Every year at this time people make personal resolutions. Business owners and leaders also set expectations and have high hopes for the new year. Studies show on the average people give up on their personal resolutions by the end of a month and businesses reach the end of the first quarter playing catch up.

Why not try something different this year that will have real meaningful impact on your business?

Instead of trying to set resolutions or hoping business will improve ask yourself the most important business question of the year:

If I were to start my business from scratch with the knowledge I have today, how would it look different?

Most of us who have successfully owned a business for a long time are constantly looking to improve, upgrade or grow the business we have. Sadly, that isn’t enough in today’s business environment – ask Blockbuster.

Blockbuster created an industry and dominated it, and then technology shifted. Blockbuster was the best distributor of VCR products. Every year they worked to improve their title offerings, make their locations more customer friendly, and their staff more knowledgeable. The problem was they were asking the wrong questions. Instead of asking what can we do to be better, they should have been asking: If we started today how would we be different?

Netflix showed them how a new start up thinking fresh can completely change the marketplace leaving the industry leader filing bankruptcy – because they failed to ask the right question.

Netflix learning from Blockbuster’s mistake are now asking this all important question again and forcing their organization and entice customers to join them on the video on demand trend with streaming video.

Look at your business. What are you upgrading you need to overhaul? In what ways are the new competitors kicking your butt? Can’t see it? Don’t believe it? Look harder! Try these 25 questions on for size.

Guarantee: If honestly answering all of these questions doesn’t dramatically improve your business write me at Russell@RussellWhite.com and tell me about it. I will make a donation to your favorite charity in your name for wasting your time!

What new technology makes your systems crap by comparison?

What hours should you be open for business to maximize revenue?

What leadership skills and energy level should be at the helm of your business?

What does your web presence look like?

What social media maximization are you working on?

Where is your mobile phone app?

How are you hiring people differently today?

Are you still wasting time on reading/reviewing resumes?

Why are YOU leading your business? (Remember the bulletproof feeling you had when you started your new business or new position? How does that feel now?)

Do you clearly know your customers?

If you didn’t own/run the business would you still want to be a customer of your place?

Why do you sell your products the way you do?

Does that approach even apply today?

Why are you selling the products and services you are currently offering?

What do you call marketing these days? Why are you using those methods of getting the word out?

How is your product packaged? Why?

Who are you employing? Why?

How often are you completely changing your customer approach?

What in your business is a “VHS tape” in a digital video world?

When was the last time you learned a brand new skill that impacted your business?

If you had an unlimited budget to make a commercial, what would it look like?

How can you make close to that with what you can afford right now?

How can you create such customer draw they will stand in line to get what you are offering?

What corners are you cutting because you are lazy/tired/it’s the economy/it’s good enough/I am just not as committed as I once was?

What process/employee/product/system has a lot in common with a full diaper but you just do not want to face the fact you need to do something about it?

The communication generation is used to being connected to real time information so no wonder they want more feedback and involvement in the decision process. This is a good thing Baby Boomer leaders should try to capitalize on, not get frustrated by. Here is how…

The following questions will help you get the maximum information after watching the video.

1. What is the best insight you gathered from someone asking “Why?”

2. How do you keep your communication-hungry employees well-informed to the degree and on the timetable they expect?

3. What changes might you need to make in your own management style to capitalize on this free flow of information back and forth?

Sunday was an epicenter of violence on the football field and the leaders of the National Football League took notice and reacted. With the size and speed of players today simple physics will tell you the violence of collisions can have dramatic negative effects on players.

A few years ago the NFL put in new roughing penalties to protect their biggest investment – the quarterbacks. Now they are putting in serious suspensions for those who cause helmet to helmet hits. How can a game that has promoted violent hitting suddenly make an about face? They saw the future and it didn’t look good.

In the last few years new medical studies have documented the long term effects on retired players who have experienced concussions while playing in the league – and that was from hits taken 20 years ago. The NFL had to consider what are the future effects on the level of hitting occurring to current players? We already know the average life span of an NFL player is roughly 20 years below the national average.  Something had to be done before a player died in the game from a hit or became brain dead from a blow to the head.

I take my hat off to the league leaders for making this step. Imagine if suddenly there were repeatable studies done that indicated cell phones contributed to brain cancer, would the leaders of AT&T mandate a termination of cell phones or fight the studies as the tobacco industry has done for decades?

When billions of dollars are involved it’s seems easy for leaders to look the other way when damage is being done. I applaud the NFL for taking a new direction to remove some of the violence from the game. I only ask they look ahead by ten years to envision the product they want to put in front of the public. Now is the time to plan it and be proactive.

As fast as the pace of business is moving, it’s easy to fall behind the leading edge. If you stop to wait and see what you should do next, you can become obsolete just that fast. Look at your products and services from the customer’s perspective. Evaluate your marketing strategies and ask if they are still fresh. You also should be constantly experimenting with new offerings.

To challenge the status quo first you must identify the barriers to changing the status quo. What are the sacred cows? How can they be abandoned or improved? Redefine the new approach for success and put it in action with persistence, diligence and focus.

Over the last decade a number of things have become obsolete or are virtually on life support. It’s easy to spot in other people’s products and services that are obsolete, but what about your own? After reading this list, reflect on your business. What are the products, services, habits, marketing approaches, and managerial methods that are obsolete in your business. Is your business ready?

1. The busy signal

Phone technology has advanced so much we rarely hear a busy signal any more. Call waiting and voice mail have made hearing the busy signal obsolete. Ask a young person what does a busy signal sound like, and watch the look they give you.

2. Dial up modem

Once again a sound that you hardly hear anymore is the electronic gurgling of a dial up modem searching then making a connection. 10 years ago this was the common Internet connection, today it is pretty much gone from existence.

3. The “Blind” date

Once upon a time when you were fixed up on a blind date you had no clue who the person was or anything about her other than what your friend told you about her. Today with Google, Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter there is an encyclopedia of knowledge you can obtain before actually meeting in person. Which begs the question: Are you using these tools to learn about prospects before calling on them?

4. Poor TV reception

No more rabbit ears and tin foil to find the best channel reception. We have more than 4 stations to pick from as well. CBS, NBC, ABC and PBS were about all the choices you had and getting them watchable was an exercise.

5. Waiting to get photos developed

Photo technology has changed from waiting a few days to get back vacation pictures to having them on your computer in five minutes. Almost unlimited capacity and no waiting are the code words of the photo industry today.

6. Answering machine

Along with the busy signal the small answering machine box has all but disappeared in its short lived life span. This product was being replaced almost as fast as it was invented. It had a very short life cycle.

7. A calculator watch

We no longer need watches with tiny button to do basic calculations on. In fact, we no longer are in need of wrist watches to tell time. Good thing the industry decided to market them as status and jewelry accessories.

8. Floppy disk

Ten years ago portable memory was on 3.5 inch disks that held so little memory capacity; most current programs wouldn’t fit on ten of them. Today, thumb drives, and portable hard drives the size of transistor radios (remember them?) make memory capacity readily available. Expect these devices to go the way of floppy disks in the near future as well with the advance of cloud computing.

9. Car cigarette lighters

The ubiquitous cigarette lighter was on the dash board of every car. Who knew that penny-sized hole would transform into an electronics charging port? The lighters don’t even come with the port anymore as the transformation from lighter to charger port is complete.

10. Getting an AOL disk in the mail

Monthly I was getting a disk of free minutes for AOL. Snail mail spam as it were. When was the last time you saw one of those? AOL the pioneer of online connection is lost in the vast number of ways to access the all important information highway.

The NCAA was tired of watching Lew Alcindor beat opponents by dunking the ball over their heads effortlessly, so they outlawed dunking in college basketball. Coach John Wooden talked with a distraught Alcindor and told him to forget what was and focus on what is. He then encouraged him to find a different way to shoot, thus the Sky Hook was created. When Alcindor turned pro where dunking was legal he was doubly equipped to score over opponents with two deadly shots.

We need to focus more on what is and what will be than in what was.

Business owners are still wishing for a return to how things used to be, wishing for the clock to roll back to the good times. Forget what was; let’s deal with winning with what is.

Be in the present

I am asked frequently about what can be done to win in the present times. Here are my tips for finding success in the current economic climate. It all starts with the fundamentals.

Stop comparing

Businesses have a habit of comparing this year with the year before, the best year, the worst year and the same month of the previous year. Forget it. The comparisons are unfair. Why are they unfair? Because they are not comparing equals. New businesses come to town, traffic patterns change, economic shifts happen beyond your control, and buying habits of consumers change. Sadly in good times we loved those comparisons because they improved (frequently beyond our control) and we loved the ride. Today those comparisons beat us down. To borrow from John Wooden once again – forget the winning and the bottom line. Take care of performing the fundamentals with excellence and the winning will take care of itself.

Focus forward

Looking at what used to be isn’t going to get us where we are going when the business world is so different. The rules of engagement have changed when dealing with employees, customers, vendors, and investors. Today’s times require a renewed focus on where you are going and what tools are the best to use to get you there. An Internet presence has never been more important than today, the ability to make changes rapidly has never been as necessary as today, and being able to find the hidden pockets or revenue has never been as important in your business’s lifecycle as right now.

It’s time to navigate where you are going not where you have been.

Hard work and hustle

With the advance of technology greater demand is placed on small businesses to keep up on all fronts; and it seems fronts keep adding on! Not only do you have to be on the front page of a Google search, you need to have a solid presence in social media and have multiple sites, and that is just in the online marketplace.
I hear all the time from small business owners, “How am I going to get everything done?” In this economy where everyone is going after scarce dollars the winners are those who out-hustle and out-work the competition. Many businesses got away from the basics in the good times. Now it’s time to ramp up the effort, energy and commitment.

Try stuff

If you aren’t experimenting, innovating and trying new things on a daily basis your business will constantly be playing catch up. Forget perfection. Forget trying to find a groove. Try stuff and embrace the volatility of change and you will see your victories returning like it used to be.

We all face adversity, challenging times and tough moments in our lives. Those who succeed have the ability to bounce back from these trying times and elevate their drive to overcome and achieve. Learn how to improve your bounce.