Business Resolution Updates

Well, we are a month and a half into 2013 already!  Many times, when people make New Year’s Resolutions, by this point those resolutions have already long since been forgotten and things are back to normal already.  I guess it’s just the nature of resolutions, most people just don’t follow through and “get ‘er done” so to speak.

This year, in addition to a couple of personal New Year’s resolutions, I decided to do four Business Resolutions too.  I set some new goals that I wanted to get done for my various businesses, in order to improve my business and make me more competitive.  Through the month of January, I laid out those Business Resolutions here on the Ways to Make a Living site and went into detail on what each resolution was and how I intended to implement it.

For a refresher, the four business resolutions were:

1. Write 20 new eBooks
2. Set up an Affiliate program for the products that I sell
3. Cut back on publishing on some of my blogs, allowing me to focus on the ones that I feel are the most important
4. Step up my posting on the blogs that I consider the most important – both increased regularity of posting and at a higher level of frequency

So, how am I doing so far?

As I said at the beginning of this post, most people who set resolutions don’t follow through.  It is my goal to keep my own feet to the fire and make sure that I complete these goals during the course of 2013.  We are still early in the year but as part of my “keep my feet to the fire” pledge, I want to step back and take a look at my progress so far.

Goal #1 – Write 20 new eBooks

To be honest, while I set the goal at 20 new eBooks in 2013, my true goal is more like about 50 new eBooks.  But, I set it a bit lower because I was not sure I would have the time to do 50, and writing 20 new books in a year is already a big goal, in my opinion.  Well, I am happy to say that I have already written 25 new eBooks so far this year, and am well on my way to my “internal goal” of 50 new eBooks.  About 45 of my 50 that I have in mind are a single series of eBooks, and the 25 new books that I have already completed are all part of that series.  So far, I have not started marketing any of the books, I want to finish the entire series and then start marketing all of them together.  But, I feel it has been a huge accomplishment to have completed 25 new eBooks in just 6 weeks.  I am happy that I have been able to force myself to do it, and have even come to enjoy the writing.

So, my #1 business resolution is already a success in 2013, and I will, I am sure, be able to go on and complete 50 eBooks instead of just 20 in 2013.  Getting the marketing of the books is also part of it too, but that’s the easy part and I will get that going as soon as I complete another 20 or so books.

Goal #2 – Set up an Affiliate Program

So far, I have not started on this goal.  I knew that this would come a little later because when I laid out my plans, I already knew that this would be a secondary priority to my eBook writing this year.  Once I am ready to start marketing my line of new eBooks, then an Affiliate plan will be a key to success on that, so this will definitely be a big goal to get done after #1 is completed.

Goal #3 – Cut back some publishing

Done.  This is an easy one because it was basically just an internal confirmation that I was going to put some blogs on the back burner.  Most of those that I would be putting on the back burner were blogs that already were not often updated, and I only had to make a personal affirmation that I would “officially put these sites on the back burner, so to speak.  So, nothing hard to do here, but at least I have gotten it done, and I am happy about that.

Goal #4 – Step up posting on important sites

As it has turned out, this has become a somewhat liquid goal.  The reason is that as I have stepped up posting on some sites, I am already seeing great leaps in traffic.  Seeing those leaps, it has shown me that I need to increase posting, even more, to capitalize on the progress that has already been made.  So, whereas I committed to posting religiously once per week on certain blogs, the participation on those site has grown so much that now I want to pick it up to posting 2 or even 3 times per week on some specific sites.  Additionally, I have one site where I have been considering the possibility of posting 4 or even 5 times per week.  So, as you can see, I am making huge improvements based on this goal.  Really, I have already completed the goal, but now I am refining it and improving it even further.  Also, there is the matter that I have to keep it up.

Something I have not told you

I laid out all of these Business Resolutions to you last month, but there was something that I did not clue you in on.  Now, I am ready to do so.  The four resolutions that I have outlines were not really my ultimate business resolutions.  They were only four steps toward my ultimate goal.  My ultimate business goal, which the 4 resolutions will lead me toward, is that I want to shift my primary business from what it is now.  I have a dozen or so different types of businesses that make up my total money earning capacity.  Over the past decade or so, there is on the type of business that has made me the vast majority of the money that I have earned in that time.  Back toward the end of 2012, though, I decided that I wanted to shift to a different way of earning the bulk of my earnings.  In fact, I am hoping that in late 2013 or in 2014 I will be able to sell off one of my businesses and move my focus to publish, digital sales and digital services.  From the progress I am seeing so far in these areas so far this year, I believe that this will be very possible to complete by the end of 2014.  I hope so anyway!

Did you set up any business resolutions?  If you did, how are you coming along?  I hope you are making great progress as I have so far!