I founded this business almost two decades ago and every year I run into the same roadblock starting in mid-November and continuing until early January: people mentally check-out just before Thanksgiving and don't really become productive again until after New Year's. Look at yourself in the figurative mirror. If you're one of those who mentally checks out, don't. You'll have a huge advantage over those against whom you're competing and you won't be sacrificing about 10 percent of your year.

Many estimate that only 10 percent of job seekers properly network and yet 90 percent of job openings go unadvertised and therefore are landed by those who network. Would you rather be one of the 90 percent who are competing for 10 percent of the jobs or the 10 percent who are competing for 90 percent of the jobs? Of course the latter. But the same logic applies in just about every facet of the business world with the impact of the holidays. About 90 percent seem to mentally check-out this year so whatever it is that you're trying to do you stand a much better chance of accomplishing it if you only face 10 percent of the competition now than you did a few weeks ago or a couple of months from now. So if you're an employer and are interested in buying recruitment advertising, this is a great time to do it. Job boards and other media outlets are all suffering from reduced revenues at this time of the year because 90 percent of their customers have mentally checked out. If you're a buyer now, you'll get better service and likely a better deal. If you're trying to hire people, you should find better quality candidates as your competitors in other organizations are checked out. If you're looking for a job, your competitors are checked out so you're going to face a smaller applicant pool against which to compete.