Pick one thing, one focus for this year. That’s right – one. I’ve never been fond of new year’s resolutions, for all the reasons most observers report. However, I am completely in favor of identifying a theme for the year. The theme is a guide for decisions you make throughout the year. It’s not a way to stifle you or shut you down.

Some themes for your business could be one specific topic among many areas of your expertise. Or your theme might be product development or approaching a specific new audience or traveling more for business or staying within your own zip code as much as possible. Those are a few of many choices.

What about the booklet or booklets you’ve already done or the one you are considering doing? View it as part of a bigger picture, fitting into a year-long theme. Is your booklet the first of a new product line for you, or the low-priced smaller addition to an existing product-line? Where can you go with it if your theme is product development? The booklet manuscript has at least a dozen or two ways it can be expanded and modified to be offered for sale. Write it once, leverage it many times. You can record it as an audio CD, make it into a card deck, expand it into a manual, or develop it into a teleclass or ecourse. All of these formats and many more can be offered as both hard copy and as digital downloads. Your mission is to keep developing product this year, to give you a large enough repertoire of products to lead to your new focus the following year.

Is your theme of the year to reach a new population? Boomers are the rage, aren’t we? Re-purpose your products and services for that audience. Do everything you can to reach them, with your promotional efforts, speaking engagements, product offers, and networking with everyone you can.

Are you getting cabin fever these days being in your office or being alone during the week more than what makes you happy? Is your highlight of the day going to the post office or greeting a delivery person? Determine how much time away is good and how much makes you a worn-out road warrior. Visiting prospective clients and delivering workshops can be an hour or two drive or a six-hour airplane trip. Meeting with local consulting or coaching clients in person rather than always by telephone can breathe a different level of life back into your work.

Have you been in motion to the point of exhaustion, not really enjoying all that activity? For you, there are ways to better utilize your telephone and computer as your focus for the coming year. It may mean delivering teleclasses and consulting or coaching from your own office. You can certainly deliver more products online through your own website or those of other companies.

Yes, these can all be amazing grasps of the obvious, yet it’s also amazing how easy it is to overlook what seems like common sense. Give some thought to what has been the greatest joy and the greatest irritant to you in your business. Choose a single theme to focus on in 2006. If you haven’t already written a booklet as part of that theme, which would certainly be an excellent starting place.

© 2006, Paulette Ensign

Paulette Ensign provides Rent-a-Brain services through her San Diego-based http://www.tipsbooklets.com Schedule an hour with her to unearth your theme for the year. She’s sold over a million copies of her tips booklet without spending a penny on advertising. You can, too.

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