How will you know the recession is over? What is your definition of recovery? Is it financial: Two consecutive quarters of growth or a month or two of sales that are equal to 2008 (pre-recession) levels? Are you even listening for signals that the worst has passed?

I don't know what your definition is but I do think it's a good idea to have one. Why? Because once you declare the recession over it changes the way you manage your business. That may not make sense at first blush but I declared the recession over last week (more on that in a moment) and it's has changed my thinking in one very important way: I am more willing to spend money, to invest in my future.

Here's a quick recap of the events that led me to a post-recession mindset.

First, I started getting calls from recruiters again. I was getting very few calls between January 2009 and January 2010.  I've been in this business a long time so that's a very low numbers and, frankly, a few of them were just people complaining about the lack of activity, "No one is hiring..." The emails and calls from friends and industry contacts was about 3-to-1 from people losing their jobs as compared to people landing new jobs. And most of the calls from people who landed new jobs came in just the last 3-4 months.

Second, during the same time period generating sales leads for Aligned Marketing was difficult. I might make 20-30 calls and send out an equal number of emails before anything "hot" surfaced. In the last two weeks we've received 10 new leads from companies ranging in size from $100M to several billion in sales needing help. Companies are not only looking to reposition their brand, revamp websites, and build online catalogs for commerce, they are in a hurry to get started.

The final domino fell last weekend. My wife and I were celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary in downtown Charlotte and decided to have dinner at The Capital Grill. In case you're not familiar with The Capital Grill there are several around the country and they're comparable to Morton's, Sullivan's and Ruth Chris' steakhouses, they are upscale, at least $100 per person. During cocktails the bartender said, "It's like someone opened a floodgate after the first week of February..." Their lunch-crowds since then have been larger than they've seen in over a year and, sure enough, when we exited the dining room after dinner, the bar and lounge area was elbow-to-elbow with people. We had to fight our way out the place. Since then I've asked two other local restaurateurs and they say the same thing, "business has really picked up..."

Wrapping up 2009 has been an interesting process. In order to determine where I want to go I thought it wise to see where I've been. To keep things simple I'm going to use three individual words to describe where I've been in 2009 and three different words to describe my focus for 2010. Each of these words has numeric measurements behind them but that information is too details and private for this venue. The purpose of this blog is to share an approach, the three word approach, that I picked up from Chris Brogan and modified to my liking.

I think using three words to describe the areas I'm going to focus on will work better for me than my traditional approach of having several project plans. Project plans are fine, I've used them successfully in the past, but they take a lot of time to develop and manage so I'm going back to broad goals with quantifiable objectives and estimated timelines behind them. A less maniacal approach to help me combat my compulsive tendencies. LOL.

2009:
Education: Much of 2009 was a learning experience. On the business front I learned (in Q4) to balance time between promoting my business and actually doing client work. That was a biggee. I also expanded my knowledge on search engine optimization and social networking tremendously, did my first real interview and, just for fun, taught myself a little HTML programming. The purpose of education is action and the results is growth. I love both. How many of us get to learn new skills and plant new seeds after the age of 45, much less 55. By that time most people are harvesting old skills and old crops. That's crazy. All the fun is at the beginning of the learning curve. By the way, at the end of Summer I was playing the best golf of my life. I finally learned to chip!

God: I'm not going to get religious or too spiritual here but can tell you from experience that being an entrepreneur is not for anyone with a weak heart. You are making significant bets daily with limited information, your income takes wild swings and the whole health insurance deal is a friggin' nightmare. You are learning by doing constantly so you need faith in yourself and a lot of Faith, period. The funny part is several of my executive friends thought I was taking a huge risk by starting a full-time business at the dawn of this brutal recession. I understood their thinking but knew the carnage was just beginning and had more confidence in myself than any new employer.

Inertia: As I talk to more and more companies it amazes me how many are unwilling to change or even recognize the degree of change around them in the marketing arena. Gang, it's all about the net. If your marketing isn't slanted 60%+/- toward online activities and accelerating then you're being left behind. If you're still killing trees and relying on expensive one-to-one selling well, ok, but that should be a smaller and smaller portion of your budget going forward. I could write pages about this subject, and often have, so I'll leave it there...No I won't. If your waiting to see the changes clearly then you'll be looking in your review mirror - you're waiting too long.

2010:
Value: Through my client services, blogs and other activities I will add more value to my clients and my respective networks; several thousand read my blogs every month now, which is stunning. 2010 will be the year of giving more value because I enjoy helping others and, frankly, it's good business. I expect to get more as a result. I'm not looking for a one-to-one, give-to-get, relationship. I know I may have to give ten units of blood to get one back. That's ok. In 2010 I will focus more on audience needs, take more ownership for my clients' success, write more, and expand my web presence. I'm launching a new, separate, website in January.

Structure: I need to be more productive and that means more organized and structured. For example: After compiling my three main contact lists I 993 contacts complete with email addresses and phone numbers. That does not include my 2,000 Followers on Twitter, my 600 "Friends" on Facebook or those I've connected with on other social media. By the time 2010 arrives I'll have those lists organized into A-B-C classifications and an action plan with each group as well as a plan for growing my list. It's too easy for "A's" to get treated like "C's" and be relegated to Christmas only communication and C's to get lost altogether.

Courage: The race is not always won by the fastest, sometimes it is won by the most aggressive. Courage isn't always an easy choice but it's a Darwinian world and I intend to survive. In the end, I decided long ago to live my life pursuing my aspirations and not reacting to my fears. Too many do the latter. Merging into the crowd is easy. I get it. It's just not me. So I've decided 2010 will be not only about adding value and more structure, it's going to be a year of bigger bets and more excitement. I can hardly wait!

Steve