The year is coming to a close and it’s time to evaluate the results of your strategies.  Time to determine what worked in 2009 and what didn’t.  Knowing both will help you plan for 2010.

When looking at the things that worked for you in 2009, you will need to determine if they are viable options for 2010.  If you believe they will be successful in 2010, by all mean, incorporate these strategies into your 2010 business plan.  If not, maybe they could be changed somewhat to work in the new year, otherwise, forget about them and move on.

When looking at strategies that you feel were not successful, think about whether or not they could have been had you done something different.  Sometimes a plan could be tweaked just a little and it be a great success.  Was there a piece of the puzzle that you missed that would have made all the difference?

It’s also time to come up with some new strategies for the coming year.  Are there things that you have been thinking about trying but just haven’t got around to?  If there are, let’s get to it.  If there aren’t, let’s start thinking about what could be done to change things up a bit.

We are looking forward to and have great expectations for 2010, not only for us but also for you.  We have lots of thoughts and ideas to share with you and hopefully you’ll share your thoughts and ideas with us.     Nothing would give us more pleasure than to know that one of our strategies was the one that took your business to the next level.

Bloggers network with their competition.  It’s an interesting concept.  They associate themselves with people that are in businesses just like their own.  Not only do they associate with their competition, they help each other by promoting each others products.

Think about that for a minute.  They send customers away from their business to purchase something from their competition.  Immediately, one might think this is a bad thing.  The reason it works, however, is their competition will do the same in return.  Boggers are promoting each others products, each others business.

There are ways in which this could work for offline businesses.  Now I know what you are thinking.  There is no way I am going to send my customer to my competition.  I will lose my customer.   The interesting thing about this is that just the opposite will happen.

Let’s say a customer comes in your store looking for something that you are currently out of stock on or do not carry at all.  If it’s possible, you will offer to order it for them.  If ordering the item is not possible though, what do you do?  More than likely you tell the customer that you do not have the product and cannot get it.  The customer leaves the store disappointed and wondering where to go to find what they need.

Let’s say that you are part of a network of similar businesses.  The same situation as described above happens.  Now what do you do?  You explain to the customer that you do not have the product and cannot get it but that you think you know where they can get it, referring them to a competitor that is part of your network.  The customer then leaves your store happy and appreciative of the information you shared with them.

This customer will go to the competitor you recommended to buy the product.  They are not going to take all their business to the competitor however.  They are going to be loyal to you because you cared enough to help them find what they were looking for.  You took the time to develop a relationship with that customer.

Let’s face it.  We are all in business to make money.  Just because someone is a competitor doesn’t mean they have to be “the enemy”.  In fact, just the opposite should happen.  If you refer customers back and forth within your network, the dollars being spent are at least staying within the network.  In the example described above, that customer is going to buy somewhere.  They cannot buy from you so why not send them to someone in the network.

Developing a relationship with your competition can be beneficial for all concerned.  If done properly, it benefits you, your competitor and most importantly the customer.  Go out and develop relationships with you competition.  You may be surprised by what it does for your business.