4 Ways to Make 2007 Profitable!

At the conclusion of this article you will know exactly what you need to do to make 2007 a profitable one.  If you are like most people trying to do business online or offline you know how easy it can be to get distracted, procrastinate, become lazy and slew of other business killing habits.  Why is it that so many businesses fail and fail in their first year at that?  There are many reasons why but I am going to give you the top 4 ways to avoid failure here today.  If your ready then lets begin.

The first way you can race out of the starting gates ahead of the pack in 2007 is to develop a business plan.  A business plan is vital to you and your business helping to give direction, secure resources and materials, secure financing if need be and much more.  Every major corporation uses a business plan.  Without one they would not have gotten to where they are today.

As a business owner it is vital to have a sense of direction.  A business plan can do this for you.  If you are currently just making money on the side doing something like Internet Marketing you need to step back and analyze your situation.  If you want to own or start your own business you need to look at what it is you are doing as such.  If you view your side “dealings” as nothing more than dealings, that’s all they will every be.  But, if you look at your side “dealings” as a “Business” and start treating it like one, you’ll have a much better chance at prosperity.  One way to change your view of what you do is to develop a business plan for it and start treating it like a real business, not just something you do on the side.

The second way to make this up coming year profitable is to stay focused!  With a world of information at your finger tips it can be very easy to get distracted.  This will kill your business.  Here are some things to look out for that can distract you:

1. Reading emails.  Try and keep reading your emails down to a maximum of 3 days a week.  This is especially true if you have multiple email accounts.  If you have many email accounts, look for ways to get rid of some of them.  For example, if you have a helpdesk on 5 sites you own on the Internet.  Make one site that is dedicated to support for all of your sites.  This way you only have to check the email of one site and not log into 5 different sites.

2. Surfing the Internet.  I know this can be tempting but it is also a business killer.  Make surfing the Internet a reward for hard work.  Only surf the net when you have accomplished what was on your agenda for that day.  It’s like homework back in school, if you don’t finish it you can’t play with your toys.

3. Hanging out in chat rooms and forums.  Don’t get me wrong, forums are a great place for networking, help and getting ideas for your business but we all know that 15 minutes can lead to 2 or more hours.  As a general rule I try and peruse forums for a maximum of 30 minutes.  This is plenty of time to give a helping hand  or get caught up on what’s been happening in your particular industry.

Those are just a few things to look out for that can distract you.  If you cut down on just one of the things listed above you’ll be much better off.  Having a lack of focus in my opinion is the main reason businesses fail, especially on the Internet.

The 3rd way to make 2007 a profitable one is to keep to one project and see it through to the end.  So many people get excited about a project and get started with it.  Half way through it though another great idea hits them and they push their current project to the back burner.  This will cripple your business and inevitably your business will suffer.  It’s not a bad idea to have multiple ideas, just write them down in a business journal or something equivalent and then continue on your current project.  See it through to the end and make it as profitable as possible.  So many people don’t do this and it’s a shame.

The 4th way to make 2007 a profitable one is to test and track everything you do.  How can you grow your business if you don’t have anything to measure your efforts in place?  It’s like spinning your wheels on those speed bikes in the gym.  Your just peddling in place.  If your not tracking your efforts, your just peddling in place and going know where.  Here are just a few things you need to test and track:

1. Advertising.  For example, you need to track your ads you run in ezines.  Say you spend $500 dollars for a top sponsor ad in three seperate and reputable ezines.  Sales start coming in, great right?  Not really.  Do you know where those sales came from?  Do you know which ezine you advertised in brought the most sales?  Without tracking your ads you won’t and you could be throwing money away.  One of the ezines may have brought you no sales but you wouldn’t know that without a tracking system in place.  Wouldn’t you want to know that your $500 dollars invested in advertising is generating revenue and not being thrown out the window so to speak?  Of course you do, so track your ads.

2. You need to test your ad, sales letter, email and any other written material you use.  This is easy.  Start out with just two Headlines lets say.  Split test these headlines for 5 days and see which one generates more sales or subscribers.  Take the winner and then develop a new ad.  Repeat the process.  Continue doing this so you can maximize your efforts.  You can split test all kinds of things like adwords ads, email subject lines, payment buttons on your site, graphics on your site, the testing abilities are limitless.

These are just a few ways to test and track your online and offline efforts.  Make sure you test and track everything you do so you can have statistics on what is working and what’s not for your business.  With these results you can have something to build on, thus growing your business in the right direction.

Now that you know what you need to do to make 2007 a profitable one, why wait.  Start today using the 4 ways listed above to grow and expand you business like never before.  All you have to do is take ACTION.  Take everyone of the steps listed above and do them.  Your business will thank you for it and you’ll finally watch your paypal, clickbank, 1shoppingcart, 2 checkout and ultimately your bank account grow.