As the previous year comes 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 blunders that I’ve 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 Mess #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 a conversation on the phone. 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 off” with him over email. You should know better.

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

• Mistake, 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 every new product or teleclass I launched, it took me 8 hours to get all the technical pieces ready.

  LESSON LEARNED – Hire a technology expert to maintain my website. Let 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 doing these things and it would take me eons to write a sentence. So, that meant that I would have to rush and write something fast because I sat for too long and it was an hour before the deadline.

  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. Even though I was making money, I wasn’t passionate about helping women move up the corporate ladder. It wasn’t until my mother came to one of my speaking engagements that it gave me the clarity she needed. With her wisdom and keen eye, she helped me shape my current mission: helping business owners earn 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 Lot of Great Information Products at Once. Just because you can do 5 feature stories 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, you 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 Paying Off. While networking is all about building relationships, it should also lead to some quality contacts. Unfortunately, I 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 noticed 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 move on. Also, attend more networking events that put me in contact with my target audience.

• Mistake, Misstep, and Mistake #7: Not Spending Enough to Educate Myself. As an entrepreneur, it’s very easy to forget that I have to invest in myself by taking courses that help me learn how 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 a bit educating myself on new techniques and processes. Doing this got me in touch with how to do things better in my business, as well as meeting some terrific people and trainers. 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, Missteps, and Gaffes That Cost Me Money and I am confident that by reading this you will avoid them as you make 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.