This is a Guest Post by David Edwards. David is the founder of an on-line publishing company www.asittingduck.com, currently working on several animation projects and works with a team of creative people in the UK. To keep in touch with future videos subscribe to www.youtube.com/asittingducktv.

Next year I'm on target for my best year ever and I'm working less and less on-line. When I started 3 years ago, I was racking up hours on the net trying to get all the knowledge and becoming an "information junkie". Now my time is much better spent and I'm looking forward to a much more productive and profitable 2012.

Here's my 5 top tips that I have learnt to become more effective in 2012:



- Drawing a line in the sand on goal setting.

It's always good to set goals but it can be counter productive to set them just for the sake of it. I had the goal of reaching 10,000 subscribers to ensure that I had a solid viewership on YouTube and that was achieved this month. My new goal is to concentrate more on making my events side of the business much more efficient and to keep in touch with the animators I work with much better rather than chase more subscribers, that figure will grow anyway with the video launches in the new year.


- Network with key industry leaders rather than network with customers.

In the beginning, I used to chat a lot with customers but as the business grows I've started to automate a lot of the process. Some may say that is bad but I have to look at the bigger picture and keep my time free for more opportunities by outsourcing some of the client work. For example, working with a few top on-line animators I have managed to add an extra 500 views a day on autopilot because they are happy to link my current videos.

- Keeping a tidy notebook.


My desk used to be full of papers and pens and I was really disorganised, this made me side tracked with emails all the time rather than concentrating on building my on-line business. Now I have a new notebook with a "To Do List". As the tasks are completed, I can tick them off and know where I am to move forward. On-line and offline your business has to run smoothly, there are lots of people wondering how to get busier but after a while it can be chaos!

- Having one coffee shop appointment a week.

This is something I'm going to stick to in the new year, as getting out of the office and attending appointments with business owners is by far the best thing that has got me ahead in my industry. The weeks go by whether you are organised or not, it's better to get out there and speak to people rather than send 50 emails back and forth.

- Looking for big marketing strategies.

From the experience I've had, some stuff has worked and some has failed. The stuff that has worked has paid off very well so it made all the fails worth while. I am a believer in the rinse and repeat method but with the internet changing and evolving I'm always keeping an eye on the next "big thing". I usually do this by going off-line and reading the broadsheet newspapers in the business sections and also looking at the stock exchange to see what the trends are. Even if you are not an investor, try to look towards the future and think big!.

Overall it's worth taking stock of what you've achieved this year and use any contacts you make to leverage a head start for next year. It's better to be organised before you grow too fast, and remember that fast growth is not always the key to a successful business, the slower it takes the longer you have to prepare!