Wow. I looked at the calendar today and realized something. There are less than five weeks until 2010. This lit a fire under me! I don’t want to wake up January 1st with a ten page to do list.  I want to celebrate January 1st with my favorite cup of coffee, a filled appointment book, excited about Sanera’s offerings and what the new year will bring. On January 1st, I want to be poised for my best year ever. Don’t you?

20 Things To Do Before 2010

My friends,  if you don’t want to wake up with a business hangover on January 1st take a look at this list. These are suggestions for things you can do now to start your 2010 off right.

For Your Business

Backup your computer. Clean out your files and streamline your file folders. Then back it up. You can use an online back-up system such as Mozy or use an old fashioned hard drive. I prefer either of those options to a memory stick which can be somewhat unreliable.

Organize your tax documents. If you haven’t been doing it on a monthly basis, organize your receipts, complete your mile tracker and talk to your CPA to get advice on what you can do before 2010 to reduce your tax liability. Make sure you have received invoices or receipts for your payments. If you have a home office, request year-to-date copies of your utility, wireless and cell phone bills.

Review your financials. Again, hopefully you’re doing this month to month. But if not, this is perfect time to take a 30,000 foot level view of where your money went and from where it came.  Taking a micro look is essential for creating your 2010 monthly, quarterly and annual budget.

Create your 2010 budget.

Organize your contacts. This is a great time to take the business cards that have been lying around on your desk or in your purse and get that info entered into your email contacts, contact management system, Constant Contact, etc.

Review your pricing. Are your fees in line with your industry and the quality of your services? Is it time to revise them? Are your suppliers raising their prices? Do some research. Find out what is happening in your market through trade associations. Ultimately, success in business is about building relationships with those you serve. If your fees need revising, do the right thing and give your customers as much advanced notice as possible.

Inventory. If you are in a traditional brick and mortar business with products you use or products you sell, do an end of year inventory.

Negotiate your contracts. Have you received fair market value from your suppliers? When are your contracts up for renewal? Start negotiations now with all your vendors. Ensure that you’re going into 2010 receiving the best pricing possible.

Accounts receivable. Do you have outstanding invoices? How many? What is the total owed? Decide whether to collect them or write them off as a loss for the year.

Clean out your email. If you aren’t able to get to a zero action email inbox on a daily basis, get it to zero before the new year. This post and this post provide some great advice to help you do this. PS – If you make their advice part of your daily routine, you will develop new email habits that will reduce your stress throughout the year.

Payroll, 1099’s & W-2’s. You can save yourself a lot of frustration in 2010 if you make sure all your current and previous employees’ contact information is updated. Double check the contact information for your independent contractors as well.

Go shopping. What?! Yes! The end of a year is a great time to purchase tax deductible items (consult your CPA) such as printers, toner, marketing pieces, printing, business cards, office supplies (stock up on paper now), furniture, etc.  Renew your memberships and subscriptions. Of course my CPA would also tell you to put some money away in a qualified retirement account and make a donation to a worthy 501c(3).

Customer Relations

Call your customers. Yes. Call them and don’t sell them anything. Simply say thank you for their support this year. Don’t be a business vampire.

Start writing New Year cards. Most businesses are sending out cards and gifts for the end of the year. If you spend the time and the money to do that now, do you really think your cards will get noticed? Consider sending out Happy New Year cards. I use this company for my corporate and thank you gifts.  What about the people you know online/through social media? If you want to solidify your online business relationships, be sure to request mailing addresses now. The best part – you’ve got five weeks to get addresses, write and mail the cards. And yes, hand write notes in each card.

For Your Website And Social Media Presence

Get new professional pictures taken. You’ve changed, you’re hair has changed, you’ve gained weight or lost weight and fashion has changed. Getting new pictures and updating your avatars, website and business cards with them will give your business a fresh new look. I use Gravatar to manage my avatars. Here’s a post about the reasons for getting good pictures.

Refresh your bio. When was the last time you updated your bio? Wait, when was the last time you looked at your bio? Review it, ask your friends to review it, pay a pro to look at it and tweak as necessary. Once it’s tweaked, update your bio on Twitter, LinkedIn, association directories, Facebook,  your website, etc. You want it to be consistent on all platforms. Here is a decent article on writing a bio for Twitter. If you know of any other helpful articles, please let me know so I can add them to this post.

Refresh your website. You can easily update your website with new graphics and colors. If that is not in your skill set or budget, you can also update it with fresh content. Are the descriptions of your services stale? Do you have new product offerings you need to add?

Optimize LinkedIn. Who have you met since the beginning of the year? Have you invited them to join your LinkedIn network? What about your recommendations. How old are they? Do you have recent ones? Send out requests. Are you using the Blog Link feature on LinkedIn? This is another avenue to get your blog more recognition and search engine hits. And oh yes, be sure to update your LinkedIn avatar.

Write blog posts. Chris Brogan suggests the Holidays are an excellent time to start stockpiling content. I agree! His excellent video is here. Take time now to write blog posts for 2010.  So how many blog posts will you write between now and the end of the year?

Prevent brand identity theft. There isn’t much url real estate left, but the land of user ids is a rich new world. Reserve your user ids (your name, your business name, your blog name and permutations of the aforementioned) throughout the web. Knowem is a free resource which helps you check the availability of user ids. Also double check to see, if by chance, your desired urls have become available. You never know. I use Blue Host to host this site and it has a free url locator tool.

Do you have any other suggestions for things to do this holiday? What will you commit to accomplishing? We’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

Photo Courtesy of Perfecto Insecto.

Tagged as: budget, chris brogan, contacts, customer group, relationship, relationships, Sales, Social Media, stretch, technology, thank you, twitter, website