I recall sitting in my office this time last year thinking about the year ahead. To be honest, for the first time in my career I was dreading it.

The economy seemed to have dropped off a cliff, clients were getting the jitters and, like everyone else, we had implemented a pay freeze. It was impossible to see what sort of a business we were going to be moving forward.

Beyond producing great work and servicing clients well, our key focus was looking at debtor days and cash in the bank.

Like many of our clients, we battened down the hatches and held on tight, and my, what a year it’s been!

Looking back, I’ve never worked so hard with so little to show for it at the end, but then again I’m delighted we have weathered the storm and, as some of my competitors are no longer with us, perhaps we haven’t done too badly after all?

With any down turn, and this is the second that my business has experienced, the key thing to hold on to is the belief that it won’t last forever. This time though I am also reminding myself that when the good times return (as they surely will), they won’t last forever either.

In fact I’m also going to write a letter to the directors of BCS to be opened in five years’ time outlining what we saw, what we did, how we reacted and what got us through this recession so they can (if I’m not here for some reason) steer the company through.

So now I find myself sitting in my office thinking about 2010. As a board of directors, we have spent a lot of time on our strategy for the next two years, have held a team event to share that, tabled ongoing reviews so we stick to it, and will ensure it forms part of the objectives set in everyone’s appraisals.

I’m certainly not saying “phew, we are out of it, let’s go for it”, because I think next year will be reasonably flat. But we are already seeing many organisations looking to gain market share as things do improve, as well as larger brands needing to do certain marcoms activities but with reduced budgets.

Both of these things make a larger regional player with lower overheads an attractive proposition.

Additionally, there are going to be two further factors to consider. One is that a lot of agencies cut deep and as workloads increase will struggle with capacity and servicing issues, and two, there is some excellent talent out there looking for a home.

We certainly have begun to invest in talent to address point one and also to attract the new opportunities I outlined in the above paragraph.

Another big opportunity we’ve identified is social media and working with our excellent new media partners, Quba, we have developed an exciting offering for clients keen to understand/utilise this new channel.

We are already seeing some smarter-thinking clients coming on board with this and the effect on their business can be instant. For example, through a social media channel we set up one client has won extra business; another a speaker opportunity at a highly-relevant trade association; another has an increased awareness of what is being said about their brand on-line, good and bad, and how to improve it.

So my New Year’s resolution will be the same as the one told me by an MD of mine 25 odd years ago, probably as we were coming out of our last recession… “Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise” (Ted Turner).