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It's hard to believe that it's the end of the year already and yet it really is. This is my last Rated Hot column for 2010 and in just two days 2010 will be no more.

I don't know how it's been for you guys but it's been a crazy year for me and my partner and the new year is already shaping up to be just as crazy. While some businesses in this town are suffering from a lack of money and a lack of vision for the future other businesses are roaring ahead with plans to take on the world and they want to take us along for the ride.

That's fine with me because they're offering my business plenty of challenging work and there's nothing I like better than a challenge. At the same time Steve and I want to shift our focus slightly and try some new things so even though it's the end of the year I'm not all that interested in looking back ... I'm much more focused on looking ahead at what's to come.

That's not to say that spending a little time looking back at what's happened in the last 12 months isn't without some value. Looking back at the mistakes we've made and the success that we've achieved is always worthwhile as long as we learn from our mistakes and build on our successes. So don't be afraid to spend a little time reflecting on how you and your business have faired in the last year.

Just don't spend too much time looking back. Sure we can learn from what happened to us back then but if we spend too much time looking back we can get lost in the past. We can spend too much time regretting our mistakes and lamenting on our losses and not enough time preparing for what might be ahead of us.

So spend a little time looking back but spend a lot more time looking forward. Now is the time to plan where you want your business to go in the next 12 months and what you have to do to get it to where you want it.

It's also a good time to look at your cash flow and maybe even do some projections so that you can see which of the months ahead may be a little lean and which months may be those where you have plenty of cash. If you can see that, you can arrange your budget to cope with the ups and downs that many small businesses ... especially ours ... experience.

It's also a great time to look at your equipment and the software you use and plan for the best times to replace those that are worn out or outdated. At the beginning of 2010 Steve and I knew that we would have to replace our cameras so we organized that for the times when our cash flow was really going well.

Somehow we even managed to arrange to replace one of the cameras at a time when there were some incredible sales on so we ended up with a new camera at half the normal retail price.

If you do a little planning now you too can arrange your purchases to happen at times when prices are great and you will be surprised at how much further you can stretch your dollars if you do that.

We've also decided that we will need to replace one laptop and two monitors in 2011 and, because we have a contact in the computer industry, we know when the manufacturers and wholesalers are going to offer the best bargains on those items.

In this part of the world some of the best bargains for laptops at the wholesale level happen during the first few weeks of January so we're ready to buy when the prices reach rock-bottom.

Of course we could buy a laptop with the biggest screen and the biggest hard drive on the planet and it's really hard to resist the temptation to do just that. But if you're serious about your business you'll know exactly what you need a new laptop to do and you'll know how much capacity you need and you'll match those needs with what might be available.

That may not be as exciting as buying the biggest and the best you can find in the computer shop but it's the way to go. For us we just want a fairly basic laptop ... one that will do the job that we want it to do without any overkill.

Let's fact it ... a laptop is just a tool and all you want from a tool is for it to function in the way it should and produce a neat finished product. So if you buy a laptop that will do what you want it to do without any overkill you may not have the most exciting laptop around but you do have one that will do what you want it to do and it won't have cost you a small fortune and left you with no money.

So what's going to happen with your business in the coming year? What months are going to be the high and low points as far as cash flow is concerned? What do you need to buy for your business in the coming year and what can you leave until the year after?

If you sit down and work out the answers to those questions before 2011 starts then you have a much better chance of surviving what could be yet another tough year. If you don't spend some time thinking and planning for the new year and hope that you can just wing it then the chances of you being here at the end of 2011 aren't all that good.

Sadly this is an industry where many start but few survive for very long. Let's try and be one of those few that make it through the coming year ... let's do some planning so that we're prepared for the challenges ahead.