What is it that you want to change in your business?

Would you like more newsletter subscribers? Would you like more customers? Would you like more people to comment on your blog posts? Would you like to get featured in some top magazines in your niche? Would you like to get more guest posts on bigger blogs?

No matter what change you’d like to make, change isn’t easy! Figuring out what works, doing more of it, and making the process easier is a great place to start.

So ask yourself the following 5 questions and get ready to make your change happen!

Question #1 – What works?

Think of the change you want to make. Have you gotten the results you’re looking for before? If so, what did you do to get those results?

For example…let’s say you’d like to get more comments on your blog posts and you’d like to make your blog a more engaging place. If you ask yourself – What’s getting the most interaction {what’s worked before}, you may take a look at posts with the most comments, posts that are most read or links that are most clicked.

Once you get this info, look to see if you see any similarities. Are you doing anything special with these posts to get views & comments like using strong call to actions at the end of your posts or promoting them via social media? What do you think you’re doing to make people click your links? Are you asking them to? Are your graphics appealing?

Question #2 – Who else is doing it?

Are there other people out there that are doing what you want to do? If so, have you considered sending them a friendly email letting them know you’ve noticed their results & asking if they would mind to share their tips with you?

Back to our example. If you notice that a blog you follow has a good amount of comments after each post, go to that bloggers “About Me” or “Contact” page & send them a message. Ask them if they’d mind sharing their 3 best tips for getting comments, or what they do to engage their readers. Be sure to thank them for their help in advance.

Question #3 – How can I do more of what works?

Once you see a pattern that’s getting you the results you’re looking for or you get some similar tips that have worked for others, look for ways you can do more of those things in your own situation.

Looking at our example, let’s say that you’ve gotten the most comments on posts where you ask your readers to answer a question at the end. Then let’s say that you contacted 3 bloggers that get a lot of comments & they all said to use a specific call to action at the bottom of every post, to use social media to promote your post, & to add your post to to sharing sites like Squidoo or E-how.

Now you need to make a point to do each of the above things with each & every blog post you write & see if you get the results you’d like.

Question #4 – What makes it more difficult?

What steals your motivation & energy? Are their things that stand in your way to accomplishing your change? If so, what are they? Create a list of what stops you in your tracks or holds you back. Make a list of these things on a piece of paper.

In our example, this could be something like sharing every post via your social media sites. You feel that it takes too much of your time & you don’t get enough leads from it. You pretty much lack the motivation to do it.

Question #5 – What can I do to make it easier?

What can you do to make the difficult task easier for you to do? Can you delegate it to someone else? Can you streamline your process so you don’t have to think your way through it? Can you do it first thing in the morning when you have the most energy or motivation?

Take your piece of paper with your difficult tasks written on it and write out what you can do to help with each of the difficult tasks you face.

With our example, the task of posting every single blog post to your social media sites could be made easier by automating the process so that you don’t have to manually go in & do it. You could also use a social media tool like Hootsuite to schedule your blog posts in advance throughout the day. These things take the difficulty out of your task and make it more doable.

You can make a change for the better. Decide what change you need or want to make, ask yourself the above questions, and get to it!

What do you struggle most with when it comes to making changes in your business? Getting from Point A to Point B or staying motivated about your change?

{Featured image via Mobijo}