- 10 Questions That Will Lead You to More Success This Year

Now that the holidays are over, it is time to jump start the new year. It is an important time of year for business. Now is when you should be reviewing everything you've done over the past year so you can apply it to help you be more successful next year.

That means looking at your marketing and your products and services so you can determine what you're going to continue over the next year, and what you're going to lay to rest.

After all, running a successful business is a fluid process that requires you to constantly react and adjust to changing market conditions and customer demands.

In case you need a little help assessing the past year, here are 10 questions you can start with.

10 Marketing Assessment Questions to Ask Yourself:

1 - Did you stick to your marketing plan?
2 - How well did each of your marketing activities work?
3 - Did your marketing generate more revenue than it cost?
4 - Which marketing activities brought you the most clients or sales?
5 - Which marketing activities flopped?
6 - Which products and services were easy to market and sell?
7 - Which products and services brought disappointing results?
8 - What will you continue with next year?
9 - What will you discontinue?
10 - And how will you take everything you learned this year and apply it to help you do business smarter and more profitably over the next year?

I encourage you to be brutally honest with your answers. That is the only way you and your business will benefit.

Don't beat yourself up if something didn't work. The important thing is to learn and move forward.

The only way you will be making a mistake is if you continue doing things that aren't working because you don't take the time to do an assessment.

So set aside some time this week to answer these 10 questions. Try to determine as best as possible why some things didn't work. But in the end, don't get hung up on it. Just apply what you've learned and move on.

Be creative in coming up with new ways to help your clients.

Be creative in coming up with new ways to get the word out.

You may even want to conduct a client survey to find out how you can best help your clients. Find out what pressing issues they have then build your business and your marketing to help them. For online surveys, I recommend SurveyMonkey - it's a free service and it works great.

Lastly, take the time to create a marketing plan.

Now is the perfect time to create your marketing plan for the coming year. So take some time to take the following steps:

- Think about how you want to grow your business.
- Set your goals.
- Map out a marketing plan to help you reach those goals.
- Create a marketing calendar and budget to help keep you on track.

Then make a commitment to stick with your marketing plan.

Because consistent marketing is what wins in the long run.

© Copyright 2009 Debbie LaChusa

Debbie LaChusa created The 10 Step Marketing System to make marketing your own business as simple as answering 10 questions. Learn more about this unique, step-by-step system and get a Free Marketing Ebook, "Top 10 Marketing Mistakes Small Business Owners Make and How to Avoid Them" and a free marketing plan template when you subscribe to the free 10stepmarketing Ezine at http://www.10stepmarketing.com.

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