So I'm talking business models and you have a one person web site or a part time business. So how does this affect you?

It does affect you - because the internet is a very large and very unforgiving business environment. Regardless of how many people tell you how you can make thousands every month, for every eBay there are millions of sites just taking a few $'s a month.

So where does Dolly Parton come into it, I hear you say? Well I also went to the Dolly Parton Dinner Show just before Christmas, which I highly recommended. Having just finished writing for my latest information product - the Entrepreneur Power Pack, I had my business head still functioning. I realized that there are 3 major women within the USA - Oprah, Martha and Dolly - and they all have started and run massive businesses that center on their particular skills.

When setting up your new business, the first question you should ask yourself is "what do you want to do?" I know that this sounds a really silly question - but looking at our three famous ladies again:

" Oprah is known mainly as a talk show host but she started on the radio.

" Martha is known for her TV show but she started catering for weddings.

" Dolly has always been a singer - but she now has her dinner shows and Dollywood theme park and has also been in a few movies.

The lesson here is to decide to do something within an area where you can logically expand upon your skills without losing your market and your past and current customers. People go to the Dolly Dinner Shows - because they are fond of Dolly and want she stands for. Oprah only has to recommend a book on her TV show and it becomes a best seller because her opinion is trusted by millions. Martha has whole streams of income - TV, products, magazines, books etc - all with her name on them and her customers move logically from one to the other, buying as they go.

What is clear is that all of them have very strong brand images - but they also have numerous complimentary streams of income. Martha in particular is a genius at using each of her product streams to feed off of each other - moving her customer base from one item to the next with little effort.

I thought that there were a lot of lessons to learn from Dolly and how she runs her business so well, whilst still being so nice about it! I think we can learn a whole lot from her!

So how does this affect a small one or two person business - click or brick? Planning is such an important part of starting a serious business. You must plan your business taking into account the following:

" You need a strong string of recognizable products or services that are instantly recognizable as belonging to your company. For example we have a string of products, which we constantly add to, called the PowerPack - its concept is that we sell all you need to set up a particular business in one product. Our most popular is the AdSense PowerPack.

" Ensure that you leave room to add extra products or services that are not too removed from your current product stream. For example if you offer lawn services - it's not too far away to also offer porch cleaning as well. If you provide golfing services - then also sell golf balls, golf gloves etc. Follow the Martha route on that one.

" Decide how you want to present yourself - consider colors, fonts, sizing, quality etc.

" Work out which market you are seeking - find a niche if you can, and build your product range around this.

At the start of this year I sat down with a large mug of tea (I'm a Brit ok - I may live mostly in the USA - but my suitcase is always full of PG Tips), a pad and a pen.

I looked at where I thought that my customer base would be this year and what kind of things they would be looking for.

I then decided what product streams and services I would offer in 2006 and then defined at least 4 products in each stream.

Common wisdom is to look at price ranges of: up to $9.97, $19.97, $47, $97 and $147 when looking at IT and digital based items. On top of that goes consultancy, training and individual coaching. So I tried to decide on my item in each of these price slots as well as a group of free giveaways for viral marketing purpose. Now I am a prolific writer so most of these were going to be of my own design. Don't worry if you don't have the time or inclination to do this - look out for existing resell items that you can bundle together to make up the products.

If you have a product or service based company that is not digitally based then you should investigate your own price points. Doesn't do any harm to have your own ebooks to give away or sell as well though! You might even try short video training courses on how to make the best use of your products or services - be creative.

If you only have or only want a small company then concentrate on no more than 3 product ranges. This gives you about 12-15 products to design plus some giveaways.

So set up your New Year Resolutions for your own company and try this activity.