For many businesses, the Christmas season will provide a much-needed boost to sales and revenue, particularly for the embattled retail and services sector. The small business sector in particular has been hit hard by sluggish consumer demand, increased competition and economic instability throughout the year, and can now breathe a sigh of relief as 2011 draws to a close.

As a business owner, you should take the downtime to not only reflect on the year's highs and lows, but also plan ahead for the holidays and the New Year. This is the best time to draw up a strategy for the next 12 months, roll out the last of your marketing campaigns and review existing systems.

Here are some Christmas 'gifts' you can bestow upon your business to ensure a successful start to 2012.

• Review existing frameworks
• Keep planning ahead
• Focus on your customers

Review existing frameworks

A positive end to 2011 ensures that the following year will begin on a positive note. With this in mind, set aside a couple of hours for you and your team to review existing frameworks, products, services or systems. In order to determine what worked and what didn't, you will need to look at the results of a particular product or process.

This can be self-evident in your business's financial report (increased sales, lowered supply costs) or can be in the form of boosted employee morale or an increased retention rate.

For example, your IT business implemented a system-wide software upgrade earlier in the year. Are you seeing faster connections, increased productivity, positive customer feedback or an uptake in new clients? If you can attribute these improvements to the software upgrade, it may be something you may want to develop in the future.

Keep planning ahead

The review should inevitably segue into a 12-month strategic planning session, which should include what goals your business hopes to achieve, whether it may be rolling out a new product or meeting certain targets in a time frame.

Drawing up a business plan may seem obvious to entrepreneurs out there, but many do not regularly update that plan to reflect changed goals and visions. According to Business.gov.au, a business plan is a "blueprint for the future" and sets the direction for your business.

Constantly updating your business plan also prevents you from falling into a trap of complacency that can come with continued success and growth. It is crucial that you do not simply take your success for granted and risk plateauing in the long run.

Some ways you can reduce complacency include setting bigger goals and benchmarking your company against the industry number one or your competitors to ensure that you are always challenging your business.

A smaller part of this planning session- but no less important- is to collaborate with your employees and get their opinion on areas the company could improve on, how to increase productivity in their roles and even about company culture in general.

Having a two-way conversation with your staff is a valuable Christmas present that will see returns for your company in the future. This is also a chance to motivate your employees.

Focus on your customers

The recent rate cut may mean that consumers will spend more this Christmas, so if you are a customer-facing business in the retail or services industry, you should take advantage of the increase in foot traffic, if any.

However, this does not mean that you should slash your prices or implement any far-fetched sales strategies. One-off discounts are not always the way to increased sales, and it is not the way to sustained customer loyalty either.

Some options your business should consider- and this is not only restricted to retail or services firms- are targeted marketing campaigns, slight discounting or a new product rollout.

For the companies in the business to business sector, it can be as simple as strengthening existing customer relationships and prospecting new ones. Small businesses have the advantage over larger ones in the sense that their client base tends to be smaller and more specific, and invariably more loyal to your products or services.

Take the opportunity to throw a Christmas party for your clients and potential clients as this can be valuable in meeting potential investors, sharing ideas and gaining a sense of what other businesses in your industry are doing.

With these three tips in mind, you should be able to have a relatively stress-free Christmas and have more time to spend with your family and friends. Make the most of this well deserved break to rest, relax and revitalise yourself for the New Year.