As a small business your size is an advantage -- use it!
Big businesses can not move as quickly as a small operation. You don't have the layers of bureaucracy and endless meetings that seem to be the way big business gets things done.
The secret to earning more money, more quickly is to test in the smallest/fastest way possible. Most people just do what they've always done (and get what they've always gotten). The other extreme is throwing everything a small biz has into an unknown project with a make-or-break result.
Taking the smallest possible step to test in the quickest way possible is not only prudent, it is also going to get you results sooner. The sooner you get results -- good, bad, or ugly -- the sooner you can decide whether to continue to roll out the next test in the same direction or a different direction.
Specifics of "Speed Testing"
The first step is to know your bottleneck. Where are you most constrained as a business? Is it time, money, people, or another resource?
Next step is to set up a test using the least of that resource as possible. E.g. assuming adequate other resources go as fast as possible (that's the small biz advantage, use it!) and test your next step in the smallest way possible.
This page is a perfect example of the principle. I decided to test a specific method of bringing visitors to my site and trading good information for an email address. The chosen bottleneck for this project was money, what can be done effectively free. The smallest step I could take was to create a name capture page (which you just came from) that promises an instant result and a page to deliver that result (this page). I have invested 1-2 hours and zero dollars to deliver useful information while testing the traffic method. (I also happen to be fulfilling my underlying purpose which is to "Change the world from the inside out" by helping small businesses. Bonus!)
All of this is directly supporting my short and long term goals. It is all part of the plan that I created. Tests like this all support my overall direction and are a large part of my "process goals" (as opposed to "destination goals" that many set and forget). I hope that this idea has sparked some ideas for tests that support your business goals and fits into your ideal business plan.
If you haven't developed a specific plan yet I'm happy to share the method I developed and used to build my own plans. Follow the link below to learn more and in the meantime go out and "Change the world from the inside out!"