When something stops being the problem, keep solving it and you’ll spin your wheels for weeks. The trick in a small online business is noticing when your sticking point has quietly moved on, so you can move with it.
What is a “sticking point” and why does it keep changing?
A sticking point is simply the one thing that is holding your results back right now. Not last month, not in theory, right now.
The reason it changes is that fixing one problem reveals the next one underneath it. That is actually a good sign. It means progress. But it also means the action that helped you last week might be the wrong action this week.
Early on, the sticking point for most people is visibility. Nobody knows the thing exists. So you work on that, you write content, send emails, post somewhere regularly, and gradually people start showing up. Traffic creeps up. Click-throughs improve. You feel the momentum and naturally want more of it, so you do more of the same thing.
That is where a lot of people quietly go wrong.
Why does doing more of what worked stop helping?
Because the problem is no longer what it was.
Here is a straightforward example. Say you have been sending emails and people are now clicking through to your offer in decent numbers. That is a real win, getting attention was the sticking point and you fixed it. But if those people are clicking and then leaving without buying, sending more emails is not going to change that outcome. You have already solved the visibility problem. The sticking point has moved to the offer itself, or the page they land on, or the way the value is explained.
More traffic to a page that is not converting is just more people walking past a shop window and not coming in. The window is the problem now, not the foot traffic.
This sounds obvious when it is written out like that. But in practice, it is very easy to miss. When something finally starts working, there is a natural pull to keep doing it. It feels productive. It is familiar. And there is a reasonable fear that if you stop, the thing that was working will unravel.
So people keep emailing, keep posting, keep running the same ad, and wonder why the results have plateaued.
How do you actually spot when the sticking point has shifted?
You have to look at what the numbers are telling you, not what you hope they are telling you.
The question to ask is: where exactly is the process breaking down right now? Walk through your funnel, or whatever rough version of one you have, and find the step where things fall over.
- Are people not seeing your content at all? Visibility is still the sticking point.
- Are they seeing it but not clicking? The message or the headline needs work.
- Are they clicking but not buying or signing up? The offer, the page, or the follow-through is the problem.
- Are they buying once but not coming back? Retention or relationship is where to look.
Each of those is a different problem requiring a different response. Knowing which one you are actually dealing with is what makes the difference between effort that builds something and effort that just keeps you busy.
A simple way to track this is a running scorecard, even a basic spreadsheet, where you note what you did each day and what the sticking point appeared to be. When you look back across a week or two of rows, patterns become obvious in a way they never are in the moment.
Is it a problem if the sticking point keeps moving?
No. It is the whole point.
A sticking point that moves is a sticking point you solved. You want them to move. The goal is not to find one permanent answer, it is to keep identifying the current constraint and chipping away at it.
Think of it less like fixing a machine and more like steering a boat. You adjust constantly based on where you are and where the wind is. The direction stays the same but the handling changes.
What you do not want is to be steering hard in a direction that stopped being relevant three weeks ago. That is how people put in genuine effort and still end up confused about why nothing is improving.
What if I am not sure what the sticking point is right now?
Start with the most recent thing that happened and work backwards. If you made a sale recently, what led to it? If you did not, where did the last interested person drop off?
You do not need sophisticated analytics for this. A rough, honest look at the last seven days is usually enough to see where things broke down. Did people not show up? Did they show up and leave? Did they seem interested but not act? Each of those points to a different place to focus.
The main thing is to write it down. Not in your head, on paper or on a screen. “The sticking point right now is X.” Then point your effort at X, not at whatever you were comfortable doing yesterday.
Try this today
Look back at the last seven days of activity in your online project. Ask yourself honestly: has the sticking point shifted, even slightly? If people are now getting further along than they used to, if visibility has improved but conversions have not, write down the new sticking point. One sentence is enough. Then make sure today’s work is aimed at that, not at the problem you already fixed.
Want a 30-day plan for this?
Have A Go is a free 30-day plan built for people over 50 who want to start a small, sustainable online income without the overwhelm. You get a daily email that walks you through one practical step at a time, including how to track your sticking point as it shifts. To join, get the free Have A Go plan.
