Christmas always seems to come at the wrong time for me, and this year is no exception. The fact that it comes on the same date every year doesn't matter, it always seems to arrive when i'm least expecting it.

Long days, long nights trying to push through projects that, for one reason or another, have already been delayed (apologies to Mrs Patrick, Mr Hurst 1 and Mr Hurst 2). The plan is to get things finished by Christmas Day, after which I will have around 7 days of peace and quiet. After January 1, there will be lots to do, but the preceding few days will be devoted entirely to housekeeping for the business. Reviewing the past year in terms of our Key Performance Indicators, securing the new premises, getting new faces onboard, revitalising our service offering, outlining an 18 month marketing plan.

Historically, January and February challenging for small business, but it's a great time to focus on the business rather than doing business. So when things are quiet, don't complain about the economy, your competitors or the weather... Grab a peice of paper (or open MS Word) and write a list of things that will move your business forward in the New Year. It could be more robust internal systems, developing standard operating procedures for tasks frequently undertaken, or something more obvious things like planning marketing activity.

The key is not to be making millions in a down market (although if you can do that, you should be blogging about it), the key is to be better than the competiton at any moment in time. The economy will recover. Sooner or later it will come back, and if you are prepared for the growth and are doing things better than everyone else, it'll be steak dinners every night..