It is that time of year again when we reflect on what we had hoped to accomplish in the past year and what we plan to accomplish in the next. Most times we look back and realize that we did not quite measure up to our hopes and dreams. As a business advisor and executive coach I have found that people tend to make the same mistakes when setting goals for both their business and personal lives:

1. Goals do not support your life or business main purpose. Put another way, the goal is not aligned with what you are trying to accomplish. It has been said that the two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you discover why! Make sure your goals support your reason for being.

2. Lack of continual action. Goals usually die from inactivity. Make sure you

'Tis the season to be invited to Christmas (or 'holiday' or 'festive season', etc.) parties sponsored by your place of employment. At first it sounds like a great idea: take a day or half-day off work, mingle with friends and co-workers, eat free food and drink free booze. What a great way to get into the spirit of the season and to start saying good bye to 2008 and looking forward to 2009. So what could be wrong with this picture?

At first, I personally did not see a problem with in-house celebrations. It seems to build team spirit and gives employees and managers a chance to see each other in a more relaxed atmosphere, even presenting opportunities to get to know each other on a more personal level. And herein lies the problem.

I remember way back in 1997 I was working in

1.    First ask yourself - Do we really need a formal meeting? Many meetings can be avoided altogether. Ask yourself whether you can get what you need from a memo, from an email, from a few phone calls, from circulating a document for comments or by gathering a smaller informal sub-group?

2.    Get very clear before you start, about what the meeting is for: do you want to share information? gather input? get agreement? resolve issues? celebrate success? generate ideas? Make sure you design the agenda to deliver that outcome.

3.    Set a clear goal - what will success look like? Make sure that your meeting design will deliver that. Do you have the right participants to achieve this goal? It's no good planning for a decision if the ultimate decision-maker isn't in the room.

Infamous Question #1:

Are all Resell Rights products the same in terms and conditions?

Answer:

All Resell Rights are not created equally. Resell Rights vary from one product to the next, with different rights, terms, and conditions. In fact, some products that are contained in a Resell Rights package are not for resell at all, but are instead for personal use only.

If you purchase a resell rights package, which contains more than one product, the package will typically contain a resell license agreement for each product. Do not assume anything! Read every word of the resell license before you resell the product, and keep that license in a safe place for future reference.

For some products, you may be allowed to resell the product for any price, or even give