It is hard to believe that there is only a little over one month left in this year. Where did the time go? The holiday season is quickly approaching, bringing the new year in its wake and conjuring up images of all the things that were meant to be accomplished over the past 10 months, but never seemed to be completed. Oh, the guilt of having neglected the reorganization of your storage room!

On the other hand, it also brings about images of all the successful tasks that did get done during the year, as well as ideas regarding opportunities and tasks that can be scheduled for the new year. Glorious visions of that newly-organized storage room, the freshness of a new daily organizer, the hope that your email box will eventually clean itself. Visions that won't become a reality unless a plan is put in place!

To help you achieve your goals next year, we've compiled five steps to effective 2014 business planning. It's never too early to plan for success.

Step 1: Retrospective of 2013

Emerson once stated that, "Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect." He was right. Wishing on stars and hoping that things magically turn out the way you want them to be does not work. Looking back to 2013, if there are things that did not go the way you wanted them to, then looking at the reason this happened will provide a strong foundation for your 2014 planning. In particular, answer the following questions:

• What was your particular focus for 2013? Did you achieve it or how close did you get to achieving it?
• If you did not achieve your goal, what prevented you from doing so? What could have been done to remove those obstacles?
• What worked?
• What didn't work?
• What reporting did you use to track your progress? Did you track your progress?
• What resources were pinpointed as being potentially beneficial for the future?
• What resources are no longer helpful and should be discarded?
• Who provided you feedback or insight that was especially helpful?
• What key events took place that changed your focus or aided in your staying on track? Can they be repeated?
• What new things did you learn about you, your clients, your business, the industry?
• What mistakes did you make? What did you learn from these mistakes?