Fact: This past year has been more than a challenge and you’re not where you want to be in your business. That’s understandable as last year did not come with an instruction book.

First off, remain calm. Customers and prospective clients can sense desperation from a mile away and they’ll cross the street just to pretend they didn’t see you coming. Take a deep breath, be calm and let’s focus on what needs to be done.

Focus on positive experiences – like the time you got that contract you worked on for so long.

Secondly, put your energy towards what you can change, not what you can’t.

Need ideas on how to start? Here are some tips for Getting Back on Track.

1. Review

Review your goals and either recommit to the action plan you set for yourself in the past – or create a new one!

2. Declutter

It’s impossible to feel excited about what you do if you have a chaotic work environment.

3. Change It Up

If you’ve been working from home, it’s not always the most creative space if you need to brainstorm. Same goes for the office. Because I live and work on Vancouver’s North Shore, I will go for a hike through the forest if I need to get re-energized. It’s amazing how physical energy can feed intellectual energy. Not close to a forest or a park? Hit the stairs in your building or walk around the block.

3. Have Lunch with a Leader

When it’s safe to do so and you feel comfortable, have lunch with a business professional whose success you want to emulate. Find out what they’re doing differently than you, and how you can incorporate those ideas into your business.

4. Audit

Even better than lunch, invite someone to go with you on your sales calls, or sit with you when you make customer service phone calls. Ask them for feedback – and listen to it.

5. Get a Mentor/Coach

Whoever you choose, ask them to be honest with you, and when they are, do something with the advice they give you. I encourage you to check out the mentoring programs at Women’s Enterprise Centre.

6. Adapt and Adopt

What may have worked in the past certainly isn’t working now, right? Adapt and Adopt new ways of generating business with our ‘new normal’.

7. Tell Someone

I have found that if I tell someone, whom I admire either in business or personally what I will do in the next day, week etc. I hold myself accountable. It always works.

Now Go Get Connected!