As the previous year draws to a close, I always look back to see what I did well and what could be improved. Below, I share with you my mistakes, missteps, and errors that I have experienced in my business over the past year.

Many of these mistakes, missteps, and blunders cost me money, so I’m sharing them with you so you can avoid them while making your own New Year’s resolutions.

• Mistake, Misstep, and Clutter #1: Spending too much time on my computer, instead of meeting people face-to-face. Online networking is great, however, it can never replace a face-to-face meeting or phone conversation. Sending emails is very easy, but I found that I was too wrapped up in the ease of this technology. I even had a huge argument with one of my vendors because I tried to “break things up” with him over email. I should know better.

  LESSON LEARNED – Complement online networking activities with face-to-face and telephone meetings.

• Error, misstep and mess #2: Spending too much time on the technical side of my business. I’ve worked in the tech industry for almost 10 years and pride myself on being a girl who knows what she’s doing. However, my digital savvy kept me up late at night as I took responsibility for updating the content of my web pages, creating new autoresponders, and creating new HTML pages for new products, instead of outsourcing things to others. . For each new product or teleclass I launched, it took me 8 hours to have all the technical parts ready.

  LESSON LEARNED – Hire a tech expert to maintain my website. Let it go.

• Error, misstep and mess #3 – Not delegating my administrative tasks. There are certain things I hate doing in my business: updating documents, making them look pretty, writing content, and writing sales copy for new information products. I just can’t stand to do these things and it would take me eons to write a sentence. So that meant I would have to hurry up and write something fast because I sat for too long and the deadline was an hour away.

  LESSON LEARNED – Hire a virtual assistant or copywriter to do all this for me.

• Mistake, Misstep, and Mistake #4: Spinning My Wheels by Targeting the Wrong Market. When I started coaching, I was on a mission to inspire women to create the career they deserve. Although I was making money, I wasn’t passionate about helping women move up the corporate ladder. It wasn’t until my mom came to one of my speaking engagements that she gave me the clarity she needed. With her wisdom and her keen eye, she helped me design my current mission: to help business owners make more money using online media.

  LESSON LEARNED – Really listen to what my clients (and mom) tell me about the problem they are experiencing.

• Mistake, misstep, and mistake #5: Creating a bunch of great info products at once. Just because you can do 5 features in one weekend doesn’t mean you have the manpower or energy to promote them all at once. I realized that in order to sell an information product, I really needed to market it. Until I do that, they will stay on my website, look pretty, and become obsolete.

  LESSON LEARNED – Focus on one product for at least 3 months and use my affiliates to help promote the new product.

• Mistake, misstep, and mistake #6: Attending networking events that weren’t working. While networking is about building relationships, it should also lead to some quality contacts. Unfortunately, I’ve attended too many networking events where everyone was like me: an entrepreneur looking for business. Although I made some great contacts, after attending the same networking events for 12 months straight, I found that my networking circle was stale and lacking in power.

  LESSON LEARNED – Continue with a networking event for no more than 4 consecutive events, analyze the results and then continue. Also, attend more networking events that put me in touch with my target audience.

• Mistake, misstep and mistake #7: Not spending enough to educate myself. As an entrepreneur, it is very easy to forget that I have to invest in myself by taking courses that help me learn to do things better. In the first half of the year, I didn’t spend a penny and my progress showed it. However, in the latter part of the year, I started to spend quite a bit educating myself on new techniques and processes. Doing this exposed me to how to do things better in my business, as well as meeting some great people and coaches. Also, I noticed an increase in sales.

  LESSON LEARNED – Set aside at least 10% of all business income in a savings account to spend on educational materials.

These are what I consider to be the 7 Mistakes, Mistakes and Mistakes that cost me money and I am confident that by reading this you will avoid them when making your New Year’s resolutions.

Better yet, if you have mistakes, missteps, or errors that you experienced in your own business, list them and then write down the lessons you learned from that experience.