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There have been a variety of trend of 2014 type posts on various sites, so I thought I'd have a little fun and compare some of the top searches for 2014 on Google UK versus Google USA.

It seems the UK is obsessed with Chocolate cake, Burgers and Peppa Pig whilst our American cousins are fascinated with Dogs, Diets and the Game of Thrones 

Popular Google UK Searches

Popular Google USA Searches

lol Just like the mechanics car that is always the most neglected or the builder that never does any DIY at home

With the recent icy patch and watching some of the loons on the road, I think I'm more worried about someone ploughing into me. Good food for thought, making me think of a "can your biz survive without the gaffer type post" 

As a horrendously and shamefully out of date first aider, can you prove me right or wrong in regard to the recent major accident in soaplands Albert Square (the East Ends unluckiest place to live and car insurance blackspot).

If you didn't see it, a car rolled over onto it's side with the occupants inside with the obligatory pregnant woman and no seat belt. Someone then decided to right the car on it's wheels, (lets hope there were no spinal injuries).

The occupants all bar the pregnant character were then dragged out of the car which at this point hadn't burst into flames, as all TV car crashes naturally eventually do.

I was always taught if there was no obvious imminent danger, to keep the casualty still, check the airway, keep them warm and reassure, waiting for the professionals to turn up. Rather than drag them out and risk paralysis. Obviously if they have limbs missing and gushing blood then that's a different story and fingers crossed there's a confident first aider near by!

So in the event we stumble across a winter accident and are first on the scene, what are your top tips? Just leave them be, reassure and make sure someone's actually phoned an ambulance?

We decided against emails in the clear years ago after getting spammed.

We have a simple email form for ourselves and business listings (including forum private messages) which protects against spam and takes seconds to fill out.

From experience over the last 10 years, we've had very few complaints with this approach.

You'd think though with all that engineering genius they would figure out a few specific key dates when you can pretty much guarantee the forecast algorithm will have a heart attack.

"if it is Dec 25, ignore forecast alert" If it is Jan 1st, ignore forecast alert....

Maybe I need a consultancy job with Google? 

Google is the king of automation and has an array of useful products and tools.

But this automated message on our adsense control panel made me chuckle

Now need to do some investigation as to why traffic and earnings were down... 

Great honest response Centric, just done a Marketing and plans Target for 2015 if you want to add the second part of your post to it 

Leading on from the 2014 review hopefully everyone now has a clear idea of their aims and objectives for 2015.

So does anyone trust their plans/strategy enough to give us a taster so we can recap in 12 months time?

Here's ours:

• Increase revenue.
• Sign up 5 new partners.
• Continue to Grow Social Media Exposure.

Twitter Followers: currently 3,702

Facebook Business Page: currently 2,652

Google+ Business Page: currently 145 (Google+ seems to need lots of TLC)

Aggressive but hopefully achievable. Recession is ancient history but economy still flaky, but I think there is plenty of opportunity for growth. Time will tell 

Anyone else going to be bold and pin their colours to the mast, or is strategy behind closed doors and your committing to nothing? 

So the idea is we all have a marketing plan and strategy, and then follow it! But how does it work in reality?

Did you meet any targets and goals this year? Most people in networking meetings will give you the impression their revenue doubles every month and business is always booming. Somehow I suspect that's not always true or the same for everyone.

So after outlining goals and targets in a January 2014 post, it seems a good idea to reflect how things went for us.

Revenue plan didn't work out as planned, but we did tender and win a local government contract which took 7 months to negotiate, so this should hopefully put us on a good growth curve for the next 3 years+.

Have also signed a number of partnership agreements this year which are now finally starting to take affect, albeit negotiations and implementations took a lot later than originally anticipated.

Social Media wise has been fairly successful:

Twitter - from 1280 followers to 3,702 

Facebook Page - from 420 likes to 2,652 

Google+ page - from 84 followers to 145  Seem to be struggling with Google+

Forum Interaction and membership - we launched the new look forum in April, interaction has still a long way to go, but we have just about eliminated about 95% of all spam, most of it automatically with just the occasional Johnny slipping through.

We have also just gained a new team member who will be focusing purely on marketing.

So for us, it's been a positive and steady year, with lots of groundwork laid for future growth.

So does anyone else want to share some of their highlights from the last 12 months, or tell us if they met, missed or smashed any targets?

Interesting stats and report from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).

New research from the FSB has found that three out of five (59%) of the small business they questioned did not have a plan in place to deal with extreme weather conditions such as floods and snow storms. 

This news comes despite the news that two thirds (66%) of small businesses have been negatively impacted by flooding, drought or snow over the last three years.

Mike Cherry, National Policy Chairman for the FSB, said:

"Last year was the wettest winter on record and 3200 commercial properties were flooded in the UK. With such extreme weather events on the increase small business need all the help they can get to make sure they can stay open whatever the weather."

"We remain concerned that small businesses will not be included in the Government's Flood Re agreement, designed to limit insurance costs for those at most risk of flooding. Firms need to be reassured that affordable flood insurance will be available in the future. Currently three in 10 (29%) do not have the right cover in place."

Damage caused by last year's floods cost firms in affected areas an average of £1,531. By protecting against such disruption, small firms can continue operating and avoid financial difficulties. Of those businesses affected by extreme weather, the biggest problems reported, were disruption to staff and customers (46%) and disruption to suppliers, utilities and transport arrangements (32%).

Key Findings:

• 66% of small businesses were impacted by flooding, drought or snow in the past three years.
• 59% of small businesses have no resilience plans to combat extreme weather.
• 29% of businesses do not have insurance for business interruption (loss of income, costs incurred) or damage caused to property by flooding.

So looking at the report from the FSB, do you think it applies to your business? Are you one of the 3 out of 5 businesses that don't have any cover or plan in place to combat extreme weather conditions?

Or do you consider your business safe from adverse weather? Can you continue to operate if your business premises are unavailable for an undetermined time?

Maybe take it a step further, do we need to look at critical suppliers? eg: If you are dependant on your website for business, what is your hosting providers plan or SLA's for extreme weather or conditions? Should we be asking them?