My day yesterday started at 5.30 when I left home to drive to a potential client in North London.  It was the second meeting to get the project under way.  It was a hellish drive up there in the pouring rain.  Then it dawned on me that the positive thing to think was that at least the rain was washing the snow away!

Anyway, I got there at 7.45am and had a meeting for a couple of hours.  We went through several sites that they liked in detail which was the best move to getting things going.

At the end of the meeting the deal was done!

So I'm happy to say that I've won 2 new projects this week that will make a great contribution to this month's target; over 50% in fact.

I spent the afternoon briefing Claire about the design ideas that they wanted and making sure that we're on schedule with the work that we have on for next week.  Things are very busy at the moment and the only way I feel I can keep on top of it is to make frequent, small adjustments to our course.  I think this is the way forward for us as a business at the moment.  We're running very lean, staff wise, and there's no slack in our resources to allow a project to move forward unless it's bang on track.

This is how I feel about 2010 at the moment after a week of changing some of the procedures we use and the policies I have for business:

• We entered 2010 carrying the same baggage as we left 2009 with
• We can now say that we had problems LAST year
• There is a lot that I can't change or that will take time to change
• The one thing that I can change immediately and affect my business is my attitude

There's a guy I know who once told me that he'd rather stay at home and do nothing that work a day for less than he thought he was worth. You have to be brave to do that but it makes an enormous amount of sense when you think about it!

My 6 year old daughter is doing a project at school about planets and the solar system so I decided to do a bit of reading up on it. Most people will have heard about Polaris or the Pole Star and know that it's the easiest way to find North on a clear night without  compass. But would you know where to look?  I didn't but now I do.

If you know how to find Ursa Major (The Plough, Big Dipper, Saucepan, etc) then it's easy to find North by looking for Polaris.

Have a look at the image below and you'll see.