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.

If you think about it, your staff can be your biggest asset or they can be your biggest liability.  While I am sure that all of you are aware of this, I think it’s something that we lose sight of from time to time.  We’ve all hired that person that really wants to do a great job but for some reason they just can’t seem to get it.  We keep working with them in hopes that they will eventually get it but it just doesn’t happen.  We question whether we are training them in such a way that they do not understand what we want.  Is it our fault that they don’t understand?  It can be, but usually not.

The question then becomes, what do you do?  Do you continue working with them or do you let them go.  No one likes to fire people but it is a necessary evil.  Sometimes it seems that continuing to work with that person will be easier than going through the process of interviewing, hiring, training, etc.  Let’s face it, in some cases it is easier.  It is not, however, the best thing for your business though.  Any employee that is not at top of their game is not doing your business justice.  They are in fact a liability to your business in more ways that you may realize.

This employee influences and teaches others.  If the problem is that this employee keeps performing tasks incorrectly, they are teaching others to do it that way also.  This then takes on a life of its own and before you know it, everyone is doing the job incorrectly.  Retraining is far more difficult than training.  If the problem is attitude or work ethic, he or she is influencing the rest of your staff.  While they may not feel the same way the problem employee does, they are now upset because you keep them on your staff.  They are upset that they have to put up with him.  Now you are at risk of losing your good employees, the ones that you consider assets.

Don’t sacrifice losing your assets, your great employees.  Cut your losses and get rid of the problem.  It is not worth dealing with them any longer than necessary.  Don’t keep someone on your staff for any reason other than they are a great asset to your business.  Let’s face it, any business but especially a small business, cannot afford to have people that are not great assets.

Are the people you employ great assets?  Let’s talk about it.