Last week I heard one of those phrases that just cut me to the very core.

"I wish I had been a better brother," said the brother of Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. As he reflected on his life, he saw opportunities he missed to include Ted in sports activities and social events.

"Perhaps my brother would have turned out differently if I had been a better brother," he said.

Do you wish you were a better brother, sister, father or mother? I guess we all do from time to time. Thankfully, for most of us, there is still time to make some meaningful adjustments and course corrections in these most important roles in our lives.

The same is true for those of us who wish we were better entrepreneurs. For most of us, there is still time.

The process of being better at anything isn't complex. Yet it is hard because, in business as in life, being better means changing. Change usually means replacing bad habits that drag us down with good habits that make us better. There is no other way. For if we keep on doing what we have always done, we will keep on getting what we have always gotten!

Therefore if we want better results we have to - we must - do things differently.

I won't suppose that I can tell you or anyone else how to be better brothers, sisters, parents or children. But I think I can give you some good tips on how to be a better entrepreneur. I'm comfortable doing so because I know that true entrepreneurs thrive on change. It's what we do. It's what we're about. And today, right at the start of an exciting and promising new year, is the perfect time to begin making changes.

First, you need to establish a base line from past performance. What kind of measurable things can you make a spreadsheet on? Usually these are things that can be numbered, i.e., sales revenues, cost of goods sold, expense items (usually reflected in line items), net profit, average sales per employee, average sales per customer, and accounts receivable day's sales outstanding.

OK, so you don't have all of the above figures. Figure out a way to get them and to monitor them. In order to become a better entrepreneur, you need to start tracking those figures on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Some of these answers are found on regular financial statements, but most will need to be recorded on a flash report, which is a simple form designed to track these very things.

If you are already tracking your progress in these areas, then I suggest you make sure you immediately take some time to review your performance and then sit down and write out some short- and long-term goals for the new year. And remember: in order to be meaningful a goal has to be measurable, and it has to have a deadline. As you write out your business goals for the new year, be specific. Winners deal in specifics, losers deal in generalities.

We can all be better business operators and entrepreneurs as we track our performance and then make strong, written performance goals to increase those areas that will bring us more customers and bigger orders per customer. And if we have priced our products correctly, these goals will also bring us better - read that "bigger" - profits.

And this is the time to do it. Right now. Today. Or at the very least, this week. Dedicate some time to doing the things you need to do to become a better entrepreneur.

And while you're at it, figure out how to be a better brother or sister, too.