So it’s a new year already – where did the time go? And what about those promises we all made to ourselves around this time last year? If you’re like most people, you may have resolved to lose a few of those extra inches. But if you’re a business owner, the term “New Year’s Resolution” probably has different implications.

Scrooge once said that Christmas has a way of keeping men from doing business, but really, what does he know? The truth is, the holiday season provides some really excellent opportunities for networking. Odds are that very soon you will be mingling with all manner of people at some holiday get-together. Some you’ll barely know, and others you’ll know very well – the important thing to remember is that networking this time of year is different than any other month.

How strong is your website’s immediate appeal? According to a Carleton University study published earlier this year in the academic journal Behaviour & Information Technology, web designers have only 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression.

In less than the blink of an eye, your internet users have already formed an opinion about your website and by extension, your company. Participants in three studies were first asked to rate a series of web pages according to their aesthetic appeal after viewing them for 50 milliseconds, and were then asked to examine each site more carefully and provide a new rating. Confirming the old saying that a first impression is often a lasting one, the researchers found no significant difference between the two ratings. This means that in that first 50 milliseconds, your audience has already sussed you out.

With brand revitalization and product redesigns rolling out more quickly than ever before, it’s clear that design and innovation are becoming the hot topic for business. Apple is a prime example, constantly pushing the envelope and driving the market, the iPod has become an icon of fanatic consumer loyalty and yet, the increasingly rapid rollover to bigger (or smaller) and better models is met with pocketbooks held wide open and the competition struggling to keep up. Apple has brought the impact of effective design in business to the forefront.