So much for my optimism about 2011! Twelve months’ ago  I thought that 2011 would be a turning point for the economy. Technically it was – growth started to speed up, unemployment fell and leading indicators are brightening but it certainly doesn’t feel like a recovery. And most economists foresee tepid growth for 2012.

On the other hand, for Business360 things were pretty good. Our revenue will be up about 35% overall, which isn’t too shabby given the state of the wider economy but less than our 50% growth in 2010. Over the year we’ve added a few great clients (including some in pharma, which is something of a departure for us) and we’ve also gone through the administratively painful process of becoming a ‘global vendor’ with a few of our clients that I think should be a good thing for the future.

This year our growth was constrained mainly by one factor, our inability to get enough good managers to oversee our research and analytical work (these people don’t grow on trees!). We continue to look for and recruit people that are skilled at understanding client needs and managing researchers, analysts and writers to deliver high quality work. We’ve had some success but it remains a challenge (if you know any good candidates or would like to do this, all working remotely from home, please contact us).

Being resource constrained limited our growth as it stopped us from pursuing work; in 2011 I can’t have made more than a handful of sales calls (all the growth we had came from existing clients and from new clients that came to us via word of mouth). I guess that’s good but I find it frustrating not being able to approach new clients; as we fold in managers in 2012 I look forward to being able to do this again.

So what do I think’s coming in 2012: more of the same. My optimism is mainly deferred but also a touch dented (banks still aren’t lending enough and Europe remains a profound risk), so I think 2012 will bring a gradual, bumpy improvement until sometime late in the year we realize that growth is starting to be solid.

Meanwhile, Happy New Year – here’s hoping it’s a good one for you…