking about money feel a very normal part of the conversation!

Create clarity of your offering – we’re in our businesses 24/7 so what we do makes common sense to us, but how will your customers, or potential ones, buy from you if they don’t really understand what you do?  I was shocked last year to find that my mother still couldn’t describe what I did as a job.  That really worried me as although she isn’t my target market, she is my biggest fan!!  Since then I’ve reviewed the words I use to describe my work as well as the methods I use to market myself and tested this approach with different groups, which has been really beneficial.

This may all seem simple and straight forward, but they’ve created light bulb moments for me in 2012 and I’ll be putting them into practice again this year.  What will you be doing to enhance the way you work in 2013?  If you have some lessons that you’d like to share, please send me an email to jane@janehirst.com and let me know what they are.