What is your business?
When it comes to year end planning this is the big one that most people have no idea of how to answer it. The first question I ask anyone whether in a conference room or a coaching client is what is your business? What do you want to accomplish?
The answer from 98% is make money. My questions back is always how? What are you going to sell?
Now if your answer is I don’t care I just want to make money stop here. You either need to rethink your plans or this is not a place for you to come looking for answers. So stop now and rethink your answer or click to some where else because the rest of this post won’t apply. I’ll wait.
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Still here? Good.
First you can make money online many different ways. I know of people that make money (yes good money) with all of the following.
- Adsense
- Niche marketing
- Bum marketing
- Product creation
- MLM programs
- Affiliate marketing
- PLR products
- CPA offers
- Membership sites
- and many more
The key is that you need to know what your business is. Not knowing your business is a killer because you never take the time to get good at anything.
Secret #1 – You need to be good at something or working to get good at something or you will be a mark for every shiny object you come across.
You are also vulnerable to the next shiny thing that promises the big red easy button. Then you blame the product for you not succeeding despite the fact that you never applied what was in it . But…
You did buy it and did not get results so the product must suck.
Not to say that there are not scams and garbage products out there but..
If you did not really apply what was in it how would you really know? After all in the two weeks it has sat on your hard drive it had not made you anything.
So the very first thing in your year end planning is to define what your business is. Then go through your hard drive and see what you have in your virtual dust collector closet on your hard drive and see what you already own.
Decide if the item will help you and add it as one of the items to start applying to your newly defined business or if it will not write down why it won’t to be less susceptible to the next shiny object on that topic.
That is all for today but don’t skip this step because it is the real key for your year end planning.
Next time I will discuss looking back at the past year.
As always your questions and comments are welcomed.
Mike Paetzold
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Disclaimer: Some of the links mentioned within this post or posts it may lead to are my affiliate links and in such case I will get compensated for recommending those products. However, I will never recommend something that I don't personally believe in and I welcome your questions and feedback.
December 18th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Mike,
I have been guilty of buying the “next shiny thing that promises the big red easy button:”
In many cases I can’t blame the product for not succeeding – I just never used it. I have finally zeroed in on a particular area. And at least my concentration is focused. I only work with things that apply to my area.
Good advice: “Decide if the item will help you and add it as one of the items to start applying to your newly defined business”
I would add that one of the things I have learned since I zeroed in is that, you can have too many items that may apply, but time will not allow you to implement all of them.
Thanks and keep the planning ideas coming.
Lonnie
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December 18th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
You know, Mike, some of us learn slower than others. I’m one of those people when it comes to marketing.
My background is technical, so I don’t have any real problem building a site. What I’m slowly learning is the marketing side of the business.
Your advice to define your business is an excellent start. After years of online marketing – profitably, I might add – I’m just now doing two things that are important, and which fit in with this series you’re writing.
I just defined my business this year (1. affiliate marketing, 2. promoting local businesses) and I’m starting to follow your advice about systematizing my marketing and building funnels.
I don’t know why this has been so difficult, but it has.
Just defining my business will save me hours of trying to do more than I need to do and will help me focus more. I’m sure it will do the same for anyone else who is following along.
Act on your dream!
JD
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December 19th, 2008 at 12:31 am
Thanks Mike,
You are right on the money with this post.
So many people keep looking to the next big thing that is going to finally make them the money that they feel that they deserve. Most of those people do not even apply the process from that product and then wonder why it didn’t work.
Don’t get me wrong, I am just as guilty as the next person. I have finally gotten to the point that I can avoid the bright shiny object (usually)
.
You need to pick a particular area and stick with it for more than a couple of weeks. It takes a lot longer than that to excel at something. If you can stick with that one process for an extended period of time you will start to see the parts that work and the parts that don’t. Just get rid of the parts that don’t work (or make some changes to them) and expand on the parts that do and before you know it you will have a successful business.
At this point you can expand into a different area and repeat the whole process.
Thanks for keeping us in line Mike! Can’t wait for “the rest of the story”.
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