Every decision you make involves a trade-off. If you stay home to watch a football game, you give up the option of going to see a movie. If you wear a blue shirt to work, you lose the benefits of wearing a red one. And if you ride the bus to work, you waive the option of leaving on your own timeframe.

While the opportunity costs in these examples are minimal, applying the same principles to business can reveal hidden costs of everyday decisions. If you choose to call a meeting for all employees, you give up the productivity that would result if they stayed at work. If you sell a portion of your stock, you lose the money you could have earned had you not. And if you give your employees bonuses, you lose the benefits of using the funds elsewhere.

Opportunity cost has its origins in economic theory, where the potential costs of giving up an alternative are taken into account. Opportunity cost is considered the value of the best possible alternative, not the sum value of all alternatives; that is, if you sell your $2,000 stock, the opportunity cost is the maximum amount of money that stock could have made had it been better invested, not the sum value of all the stocks that could have been purchased for the same amount.

It’s important to understand the concept of opportunity cost when making business decisions. If you don’t understand all the repercussions of your decisions, you could give yourself the perception that you’re making a better decision than you are. For example, if you decide to pay more money to streamline your shipping process, the obvious cost might be a few thousand dollars. However, when you take into account that that few thousand dollars could have been put toward a more aggressive marketing campaign, the opportunity cost equals the money you could have earned by putting your resources elsewhere. These costs can be difficult to calculate, but taking them into account can help you make better decisions.

So when you need to make choices for your company, keep opportunity cost in mind. It will help you see the repercussions of your decisions and put things into proper perspective.

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If you’re like most people, the bulk of your New Year’s resolutions are long gone by now. But that’s OK. Focusing on fewer goals throughout the year will help you find greater satisfaction and experience more success than trying to develop a dozen life-changing habits overnight.

But now that you’ve determined which goals you’re going to stick with, it’s time to start making progress. There’s one simple thing you can do every day to get closer to reaching your goals, and it’s just that – one simple thing.

Doing one thing every day will not only help you reach your goals but will also allow you to enjoy the greatest advantage of goal setting – changed habits and lasting improvement. Many goals require changes to your everyday life, and incorporating your goals into your daily routine will transform them from dreams into habits. And when it becomes habitual for you to work toward your goals, you won’t have to make the same resolutions year after year.

Working on your goals every day requires adjustment, so try fitting it in first thing in the morning. If you get it done before anything else can divert your attention and before you settle into your routine, you’ll be better able to give your resolutions the attention they need. You might only have a little bit of time to commit – maybe working on your goals every day means taking a 10-minute walk – but the important thing is to be consistent in your efforts. As your goals become habits, you will begin to feel more comfortable dedicating larger portions of time to them.

Some days, you might not feel like you’re making any progress. Other days, it might seem like your goals are right at your fingertips. But when it comes to reaching your dreams, the secret is in consistency. Do something – big or small – every day, and you will see results.

Do you have a plan for your business in 2011 yet? If not you need one. One of the most important aspects of success is knowing what you want to achieve and having concrete action steps for getting there.

Being a home business owner or small business owner can be stressful and certainly time consuming. It can be tempting to just put your nose to the grindstone and work on the things you see before you, the things that seem urgent. And while that type of work ethic is absolutely necessary in order to be successful you need to make sure that the work you are doing is the work that will actually bring you the results you are looking for.

Creating a clear plan of the goals you want to achieve and the basic steps to get there will help you make better decisions about where to use your time and energy in the comping year. It will also help keep you motivated as you work.

Succeeding on your own in business requires focus and dedication, and those who don’t have what it takes are weeded out. The most successful entrepreneurs do what they know and love what they do. That being said, the consultants from PMI Coaching have observed that even the happiest entrepreneurs face the same danger – burnout.

It doesn’t matter how much you enjoy the task at hand, if you don’t maintain a balance in your life, you can get burned out. This doesn’t mean that you have to curtail the important time you spend with your business, only that you need to do it in a way that keeps your day fresh and doesn’t overload you.

Here’s an example of how burnout can affect even your favorite activities. Several years ago I went on a week-long backpacking trip with my dad and brother. We traversed some of the roughest terrain I’ve ever seen on the way to our destination – Gorge Lake. This lake is situated in a tiny glacial valley, surrounded by sheer cliffs on every side. Most hikers would never dare try to descend to the lake, but my dad had noticed an area on his topographic map that he felt could offer reasonably safe passage.

When we reached my dad’s planned descent route, it was more treacherous than we’d anticipated, but still passable. After eight hours of nerve-wracking hiking, we reached the beautiful waters of Gorge Lake. It was amazing to be in such a pristine place. There were no fire rings, trails, soda cans or any other sign of humans. Our insanity had paid off.

We quickly rigged up our poles and started fishing. The results were instantaneous. Every single cast yielded a fish. Often, they’d hit our lures only moments after they struck the water. These fish had never seen a hook before and they were practically jumping into our arms! By the end of the day we caught and released over 400 fish!

The next morning we resumed our fishing. But a strange thing happened – I began to get sick of it. Previous to Gorge Lake, I never would have thought this possible. Yet here I was, bored with how many fish I was catching. And beyond the boredom, I was also getting physically overworked. My right elbow ached from the repeated strain of reeling in fish…a problem I’d never had before.

Burned out from the sheer number of fish we’d been catching, we didn’t fish Gorge Lake the following day. We just sat around reading books and napping. Too much of a good thing had made us sick of an activity we loved. If this can happen with something as carefree as fishing, it is even truer for business pursuits.

You can prevent burnout by planning your days in a way that allows for a variation of tasks. Even when you have a large project that needs to be done, break it into smaller tasks. You’ll find that this makes things more manageable and less likely to overwhelm.

One final suggestion would be to allow yourself small breaks when you need them. It can be tempting to feel the need to spend several hours at a time on a single project, but you’ll be more effective if you allow yourself a chance to catch your breath once in a while. Whether this is a five minute break every hour or a fifteen minute break every four hours is up to you, but plan accordingly. This will help you avoid getting exasperated and make the most of your time.