09 — EXECUTE, MEASURE, ADAPT

Your first plan is not supposed to be perfect.

You’ve spent the previous stages thinking, researching and planning.

You’ve looked at yourself.

You’ve identified your goals.

You’ve examined your resources.

You’ve learned from your past.

You’ve understood the fundamentals of online business.

You’ve chosen a direction.

You’ve developed a strategy.

You’ve built a 90-day plan.

Now comes the moment when everything changes.

You actually do it.

This is where theory ends.

Not because learning is finished.

Quite the opposite.

This is where the real learning begins.

Because until you put your plan into the real world, you are still making assumptions.

You don’t know exactly what will happen.

And that’s okay.

You don’t need to.

You need to test your assumptions and learn from what happens.

The Business Learning Loop

The process is simple:

ACTION

↓

RESULTS

↓

LEARNING

↓

ADJUSTMENT

↓

MORE ACTION

Then repeat.

And repeat.

And repeat.

This is how your business gets better.

Action Comes First

You can research forever.

You can watch hundreds of videos.

You can read dozens of books.

You can buy course after course.

You can build spreadsheets.

You can plan your website.

You can think about your strategy.

But eventually:

You have to do something.

You need to publish something.

You need to speak to someone.

You need to make an offer.

You need to create content.

You need to generate a lead.

You need to ask for the sale.

You need to put something into the marketplace.

Because the marketplace is where your assumptions get tested.

Don’t Wait Until You’re Ready

One of the biggest traps in online business is waiting until everything is perfect.

Your:

• Website isn’t perfect.
• Logo isn’t perfect.
• Video isn’t perfect.
• Content isn’t perfect.
• Sales message isn’t perfect.
• Knowledge isn’t perfect.

So you keep preparing.

But perfection isn’t the objective.

Progress is.

Your first piece of content probably won’t be your best.

Your first sales conversation probably won’t be your best.

Your first advertisement probably won’t be your best.

Your first website probably won’t be your best.

That’s normal.

You improve by doing.

But Action Alone Isn’t Enough

There is another trap.

Some people are extremely busy.

They’re constantly:

• Posting
• Messaging
• Creating
• Advertising
• Sending emails
• Joining groups
• Attending webinars
• Making calls

But they never stop to ask:

Is any of this actually working?

That’s where measurement comes in.

Measure What Matters

You don’t need to measure everything.

You need to measure the things that tell you whether your strategy is working.

Depending on your business, these might include:

Attention

• Views
• Impressions
• Website visitors
• Reach

Interest

• Clicks
• Engagement
• Email sign-ups
• Leads

Relationships

• Conversations
• Replies
• Follow-ups
• Appointments

Sales

• Customers
• Orders
• Conversion rate
• Revenue

Economics

• Costs
• Cost per lead
• Cost per customer
• Profit
• Customer lifetime value

The exact numbers will depend on your business model.

The principle is the same:

Measure the journey from attention to revenue.

Understand Your Numbers

Imagine you have:

1,000 visitors

↓

50 leads

↓

20 conversations

↓

5 customers

That tells you much more than simply saying:

“I made five sales.”

You can now investigate the system.

Perhaps traffic is strong but few people become leads.

Then your lead-generation system may need work.

Perhaps you get lots of leads but few conversations.

Then your follow-up may need improvement.

Perhaps you have lots of conversations but few sales.

Then perhaps your offer, audience, messaging or sales process needs attention.

The numbers help you identify where the problem actually is.

Don’t Change Everything at Once

This is a common mistake.

Something isn’t working.

So you change:

• The audience
• The product
• The website
• The platform
• The content
• The headline
• The advertising
• The follow-up

all at the same time.

Now you have no idea what caused the change in results.

Instead, make changes deliberately.

If possible:

Change one important variable.

Then observe what happens.

This is how you learn what actually makes a difference.

Give Things Enough Time to Produce Information

Not everything produces immediate results.

Some strategies need time.

For example:

• SEO may take time to build.
• A YouTube channel may take time to develop.
• An email list may take time to grow.
• Relationships take time.
• Your skills take time to develop.
• Your reputation takes time to build.

That doesn’t mean:

“Keep doing something forever because eventually it might work.”

It means:

Give a strategy enough time and activity to generate meaningful information before judging it.

That’s an important distinction.

Know the Difference Between Persistence and Stubbornness

Persistence is:

“This isn’t working yet. What can I learn and improve?”

Stubbornness is:

“This isn’t working, but I’m going to keep doing exactly the same thing anyway.”

Persistence involves learning.

Stubbornness ignores evidence.

A good entrepreneur needs persistence.

But they also need the ability to change course.

Your Numbers Are Not Judgement

This is important psychologically.

Suppose you publish 20 videos and only get a small number of views.

That’s information.

It doesn’t mean:

“I’m useless.”

It doesn’t mean:

“Online business doesn’t work.”

It doesn’t mean:

“I’m a failure.”

It means:

Something about the current approach isn’t producing the result you wanted.

Now investigate.

Maybe:

• The topics aren’t right.
• The titles aren’t strong enough.
• The audience isn’t clear.
• The videos aren’t reaching the right people.
• The content isn’t solving an important enough problem.
• You haven’t produced enough content yet.

The number is giving you information.

Use it.

Look for Patterns

Don’t overreact to individual results.

One video performing badly doesn’t necessarily mean your strategy is wrong.

One person saying no doesn’t mean nobody wants your product.

One week without a sale doesn’t mean the business has failed.

Look for patterns.

For example:

20 pieces of content

5 generate most of the traffic

That’s a pattern.

Now ask:

What do those five have in common?

Maybe they’re:

• Solving a specific problem.
• Targeting a particular audience.
• Using a particular format.
• Answering common questions.
• Using better titles.

You’ve just learned something.

Double Down on What Works

Once you find something that consistently produces better results:

Do more of it.

This sounds obvious.

But people often do the opposite.

They find something that works.

Then become distracted by something new.

Don’t.

If you’ve found a productive path, explore it.

Create more content around the successful topic.

Improve the successful process.

Reach more of the same audience.

Test variations.

Build systems around it.

Don’t abandon working strategies simply because something new looks exciting.

Stop What Clearly Doesn’t Work

The opposite is also true.

If you’ve tested something properly and the evidence consistently tells you it isn’t working, you need to be willing to stop.

That isn’t failure.

That’s resource management.

Your time and money are limited.

Continuing to invest them into something that repeatedly produces poor results simply because you’ve already invested in it is a mistake.

You are not required to finish everything you start.

You are required to learn from what you start.

The Weekly Review

Your weekly review is one of the most valuable habits you can develop.

Once a week, sit down for 20–30 minutes.

Ask:

1. What did I do?

List the actual activities.

Not what you intended to do.

What you actually did.

2. What happened?

Look at the numbers.

What results did those activities produce?

3. What worked?

Identify your strongest activities.

4. What didn’t work?

Identify the weakest.

5. What did I learn?

Turn results into information.

6. What will I change?

Choose one or two meaningful adjustments.

7. What will I do next week?

Turn the lesson into action.

Your Weekly Review Template

ACTION

What did I actually do?

RESULTS

What happened?

WHAT WORKED?

WHAT DIDN’T?

WHAT DID I LEARN?

WHAT WILL I CHANGE?

NEXT WEEK’S PRIORITY

That’s it.

You don’t need a 50-page business review.

You need an honest conversation with yourself.

The 90-Day Review

At the end of your 90 days, step back.

Don’t simply ask:

“Did I make money?”

Ask the bigger questions.

Did I achieve my objective?

What did I build?

What did I learn?

What produced results?

What didn’t?

Which skills improved?

Did I choose the right audience?

Did I choose the right platform?

Did my offer make sense?

Did I enjoy the work?

Can I see myself continuing?

What should I stop?

What should I start?

What should I continue?

What should I change?

Now you have something extremely valuable:

Evidence.

The Four Possible Outcomes

After 90 days, you may discover one of four things.

1. It’s working.

Excellent.

Keep going.

Improve it.

Systemise it.

Scale it.

2. It’s working, but not as well as expected.

Don’t immediately abandon it.

Find the bottleneck.

Improve the weakest part.

Test again.

3. It’s not working, but you’ve learned why.

Excellent.

You’ve gained valuable information.

Change the strategy.

4. It’s clearly the wrong direction for you.

Then change direction.

That’s not failure.

You have eliminated an option based on evidence rather than speculation.

Don’t Move the Goalposts

Be careful here.

It’s easy to say:

“I didn’t achieve my goal, but I learned something.”

Sometimes that’s true.

Sometimes it’s an excuse.

Be honest.

If you didn’t do the work, don’t blame the strategy.

If you did the work and the strategy didn’t produce the expected result, investigate the strategy.

If you did the work consistently and the model repeatedly doesn’t fit you, consider changing direction.

Take responsibility for what you control.

Your Business Is a Laboratory

Think of your first year as a period of experimentation.

You are testing:

• Markets
• Messages
• Content
• Platforms
• Offers
• Sales processes
• Follow-up
• Systems

Every test gives you information.

Some information will be encouraging.

Some won’t.

Both are useful.

The objective isn’t to avoid every mistake.

The objective is to make useful mistakes and learn quickly.

The Compounding Effect of Learning

Imagine you improve one part of your business by 10%.

Then another by 10%.

Then another.

Over time, small improvements can compound.

Perhaps:

Better content

creates

more attention

which creates

more leads

which creates

more conversations

which creates

more sales

which produces

more data

which helps you improve your content again.

The system begins feeding itself.

That’s why you don’t necessarily need one enormous breakthrough.

You need continuous improvement.

Don’t Chase Perfection

Your business will never be finished.

There will always be:

• Another skill to learn
• Another platform to understand
• Another improvement to make
• Another competitor
• Another market change
• Another problem

That’s business.

The objective isn’t perfection.

It’s progressive improvement.

Your New Operating System

From this point forward, think like this:

Do something.

Don’t stay stuck in preparation.

Measure it.

Don’t rely entirely on feelings.

Learn from it.

Don’t repeat mistakes blindly.

Improve it.

Don’t settle unnecessarily.

Do it again.

Don’t expect one attempt to tell you everything.

This becomes your operating system.

The Mentor’s Question

If I sat down with you at the end of every month, I wouldn’t simply ask:

“How much money did you make?”

I’d ask:

“What did you learn?”

Then:

“What are you going to do differently because of what you learned?”

That’s the real mentoring process.

Because if every month you become:

• More knowledgeable
• More skilled
• More focused
• Better at understanding your audience
• Better at creating value
• Better at marketing
• Better at selling
• Better at measuring

then you’re becoming more capable of building a successful business.

Your Execution Rule

Remember this:

Don’t expect your first plan to be right. Expect your first plan to teach you something.

You don’t need a perfect plan.

You need a plan that can improve.

You don’t need perfect execution.

You need consistent execution.

You don’t need perfect results.

You need useful information.

And you don’t need to get everything right.

You need to keep getting better.

The YNMM Feedback Loop

This is now the cycle:

PLAN

↓

ACT

↓

MEASURE

↓

LEARN

↓

ADAPT

↓

ACT AGAIN

And the cycle continues.

That is how an idea becomes a business.

That is how a beginner becomes more experienced.

And that is how a strategy evolves from something you think might work into something you’ve actually tested in the real world.

Your Part 09 Challenge

For the next seven days:

Do the work.

Don’t obsess over whether it is perfect.

Record what you do.

Record what happens.

At the end of the week, answer:

What worked?

What didn’t?

What did I learn?

What will I change next week?

Then do it again.

NEXT: 10 — SCALE WHAT WORKS

Eventually, something starts working.

You discover a particular audience responds.

A particular message attracts attention.

A particular platform produces leads.

A particular offer generates sales.

A particular process works consistently.

Now comes a completely different challenge:

How do you do more of it without breaking what made it work?

That’s where we go next.

Scale what works →

08 — BUILD THE PLAN

A goal without a plan is just an intention.

By this point, you should have done something most people never do.

You’ve stopped and thought.

You’ve looked at who you are.

You’ve defined what you want.

You’ve examined your resources.

You’ve considered what drives you.

You’ve learned from your past.

You’ve started to understand how online business works.

You’ve chosen a direction.

And you’ve developed a strategy.

Now comes the part that matters most:

What are you actually going to do?

Because knowing what you want isn’t enough.

Having a strategy isn’t enough.

Reading another article isn’t enough.

Watching another training video isn’t enough.

At some point, thinking has to become doing.

That’s what this stage is about.

From Strategy to Action

A strategy tells you:

Where am I going?

A plan tells you:

What am I going to do?

The difference is important.

You might decide:

“I’m going to build an affiliate business using content marketing.”

That’s a direction.

You might then decide:

“I’ll focus on YouTube, target people looking for additional income, create educational videos and use email to follow up.”

That’s a strategy.

But you still need to answer:

“What am I doing on Monday morning?”

That’s your plan.

Start With 90 Days

Don’t try to plan the next ten years in detail.

You can’t predict everything.

Instead, create a 90-day plan.

Ninety days is long enough to make meaningful progress but short enough to remain focused.

Your 90-day plan should answer:

What am I trying to achieve?

What will I build?

What will I learn?

What will I do?

How will I measure progress?

Your 90-Day Objective

Choose one primary objective.

Not ten.

One.

For example:

Build the foundations of my online business and generate my first 10 qualified leads.

Or:

Publish 30 useful pieces of content and build my first 100 email subscribers.

Or:

Acquire my first five paying customers.

The exact objective depends on your business.

But it should be:

Specific

Measurable

Realistic

Relevant

Time-bound

Don’t Make Revenue Your Only Goal

Revenue matters.

Ultimately, a business has to generate money.

But especially when you’re starting, you don’t control revenue completely.

You do control many of the activities that can eventually produce revenue.

For example:

You can control:

• How much content you create
• How many people you contact
• How many follow-ups you make
• How much you learn
• How many offers you make
• How consistently you work

You can’t completely control:

• Who buys
• When they buy
• Algorithm changes
• Market conditions
• Other people’s decisions

So create both:

Outcome goals

What you want to achieve.

and

Activity goals

What you are going to do.

Example

Your outcome goal might be:

Generate 10 customers in 90 days.

Your activity goals might be:

• Publish 3 videos per week
• Send 2 emails per week
• Have 10 meaningful conversations per week
• Follow up with every qualified lead
• Spend 3 hours per week learning
• Review results every Sunday

Now you have something you can actually execute.

Break 90 Days Into Three Months

A 90-day plan becomes easier when divided into three stages.

Month 1 — Build

Focus on creating the foundations.

You might:

• Set up your website
• Create your social profiles
• Define your audience
• Develop your message
• Create your lead system
• Learn the basic tools
• Produce your first content
• Establish your routine

Don’t obsess about results yet.

You’re building the machine.

Month 2 — Test

Now start looking at what happens.

Ask:

• What content gets attention?
• What generates clicks?
• What generates leads?
• What creates conversations?
• What produces sales?
• What isn’t working?

You are collecting information.

Don’t assume failure because something didn’t work immediately.

You’re testing your strategy.

Month 3 — Improve

Now use what you’ve learned.

Do more of what works.

Improve what is close to working.

Stop wasting time on what clearly isn’t working.

You may discover:

• One topic performs better.
• One audience responds better.
• One platform is more effective.
• One offer converts better.
• One type of content generates more leads.

This is where your strategy becomes increasingly evidence-based.

Your Monthly Target

For each month, define three things:

What will I build?

What will I do?

What will I measure?

For example:

Month	Build	Do	Measure
Month 1	Website + lead system	Create content	Visitors + leads
Month 2	Content library	Publish consistently	Views + leads
Month 3	Conversion system	Follow up + optimise	Sales + conversion

Keep it simple.

A plan should make action easier — not create another administrative burden.

Now Go Smaller

Monthly planning is useful.

But weekly planning is where things start happening.

Ask:

What must happen this week to move me closer to my 90-day objective?

Choose between 3 and 5 important priorities.

For example:

This Week

1. Publish three videos.
2. Create one lead magnet.
3. Contact ten prospects.
4. Follow up with existing leads.
5. Review last week’s results.

That’s manageable.

Then Go Smaller Again

Now ask:

What am I doing tomorrow?

This is where plans often fall apart.

People create huge business plans.

They create spreadsheets.

They create vision boards.

They buy notebooks.

They watch training.

And then tomorrow arrives.

They don’t know what to do.

Don’t let that happen.

Your plan should tell you.

Your Tomorrow List

At the end of each day, write down the three most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow.

For example:

Tomorrow

1. Create one piece of useful content.

2. Follow up with five people.

3. Spend 30 minutes learning the skill I’m currently developing.

That’s enough.

You don’t need twenty tasks.

You need the right three.

The Daily Minimum

One of the best ways to build consistency is to establish a minimum commitment.

Ask:

What is the minimum amount of productive work I can realistically do even on a difficult day?

Perhaps it’s:

30 minutes.

Perhaps it’s:

One piece of content.

Perhaps it’s:

Five conversations.

Perhaps it’s:

One hour.

The exact number isn’t important.

The principle is.

You are creating a habit of showing up.

Don’t Confuse Activity With Progress

Being busy isn’t the same as building a business.

You could spend three hours:

• Changing your website colours
• Looking for new tools
• Watching motivational videos
• Researching new opportunities
• Rearranging your homepage
• Checking social media

and accomplish almost nothing commercially useful.

Instead ask:

Did this activity move the business forward?

A useful distinction is:

Maintenance

Necessary but doesn’t directly grow the business.

Learning

Develops your capability.

Growth

Creates attention, leads, conversations or sales.

You need all three.

But don’t spend all your time on maintenance and learning while avoiding growth activities.

Identify the Skills You Need

Your plan should include the skills you need to develop.

For example:

• Content creation
• Copywriting
• Video
• Sales
• Email marketing
• Lead generation
• SEO
• Social media
• Website building
• Advertising
• Analytics
• Customer service

Don’t try to master everything simultaneously.

Choose the next important skill.

Learn it.

Apply it.

Then move to the next one.

Learn While Doing

One of the biggest traps in online business is endless preparation.

You tell yourself:

“I need to learn more before I start.”

So you buy another course.

Then another.

Then another.

Eventually you know a lot about online business but haven’t built one.

A better cycle is:

Learn → Apply → Make mistakes → Measure → Improve → Learn again.

Experience teaches things that theory cannot.

Identify Your Resources

Your plan should also identify what you need.

For example:

Technology

• Computer
• Smartphone
• Website
• Email system
• Video tools

Financial

• Business subscriptions
• Advertising budget
• Training
• Software

Human

• Mentor
• Community
• Specialist help
• Accountability partner

Knowledge

• Marketing
• Sales
• Content
• Business fundamentals

Don’t buy everything immediately.

Ask:

What do I actually need at this stage?

Anticipate the Obstacles

A good plan doesn’t assume everything will go perfectly.

Ask:

What is likely to get in my way?

Perhaps:

• Lack of time
• Lack of confidence
• Distraction
• Family commitments
• Work
• Lack of technical knowledge
• Fear of selling
• Fear of rejection
• Losing motivation
• Spending too much money
• Constantly changing direction

Now create a response.

Obstacle:

“I don’t have much time.”

Response:

“Work for 45 minutes before work, five days a week.”

Obstacle:

“I keep getting distracted by new opportunities.”

Response:

“I will not evaluate a new opportunity until my 90-day plan is complete.”

Obstacle:

“I’m afraid of selling.”

Response:

“I will spend the first month learning how to have useful conversations rather than trying to become an expert salesperson overnight.”

Planning for obstacles makes them easier to handle.

Decide What You Will NOT Do

This is just as important.

Your plan should include a Not Now List.

For the next 90 days:

I will not:

• Change business model every few weeks.
• Join every new opportunity.
• Try every social platform.
• Buy unnecessary software.
• Chase every marketing trend.
• Start five unrelated projects.
• Constantly redesign my website.
• Spend money simply because someone says I need to.
• Abandon my strategy because of one bad week.

Focus creates momentum.

Track the Numbers

You don’t need a complicated dashboard.

Start with a few meaningful numbers.

Depending on your business, these might include:

Content published

Views

Website visitors

Leads

Conversations

Follow-ups

Sales

Revenue

Costs

Profit

The important thing is to understand the relationship between them.

For example:

1,000 visitors

↓

50 leads

↓

20 conversations

↓

5 customers

↓

£500 revenue

Now you have information.

You can begin asking:

How do I get more visitors?

How do I increase the percentage becoming leads?

How do I improve follow-up?

How do I increase sales?

That is how a business becomes measurable.

Create Your Weekly Scorecard

At the end of every week, record:

Metric	Target	Actual
Content published
Visitors/views
Leads
Conversations
Follow-ups
Sales
Revenue
Costs

Then ask three questions:

What worked?

What didn’t work?

What will I change next week?

That’s enough.

Your 90-Day Business Plan

Now it’s your turn.

My Objective

In the next 90 days, I want to:

My Audience

I am trying to help:

My Offer

I will ultimately offer:

My Primary Platform

I will concentrate primarily on:

My Content

I will create:

My Lead Strategy

I will generate leads through:

My Follow-Up

I will follow up through:

My Weekly Commitment

I will commit approximately:

________ hours per week

My Three Most Important Weekly Activities

1. ____________________________

2. ____________________________

3. ____________________________

My Key Metrics

1. ____________________________

2. ____________________________

3. ____________________________

4. ____________________________

5. ____________________________

My Biggest Obstacles

1. ____________________________

2. ____________________________

3. ____________________________

My Responses

If __________ happens, I will __________.

If __________ happens, I will __________.

If __________ happens, I will __________.

Now Answer the Most Important Question

Forget the 90-day plan for a moment.

Forget the spreadsheet.

Forget the strategy document.

Ask yourself:

What am I actually going to do tomorrow?

Write it down.

Not:

“Work on my business.”

That’s too vague.

Instead:

“Write the first section of my article.”

“Record my first video.”

“Contact five potential customers.”

“Create my landing page.”

“Publish one useful post.”

“Follow up with three leads.”

Make it specific enough that you know exactly when the task is finished.

The Mentor’s Rule

Here’s another principle I want you to remember:

Don’t build a plan that looks impressive. Build a plan you can actually execute.

A simple plan followed consistently is worth far more than a brilliant plan sitting in a notebook.

You don’t need a perfect plan.

You need a working plan.

And once you start executing it, you’ll learn things that will change the plan.

That’s normal.

Your plan isn’t a prison.

It’s a starting point.

The 90-Day Commitment

Before moving forward, make a commitment to yourself.

For the next 90 days:

I will follow my chosen direction.

I will concentrate my resources.

I will do the work I have committed to doing.

I will measure what happens.

I will learn from the results.

I will adapt when necessary.

I will not abandon the plan simply because results are slower than I hoped.

But there is an important qualification:

I will also remain willing to change direction when the evidence genuinely tells me I should.

That’s the balance.

Persistence without learning is stubbornness.

Change without persistence is distraction.

You need both commitment and adaptability.

From Here, Things Change

The first seven stages were largely about thinking.

Now we’re moving into execution.

You have:

Understood yourself.

Understood your resources.

Understood what drives you.

Learned from your past.

Understood the game.

Chosen your direction.

Developed your strategy.

Built your plan.

Now you have to do something with it.

Because ultimately:

Knowledge doesn’t create results. Applied knowledge does.

NEXT: 09 — EXECUTE, MEASURE & ADAPT

This is where the real learning begins.

You’ll put your plan into action.

You’ll discover what works.

You’ll discover what doesn’t.

You’ll make mistakes.

You’ll get results.

You’ll collect data.

And then you’ll make something even more important:

You’ll learn how to improve.

Because building a business isn’t:

Plan once → execute forever.

It’s:

Act → measure → learn → adapt → act again.

Execute, measure & adapt →

07 — DEVELOP YOUR STRATEGY

Don’t just work hard. Know where to put your effort.

You’ve chosen a direction.

Now comes one of the most important questions:

How are you actually going to approach it?

Because choosing a business model doesn’t automatically give you a strategy.

You could choose affiliate marketing and still have no idea:

• Who you’re trying to reach
• What you want to be known for
• What content to create
• Which platform to use
• How to generate leads
• How to follow up
• What to promote
• How much time to spend
• What to measure

You could work incredibly hard and still get nowhere.

Why?

Because effort without direction can be wasted effort.

This is where an old strategic principle becomes useful.

The Art of Strategy

Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is a military text, but many of its underlying strategic ideas are not really about warfare.

They’re about:

Understanding the situation.

Knowing your resources.

Choosing where to concentrate them.

Avoiding unnecessary battles.

Recognising strengths and weaknesses.

Adapting when circumstances change.

Those principles can be remarkably useful when thinking about business.

We’re not going to pretend that building an online business is a war.

It isn’t.

But the strategic lesson is valuable:

Don’t commit your resources until you understand where they are best used.

Your resources are limited.

Your time is limited.

Your money is limited.

Your attention is limited.

Your energy is limited.

Your knowledge is limited.

So strategy is about deciding:

Where should I put them?

1. Know Yourself

We’ve already started this work.

You know more about:

• Your goals
• Your ambitions
• Your strengths
• Your weaknesses
• Your resources
• Your motivation
• Your skills
• Your experience
• Your limitations

This matters because your strategy needs to fit the person executing it.

For example, imagine two people want to build an affiliate business.

Person A enjoys writing and research.

Person B loves talking to people and making videos.

They might promote the same product.

But their strategies could look completely different.

Person A might focus on:

SEO → articles → Google traffic → email

Person B might focus on:

Video → social media → conversations → follow-up

Neither strategy is automatically better.

The better strategy is the one that person can actually execute consistently.

2. Know Your Environment

You also need to understand the environment in which you’re operating.

Ask:

Who are you competing for attention with?

Because you aren’t operating in an empty space.

Every day people are competing for attention on:

• Google
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok
• LinkedIn
• Email
• Websites
• Podcasts
• Advertising platforms

Your potential customer is surrounded by information.

Your challenge isn’t simply:

“How do I promote my product?”

It’s:

“Why should someone pay attention to me?”

That’s a strategic question.

Understand the Market

You also need to understand the market itself.

Ask:

Who has the problem I’m trying to solve?

How important is that problem?

Are people actively looking for solutions?

What solutions already exist?

What are competitors doing?

What are customers complaining about?

What do people like about existing solutions?

What do they dislike?

What could I do differently?

This isn’t about copying competitors.

It’s about understanding the environment before entering it.

3. Choose Your Battlefield

One of the biggest mistakes beginners make is trying to be everywhere.

They create:

• A Facebook page
• An Instagram account
• A TikTok account
• A YouTube channel
• A LinkedIn profile
• A blog
• An email list

Then they try to create content for all of them.

A few weeks later they’re exhausted.

Nothing is getting enough attention.

And they conclude:

“Social media doesn’t work.”

The problem may not have been social media.

The problem may have been strategy.

You Don’t Need Every Platform

You need to identify where your audience is and where you can realistically perform well.

For example:

If your audience searches Google for answers, SEO may make sense.

If they consume long-form educational content, YouTube may make sense.

If they spend their time on Facebook, Facebook may make sense.

If you are comfortable writing but hate video, don’t automatically build your strategy around video.

The question is:

Where can I reach the right people in a way I can sustain?

Choose One Primary Battlefield

For most beginners, I’d rather see:

one platform done consistently

than

five platforms done badly.

That doesn’t mean you can never expand.

It means you establish a base first.

For example:

Primary

YouTube

Supporting

Email

Later

Blog + other social platforms

Or:

Primary

Facebook

Supporting

Email

Later

YouTube

The exact combination depends on the person and the business.

But the principle remains:

Concentrate before you expand.

4. Choose Your Audience

A strategy becomes much easier when you know exactly who you’re trying to reach.

Instead of:

“I want to make money online.”

you might define:

“I want to help people in full-time employment who want to build an additional income before retirement.”

Now you have something to work with.

You can understand their:

• Problems
• Questions
• Fears
• Goals
• Objections
• Interests
• Language
• Behaviour

And you can create content specifically for them.

5. Choose Your Message

Once you know your audience, ask:

What do I want to become known for?

This is your positioning.

You might become known for:

• Helping beginners understand affiliate marketing
• Helping people build online income around a job
• Helping people avoid common network-marketing mistakes
• Helping people understand online business
• Helping people choose an online business model
• Helping people generate leads
• Helping small businesses get customers

You don’t need to be everything.

You need to be useful for something specific.

6. Choose Your Content Strategy

Now ask:

What information does my audience need?

Think about their journey.

They may start with a problem.

Then they have questions.

Then they research solutions.

Then they compare options.

Then they decide.

Your content should help them move through that journey.

For example:

Problem

“I need another source of income.”

Question

“Can I make money online while working full-time?”

Education

“How does affiliate marketing actually work?”

Comparison

“Affiliate marketing vs network marketing.”

Decision

“How to choose an affiliate programme.”

Action

“How to get started.”

That’s a content strategy.

You’re not randomly posting.

You’re helping someone move from problem → understanding → decision → action.

7. Choose Your Traffic Strategy

Once you know what content you want to create, decide how people will find it.

There are two broad approaches.

Organic

You earn attention through things such as:

• Search engines
• YouTube
• Social media
• Communities
• Referrals
• Consistent content

The advantage is that you’re building an asset over time.

The disadvantage is that it can take time.

Paid

You pay for attention through:

• Advertising
• Sponsored placements
• Lead generation
• Paid traffic

The advantage is speed and scale.

The disadvantage is cost.

And paid traffic can become expensive very quickly if your conversion system isn’t working.

Don’t Buy Traffic Before Understanding Conversion

This is a major strategic principle.

Suppose you pay for 1,000 visitors.

If your website converts poorly, you have simply paid to discover that your website converts poorly.

Before scaling traffic, understand:

Traffic → Lead → Conversation → Sale

Where is the problem?

If you have traffic but no leads:

Your lead-generation system may be the problem.

If you have leads but no conversations:

Your follow-up may be the problem.

If you have conversations but no sales:

Your offer, positioning, sales process or audience may be the problem.

Don’t automatically buy more traffic.

Diagnose first.

8. Build Your Conversion Path

You need to know what happens when someone becomes interested.

For example:

Content

↓

Website

↓

Lead magnet / registration

↓

Email follow-up

↓

Information

↓

Conversation

↓

Offer

↓

Customer

This doesn’t have to be complicated.

In fact, beginners often make things unnecessarily complicated.

Your objective is to create a simple path from:

attention

to

relationship

to

customer.

9. Decide How You Will Follow Up

You need a follow-up strategy.

That could include:

• Email
• Messages
• Content
• Webinars
• Calls
• Automated sequences
• Personal conversations

Ask:

How will someone who isn’t ready today continue hearing from me?

This is particularly important because most people won’t make a decision the first time they encounter you.

10. Decide What You Will Promote

This is where your strategy meets your chosen business model.

You might have:

• One primary product
• Several related products
• Multiple affiliate programmes
• Your own service
• Your own product
• A combination

But be careful.

More offers do not automatically mean more income.

Sometimes they simply create confusion.

If someone arrives at your website and sees twenty different things to buy, what should they do?

A better strategy might be:

One audience → one core problem → one primary solution.

Then expand once the foundation works.

11. Concentrate Your Resources

This is perhaps the most important strategic principle in this entire section.

You have limited resources.

So decide where they go.

For example, imagine you have ten hours available each week.

You could spend:

• 1 hour on Facebook
• 1 hour on Instagram
• 1 hour on TikTok
• 1 hour on LinkedIn
• 1 hour researching new opportunities
• 1 hour watching training
• 1 hour redesigning your website
• 1 hour creating content
• 1 hour following up
• 1 hour doing something else

You’ve been busy.

But have you built anything?

Instead, perhaps you spend:

4 hours creating useful content

2 hours engaging with your audience

2 hours following up

1 hour learning

1 hour measuring and improving

Now your effort is concentrated.

That’s strategy.

12. Don’t Fight Every Battle

Online business creates endless distractions.

A new platform appears.

A new AI tool appears.

A new advertising method appears.

A new opportunity appears.

Someone announces a new “secret strategy.”

Someone claims:

“This is the future.”

You don’t have to respond to everything.

Ask:

Does this help me achieve my current objective?

If the answer is no:

Not now.

That doesn’t mean never.

It means you’re protecting your focus.

13. Adapt

Having a strategy doesn’t mean refusing to change.

Quite the opposite.

A good strategy evolves.

You might discover:

• Your audience is different from what you expected.
• A particular platform doesn’t suit you.
• One type of content performs better.
• One offer converts better.
• Your customers have a different problem.
• Your assumptions were wrong.

That’s useful information.

Don’t become emotionally attached to your original plan.

Become attached to the objective.

The strategy can change.

Strategy Isn’t Guesswork

Your strategy should gradually become based on evidence.

Start with a hypothesis.

“I think this audience will respond to this message on this platform.”

Then test it.

Measure what happens.

Learn.

Adjust.

Test again.

This creates a cycle:

PLAN → ACT → MEASURE → LEARN → ADAPT → ACT

That’s how strategy improves.

Your Strategic Advantage

You don’t necessarily need more resources than everyone else.

You may simply need to use your resources better.

Imagine two people have:

• The same ten hours
• The same £100 budget
• The same platform
• The same product

One person spreads their effort across ten different activities.

The other concentrates on one audience, one message and one acquisition channel.

The second person may have a significant strategic advantage.

Not because they have more.

Because they are more focused.

Your YNMM Strategy Map

Now bring everything you’ve learned together.

Complete this:

My Goal

What am I trying to achieve?

My Audience

Who am I trying to help?

Their Problem

What problem am I helping them solve?

My Message

What do I want to become known for?

My Primary Platform

Where will I concentrate my attention?

My Content

What useful information will I consistently provide?

My Traffic Strategy

How will people discover me?

My Lead Strategy

How will I turn attention into leads?

My Follow-Up Strategy

How will I stay connected with interested people?

My Offer

What am I ultimately offering?

My Weekly Commitment

How much time will I realistically invest?

My Key Metrics

What numbers will tell me whether I’m progressing?

The “Not Now” List

This is a powerful exercise.

Write down the things you have decided not to focus on right now.

For example:

I’m not going to:

• Build five social-media accounts
• Promote ten different programmes
• Buy every new marketing tool
• Change business model every month
• Chase every new trend
• Spend hours redesigning my website
• Learn every advertising platform
• Join every opportunity I discover

Why?

Because saying no to distractions allows you to say yes to your strategy.

Your First Strategic Test

Before moving forward, explain your strategy in one paragraph.

You should be able to say something like:

“I want to help __________ who are struggling with __________. I’ll reach them primarily through __________. I’ll create content about __________ and use it to generate __________. I’ll build relationships through __________ and ultimately offer __________. I’ll dedicate approximately __________ hours each week and measure __________.”

If you can’t explain your strategy simply, it probably isn’t clear enough yet.

The Mentor’s Question

Imagine I asked you:

“What are you going to do next Monday?”

Not someday.

Not eventually.

Not when you’ve finished another course.

Next Monday.

Could you tell me?

Because strategy eventually has to become action.

A strategy that never gets executed is just an idea.

The Bigger Principle

Sun Tzu’s strategic thinking can be reduced to a few principles that are extremely useful in business:

Know yourself.

Understand your strengths, weaknesses, resources and limitations.

Know your environment.

Understand your audience, market and competition.

Choose your battlefield.

Don’t try to reach everyone everywhere.

Concentrate your resources.

Put meaningful effort behind a small number of priorities.

Don’t fight every battle.

Protect your time, money and attention.

Adapt.

Use evidence to improve your strategy.

And perhaps the most important:

Choose your battles before your battles choose you.

Your Strategy Is Now Taking Shape

You started this journey by asking:

“How can I make money online?”

That’s a very broad question.

You’ve now narrowed it down.

You understand yourself.

You understand your resources.

You understand what drives you.

You’ve learned from your past.

You understand the fundamentals of online business.

You’ve chosen a direction.

And now you’ve begun developing a strategy.

That’s a completely different starting point.

You’re no longer simply looking for an opportunity.

You’re building a plan.

NEXT: 08 — BUILD YOUR PLAN

A strategy tells you where you’re going and how you intend to get there.

A plan tells you:

What are you actually going to do?

We’ll turn your strategy into:

• A 90-day objective
• Monthly priorities
• Weekly actions
• Daily activities
• Skills to develop
• Resources required
• Metrics to track
• Milestones to achieve

Because eventually, thinking has to become doing.

Build your plan →