One of my favourite quotes is by Jen Sincero, who said:

“If you’re serious about changing your life, you’ll find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse.”

It’s your 2026 - make it happen!

That may be easier said than done when you already feel like you’re running harder and faster on that hamster wheel, so to help get you started, here are some ways to make your 2026 your BEST year yet:

1. Stop Chasing Revenue. A bigger company is not necessarily a more valuable one if the extra sales come from products and services that are too reliant on YOU to deliver them.

2. Sell Less Stuff to More People. The most valuable companies sell a few differentiated products/services to many customers. They are famous for these few things, not average for many things.

3. Create More Recurring Revenue. Predictable sales mean less stress in the short term and a more valuable business in the longer term.

4. Be Different. Get out of that reactive Red Ocean and create your Blue Ocean where you own the market and can predict it, rather than being in a cutthroat race to the bottom like everyone else.

5. Document and Systemise. Get everything out of your head and document or systemise your most important processes so your team (and business) can operate without you.

6. Start Learning Lessons from Your Customers to see what’s really important to them and identify gaps where you’re letting them down or missing opportunities.

7. Move Away from Those Products/Services That Depend on You. If you offer something that needs you to produce or sell it, consider dropping it. Services/products that require you to break your T.E.R.M.S (Time, Effort, Resources, Money, and Sanity) are NOT worth it, and you’ll never reach your goals.

8. Collect More Money Up Front. Turning a negative cash flow cycle into a positive one, means you’ll boost your business’s value and lessen your stress load. We’ve learned that when we have the money, we also have the leverage.

9. Do a Risk Analysis of Key Areas. Look at your key partners, resources and tasks and work out what would happen if they were taken away from you. Recent years would have taught you this.

10. Teach Them to Fish. Answer your teams’ question with: “What would you do if you owned the business?”.

And the BIG one (if you’ve not done this already):

11. Design Your Business on Your T.E.R.M.S.Start this by asking yourself two simple questions:

• What do you want from your business and life?

• What are you prepared to do, to get this?

If you need any help finding a way, then you know where we are.

If you’re going to be finding an excuse, then we can’t help!

See you on the other side 

BW,

Martin

Martin Norbury

Investor | Business Mentor at Advocate | Author of I don’t work Fridays