First, happy Thanksgiving, from my family to yours.

Second, this time of year gives us a wonderful opportunity to extract ourselves from the daily minutia muck we trudge through every day in our work, zoom out, and consider the big picture.

As 2013 winds down and begins its transition to 2014, ask yourself some of the following questions

Review Your 2013 Business Growth Activity

• What actions or techniques worked particularly well this year to grow your revenue? Why?
• What did you try that did not work? Why do you think it didn’t generate results?
• What marketing actions did you attempt that show some promise, and can be adjusted and improved?
• Which non-performing growth activity needs to be abandoned altogether?

Look Ahead to 2014: 

• What is your lowest hanging fruit for new revenue?
• What marketing activities can you execute quickly that will lead to the fastest sales increase?
• What kinds of products or services will focus on in the new year?
• Which major marketing initiative will focus on in the first month or quarter of 2014?

Consider Your Own Mindset and Behavior: 

• Did you market as if you are among the best in the world at what you do?
• Did you talk to enough customers to understand how they think and feel about your products or services?
• Were you able to execute some communication action for 15 minutes per day?
• What thinking will you work on changing at the outset of the new year?
• What marketing or growth behavior will you execute at the start of the year?

Sit down with a good pen, and some high-quality paper, and write out your answers to some of these questions. Think them through, write them through.

Now is the time to consider your strategies. When 2014 rolls around, you want to hit the ground running. Because it’s nearly impossible to gather speed from a stopped position.