Entrepreneurs need to have a healthy dose of self-reflection every now and again. Last week I had you take my Rock the Web Self Assessment Test to discover if you were doing the 7 Crucial Activities required to build a successful online business. This week I want you to do the following:

• Make a List of the Top 5 things you want to accomplish
• Look at the above image
• Answer the question: “Which step have you reached today?”

Sometimes we think ourselves out of opportunities and say we “won’t do something” that we might be able really good at. Sometimes we say we can’t do something, when all we really need is the right information to get us started. And sometimes we fill ourselves with enough “I think I can” motivation to slowly, but surely get the job done!

Following the SistaSense Road to Success be proactive about finding the right people to give kind of information and encouragement that you need to move foward. Wherever you are in your online business goals, take this time to acknowledge where you are, so you can move one step closer to where you want to be.

Common topic requested from entrepreneurs: getting more people online to click and purchase their products. Enjoy this video above and watch the complete ‘Rock the Web‘ series on youtube.

We all have to start at the beginning. As I write these words I can remember where I started, spending everyday (practically all day) online trying to find a solid answer to one question, “How do I make a decent $50,000 plus living online?” I tried selling products on eBay and reselling products on Amazon. I tried taking surveys and signing up to affiliate websites like LinkShare and Commission Junction. I even tried looking for ‘work from home on your computer’ opportunities. Eventually I decided to do the same thing I did when I was a kid, take a few of my hand-made creations to the public and start selling.

In my experience, making a “real” and “decent” income online begins with steering clear of all the hype and focusing on creating an offer people (including you) can’t refuse. The first mistake many make is attempting to sell something they have no clue about and honestly wouldn’t buy themselves. If your sole reason for selling something is that somebody told you it was an “easy sell” I recommend you focus on finding a real offer: a product, service, or combination of the two that is of interest to you and of value to a specific audience. You can sell just about anything online so long as there is somebody who wants to buy it. That being said, the first thing you need to do is figure out what your offer is.

I’ve told my start up story many times over. My first online income streams were service based: web design projects, graphic gigs, and consultation opportunities. Money was made, but of course every freelance entrepreneur knows there is a big difference between making some money from a side hustle and making steady income from a lucrative business. While it takes some time, you have to learn how to stop thinking like a worker and train yourself to act like the boss.

Most 9-to-5 employees work paycheck to paycheck and most newbie entrepreneurs work gig-to-gig. With a worker mentality, newbie entrepreneurs sometimes take whatever they can get in the interest of making a sale. As soon as I realized generating a couple hundred dollars from a few sales per month was not enough, I had my first mind shift. Instead of thinking about how much you want to make per sale, focus on how much you want to make per month (ideally per year).

Setting bigger financial goals is an integral part of generating more money. With that one change I was able to better assess the kinds of products I should push, the prices I needed to charge and the people that I needed to focus on. Just about anybody can turn tens into thousands with a clearer understanding of how much money they want to make and what they plan on offering to the public to reach that financial goal.

Defining your offer and setting your monthly financial goal is a good place to start. If you eager to generate a decent living from your current online business I would like to learn more about what you do and share my income building solutions with you at She Rocks the Web, my 3 day weekend workshop for women entrepreneurs.

At some point every business owner experiences a slow period. If you’d like to know how I learned to work through slow sales and maintain a steady income online, consider the following:

1. Don’t panic. When we panic and/or become desperate our judgment becomes very cloudy. Avoid the desire to aggressively over sell. If your marketing and/or sales strategies are getting you minimal results, doing them more often won’t fix the problem, it will only add ‘disgruntled customers’ to your list of concerns.

2. Stop and think. Take this time as an opportunity to figure out why your sales are slow. Finding the cause of your problem can often times lead to discovering a solution? Are your current customers ready for something new? Is your offering seasonal? Are there specific times in the year that your business experiences peak sales and then a noticeable decline? Is there some aspect of your website that is either not working or could stand to be improved? Is your business as visible as it should be?

3. Get a second opinion. As the chief operator of your business there are times when you can clearly look at it and see the problem. On the other hand, there are also instances when you are so deeply involved in your business that you can’t figure what’s wrong by yourself. If you are finding it difficult to pin-point why your current sales are slow, consider looking outwards for feedback. You can definitely begin by asking your current customer base what they need and/or would like to see from you. Ideally you should also find an experienced professional in ecommerce, websites, and/or online marketing to better evaluate your business and assess what needs to be changed.

4. Consider the possibilities. If you find yourself regularly marketing online, but nothing is sticking it’s possible that your marketing is missing something. You might be having trouble getting the attention of your ideal customers and/or making a connection with the people who are actually reviewing your offerings and visiting your website. In this case you’ll need to focus on your approach to building authentic relationships with people online.

5. Build a list and/or get a good one. Every entrepreneur should have a solid list including strategies they can try to boost sales, income streams they can tap into to supplement their business revenue, and innovative marketing strategies to keep their online presence fresh.

If you are looking for more detailed ways to boost your sales I would like to learn more about your online business and share my list of client attraction, marketing and sales solutions with you at She Rocks the Web, my 3 day weekend workshop for women entrepreneurs.

Related video post: How to ReCharge Your Business

Let’s be honest, the only people who really love to blog are bloggers. Most entrepreneurs who blog only do it because somebody told them it was good for business. But what do you do when your blogging isn’t bringing in business? How do you figure out what’s wrong? As an entrepreneur who blogs mainly to promote my business here are a few possible answers I can give to this very question:

You don’t have an audience. Stop me if this sounds like you: Your blog has content but there is no engagement because you lack an audience. Is it possible that your blog is completely separate from your business website and therefore non-existent to your current customers? Can people subscribe to your blog for updates? If they can subscribe, how many subscribers do you have? Are you regularly promoting your best blog content within your business and across different social media platforms? How often do people find your blog through search engines? Before your blog can drive traffic to your business, you need to ensure that you are driving traffic to your blog.

You are not selling anything. Stop me if this sounds like you: You understand that blogging is important, but you don’t want to come off as an aggressive salesman, so you focus on sharing a few posts about everything but your products and services. Everybody says content is king, so you write about a few interesting topics in your industry, maybe share a few anecdotes about your business, but you steer clear of selling anything fearing somebody is going to scream out, “Imposter! You are not a blogger; you just want me to buy your stuff!” That fear coupled with a desire to post content just for the sake of posting content usually results in the kind of inactive blog that no one reads or buys from because it lacks the authenticity and authority your audience is looking for. You need to work on creating a blog that resonates with your audience and shows that best that your business has to offer. Believe it or not you can have an engaging blog that drives traffic to your business if you are willing to learn how to create one.

You need more balance. As mentioned above, while some entrepreneurs completely avoid selling on their blogs others turn them into 24/7 pitch fests, which tends to create a different, but still undesirable result. Interesting, engaging, informative, shareable and purposeful; your blog needs to have all of the above if you want to use it as an effective brand building / marketing tool.

If your blog is lacking an audience, offers, and/or balance I would like to share my blogging for business solutions with you at She Rocks the Web, my 3 day weekend workshop for women entrepreneurs.