Tips for Evaluation Part 1

Evaluating your business is a process and there are not secrets shortcuts. You just have to do it. However, there are some helpful tips that can make your evaluation efforts a little less taxing.

In addition to what has already been shared, a deeper look at evaluation is necessary.

Tip 1: Determine if income is sustainable.

In other words, does the income stream you created have longevity? While nothing is certain, planning for the long term is always best.

Ask yourself:

Is income recurring? This comes mostly from things like monthly memberships, affiliate commissions, and other recurring opportunities. Do you have this in place?

Are you getting paid enough per hour? Determine what you need to make and then you will see if you are making enough. Sometimes your efforts at charging an hourly rate may hurt more than help. This is why charging what you are worth is so very important.

Are you covering your overhead? The bottom line here is that if you cannot cover your overhead, you are in over your head! It may be time to cut some things out!

Tip 2: Determine if expenditures meet your goals.

When it comes to spending money for your business, you want to be sure that you are investing in the right resources. Not everything will fit your goals. Take a close look at what you are spending.

Do you have some silly expenses that just don’t match your goals? Are you spending more than you are making?

Consider it all when it comes to your expenses!

Tip 3: Check your online marketing ROI.

Your ROI (return on investment) is critical to the evaluation process. Why?

You will be able to measure if those expenditures we covered earlier are worth the effort. ROI is not just about the money, it is also about the time you spend marketing online. Whatever you invest in, you want a return on that investment!

There are many ways to evaluate ROI. One such way is to look at the number of unique visits versus the hits your site receive. Hits occur whenever someone lands on your page; any page. Even when you go into to work on your website, it is often considered a hit. So measuring the hits is not a valid avenue of evaluating your online marketing ROI. Instead look at the unique visitors because there you will find the organic visits. These are the visits that came from search engines, outside links to your site, your newsletter, and even social media tools like Hootsuite.

The next thing you want to measure is conversion. Yes, traffic is GREAT! However, if all you get is traffic and no conversion or your conversion is on the lower end of the norm, then you might want to consider a new strategy. Conversion is where the money comes from! Traffic just pulls them to your site, product, or service.

Along the line of conversion are the sales. While building your list is important, again it is about conversion. Are your subscribers turning into paying customers? Do they buy your products or service?

If not it is time to discover why.