Things to Ask Yourself About Your Online Business in 2012

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This whole resolutions craze that’s going on this time of the year starts to make me sick. And okay, I admit, I had my share in this too. As a matter of fact I’ve written at least three resolution posts already, and now I’m kind of writing a fourth one.

Anyways.

The New Year shouldn’t be about promising yourself all the great things you’re going to do during the next 12 months. The main problem here is the question of: how do you know what is truly worth doing and what isn’t?

If you’re an online business owner then among your resolutions a thing like “develop a new product” might find its place.

But how do you know that it truly is what you should focus on? How do you know that taking care of upgrading your current products isn’t a better choice? Or focusing more on the promotional side of things?

The possibilities are endless for any kind of field, no matter if online business or not. So is there even a point in creating any kind of resolutions list?

Things to ask yourself before committing to any kind of resolutions

Well, there still is some sense in creating resolutions. They can give you this additional drive to take action, but only if you know what you’re doing and why you’ve chosen that specific set of resolutions over all the other possibilities.

This is where a helpful list of questions comes into play. So what I advise you to do is start by answering the following questions, and then compile your list of resolutions for the New Year afterwards. Resolutions that actually make sense.

Just a short note. We’re talking business here. So every question is highly business-related. But you may as well take it from a completely different perspective. For example, answer the questions from a personal standpoint, or your guitar learning passion, or anything else. It’s up to you.

What’s working?

If you’ve been doing your thing for a while I’m sure you can point out things that have been working for you exceptionally well during the last 12 months.

If you have an online business it may be things like creating new products, promoting existing products, finding new customers, focusing on existing customers, creating multiple websites, focusing all your efforts on one website.

Whatever it is, you know best. Now just create some resolutions around things that are working for you. Doing more of what works is always a good strategy.

What’s not working?

There’s always the other side – things that are not working. I’m sure that during the last 12 months you had many ideas. And inevitably, some of those ideas ended up to not perform at all.

List them all and try to find some common characteristics for all of them. There surely are some. Maybe they all have to do with focusing on wrong kind of customers, or developing wrong type of products, or spending your marketing money badly. Again, you know best.

Once you have the list of things that are not working simply make sure not to create any resolutions involving things that are somehow similar to them. They are most likely to fail as well.

What do you really like doing?

There are some things that maybe don’t bring the biggest results, or any kind of measurable effects, but you still love doing them anyway.

The day when you stop doing what you love is the day you stop loving your work. Always do as much of the things you like as possible. Now is the time to create some resolutions around these things.

If, for example, you enjoy interacting in forums then promise yourself to write X number of posts every day, or something. If you love recording guitar videos, then … you know, same story.

What you seriously don’t like doing?

Unfortunately, there are things that work (for us or our businesses), but at the same time we truly despise doing them. They are too mundane, too boring, or too time consuming, or whatever other reason.

If you have such things on your to-do list then they are bound to be procrastinated upon. That’s just the way it is. I’m sure you can relate.

What’s the solution? You can either stop doing them or find some help (outsource). If you stop doing these things you will be able to find more time for things that both work and are enjoyable. If you outsource this then same thing goes – you’ll have more time for the interesting stuff, AND also the boring stuff will get done too.

Anyway, create a resolution to solve this, no matter what approach you end up taking.

What has the greatest potential to work?

There’s another group of “things” – ones that have potential to work but haven’t been tested that carefully yet. Maybe it’s something you’ve only done a handful of times or haven’t done at all yet.

This is a good moment to set some resolutions to test this stuff out. To find out if they will really work or not so much.

Of course, these still need to be things that you think you’ll enjoy doing. Don’t fall into a trap of testing something you don’t actually like (the previous question on the list).

Some things that are likely to find their place here: techniques your competition is using, techniques your friends are using in different niches, things your mentors tell you to do, things your mom tells you not to do, things the authorities in your market advise to do, etc.

Who can help you?

It doesn’t have to be anyone who can actually help you right from the get go. But is there someone worth reaching out to? A mentor maybe? Or simply someone who seems like they might be a worthy partner in crime.

I’m sure you’ve stumbled upon some people that are simply interesting to you. Set some resolutions to reach out to them and get to know them personally.

Remember, it’s always about who you know not what you know.

Who do you hate dealing with?

Of course, there’s the other group of people; ones you’ve tried reaching out to, or even doing business with but it just didn’t seem to work. Don’t waste your time on dealing with those people.

Life is too short to spend it around people who don’t make your day better. And whatever you do, don’t force yourself to deal with some people just because you think you have to. You can always fill their place with someone truly valuable.

Can you make things happen on your own?

There are many things you can do in your online business or in whatever else you’re involved in. That’s just a fact. So the question is: can you make these things happen on your own?

If so, great! Do it, then!

If there are too many things, and you just don’t have that many hours in a day then try to find some help. There are many possibilities, and many sites where you can hire people or find partners.

Do you want to do it on your own?

But here’s another thing … maybe you have the time, but you simply don’t want to take care of everything on your own.

This is nothing bad. Even when you love what you do you still might want to have some extra time for sports, socializing with your friends or whatever else. This is a great moment to look for help too.

Ask yourself these two last questions and then create some resolutions regarding them.

I don’t have any more questions at this moment, but I think that the set above is more than enough to get a pretty large resolutions list out of it. And this is what I encourage you to do. Take this list, be honest when answering the questions, and when you’re done create your tailor-made resolutions for the New Year.

Also, are there any more questions worth answering? Let me know.