Traditionally, most of us will consider some area we would each like to improve or change in our personal or business life and wrap them up in a new year's resolution.

The beginning of a new year is also the time we tend to reflect on how our business has performed and what we would like it to achieve over the next 12 months. Thinking about some of these improvement areas, here is a collection of 52 business improvement tips to help you decide your New Year business resolutions. That's one for all 52 weeks of 2008. Have a fantastic, prosperous and profitable new year!

1. Teach the job properly and people will manage themselves if you let them.
2. What you need to focus on is the real job of management – your strategy.
3. A team doesn't pull together when individuals focus just on their own targets. Get your teams pulling on the same rope.
4. Decide in advance what the objective of any meeting is and make sure you meet that objective.
5. Maximising the business you get from your current customers requires treating different customers differently. Become focused on individual customer needs.
6. The good thing about consistency is that your staff know exactly what will happen next. How consistent are you when dealing with people?
7. The good manager knows that they manage things (processes, events and situations) but never people. They coach people. Become a better teacher, delegator and coach rather than an autocrat who ends up doing everything.
8. The maximum limit on any customer's business is determined by the customer's need, not by your current product or service offering. Change the offering to match the need and your turnover will increase. Understand your customers' needs better. Talk to them often.
9. Tell me and I'll remember for an hour; show me and I'll remember for a day; but let me do it and I'll remember for ever. Get your people working smarter with smarter management!
10. Tell your staff they are going to do a good job before they have done it. Why? Because the chances of them succeeding are greater.
11. Wise Managers understand Parato's Law and adjust their priorities accordingly - i.e. 80% of your revenue will come from 20% of your customers; 80% of the aggravation will come from 20% of your customers; 20% of your staff are key to 80% of your business. Focus on the 20% to improve results.
12. Motivation: Allow individuals to develop their role, continually improving on their work. Work closer to the people who deliver the business – your staff.
13. Have a clear picture of where you are going. Communicate the businesses purpose, strategy, the values staff should adhere to, and the standards of behaviour you expect from employees.
14. It's far easier to lose an existing customer than it is to find a new one; so invest in caring for your existing customers.
15. If you want to boost team performance develop some team measures set around: Overall objectives and targets, quality objectives, customer satisfaction etc, etc. Find out what drives each member of your team; people are different; make an effort to understand individual aspirations.
16. The best way to keep your finger on the pulse is to talk regularly to your staff and customers.
17. To manage the performance of others you need to: be aware of your impact on others, be clear about your priorities, manage your time and manage your stress levels.
18. Motivation: Set targets so that an employee can gain a sense of achievement.
19. It's very easy to assume that the current market trend will continue. Always be on alert for the first signs that a trend is changing and have a contingency plan.
20. Effective delegators have several things in common. Among them are: being clear in what they want done, delegating both tedious and stimulating tasks, and careful monitoring. Promise to work harder at delegating better.
21. Psst.. Can you keep a secret? Want to know (in just two simple steps) how to grow your profits by at least 30% in 2008 without finding any new customers? 1) Set a growth strategy for each customer you currently have. 2) Ensure that these customer specific strategies are carried out. Simple but effective.
22. Your customer's have needs you know about. What you need to do is identify the needs you don't yet know about. Make a plan to speak to each of them before the end of the year.
23. Many business people see the sale as the end of the selling process, whereas most customers see it as just the beginning of a relationship. Could you work harder on developing those early customer relationships? Stronger and closer relationships equal more business. Honestly, measure each of your customer relationships on a scale of 1 to 10. (1 = poor or new with little share of the business they place. 10 = fantastic and long established and getting the lion’s share of the business they place.) How can you improve each of them by at least two points?
24. The single most important aspect of business management is to establish a clear, focused, idea of how your products and services are perceived by your customers as being different from that of your competition. Establish what these are then use that difference to your advantage. Go out and tell customers, promote and advertise them.
25. If you don't let people know you are pleased with them they'll wilt. Genuine praise boosts performance and morale like you would not believe. New to managing others? Read 'The One minute Manager' by Kenneth H. Blanchard & Spencer Johnson.
26. Make sure that the work expectations and performance objectives of your staff are clear to them. The only way to verify the existence of a performance problem is to state the expected level of performance and measure the employee's actual performance against it.
27. Motivation: People will support what they help to create; give people variety and interest, and some control over what they do. How much more can you delegate?
28. Know what makes your staff tick. Staff will look to leave your business when leadership changes unfavourably, when they are in conflict with their immediate superiors, when close friends depart, and when their responsibilities change in ways that they do not favour.
29. Don't assume the main contact in your customer account makes 100% of the purchasing decision. 80% of the time the decision is shared. You need to establish a relationship with all decision influencers.
30. You should use a business strategy to allow you to spot opportunities that would be a distinctive advantage to your business.
31. Successful business managers make the most of at least 10 sales prospecting methods to generate a constant stream of high quality, low cost sales leads. How many does your business use?
32. People stay with their employers when they see the organisation as a source of pride and affiliation, when they respect their supervisors, when they are fairly compensated, and when they perceive their work as meaningful. It's the job of management to make sure they keep their best people.
33. Find out what your current customers and prospects value and need the most. Then incorporate these into what you offer.
34. Without your staff you are nothing. With them you have the potential to be a formidable force.
35. Leadership is critical to the achievement of high performance, no matter what your business area of responsibility. You owe it to yourself and your business to become a better leader.
36. Effective business strategy is the pursuit of the right customers, with the right product or service, in the right way.
37. If there is no support and encouragement from above, morale will fade and ultimately the team will fail. Encourage your teams and keep them supported.
38. Split your customers and markets up to highlight those where you make the most profit and where there are the most opportunities for growth. That's where your business focus needs to be.
39. Treat customers how they would expect to be treated. If you don't know what that is find out, ask them, every single one of them.
40. In addition to providing employees with intrinsic rewards, a manager should provide good feedback about an employee's problems, and how they can be solved.
41. Genuine praise is a powerful motivator. Most people want objective, balanced feedback from their boss, and genuine praise is an important part of that.
42. Don't just celebrate big wins, celebrate the little ones as well. Make sure you feedback success to non-customer facing staff and get everyone involved fired up!
43. Get Focused! The smaller more focused your target market is the easier it is to market your products and services.
44. The key to motivating most people is to offer them intrinsic rewards: interesting, challenging work, and the opportunity to achieve and grow into greater responsibility.
45. Customer needs cannot be fully met unless they are fully understood.
46. Be proactive in preventing fires rather than waist time fighting them – tackle the important tasks first.
47. Some say 'never fight a battle that you can't win'. At Trafalgar Lord Nelson found a way to win the battle before the fight started. Invest time in strategy and tactics as they can win the battles for you.
48. Get your team the very best resources to get the job done. Then let them get on with it.
49. Strengths that your customers perceive you have are subjective and relative to changing situations, which is why you can't stop improving everything you do.
50. If you are to make real improvements you have to be brave in tackling the root cause of problems not the symptoms.
51. Spend most of your time looking forward working on your business instead of in your business. Effectively delegating operational responsibility will give you the time you need.
52. Listen to ideas from others. Talk to them, get their feedback their ideas their creativity. Ray Seagrave is the director of MBA Business Coaching and is a business growth and development expert.

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