I thought about writing a big post about making goals. But I’ve done that over the past few years, the formula is still the same. If you don’t have any goals for your business, then it has no direction. It is like having a GPS, getting in your car for a very long trip and forgetting to put the destination in. You will drive around forever, you might even get lucky and reach wherever that you wanted to go. Putting in the destination will help you get there faster and with fewer detours along the way. That is why you need to make goals for your business.
Create a Specific Goal
I want to make more money, is not a specific goal.
I want to make $50,000 more than last year in 12 months.
Specific, with a deadline.
List steps to achieve the goal
Break the $50,000 down. If you sell $100 gadgets and that’s the only thing you sell then you’ll need to sell 500 more. Now divide that down into 12 months. 42 gadgets a month extra (additional). Just to make it fun we’ll say 2 extra every weekday.
Now you need to think about how you’re going to get those 2 sales in a day. When you think about 2, it is much more manageable than 500.
Monitor / Evaluate how you’re doing.
Don’t worry too much if you don’t make your sales goal (or whatever goal you have) the first days or weeks. Since you have broken it down into tiny bits, you can catch up easily. But you do have to monitor things, keep in mind what worked and what didn’t.
A longer post than I wanted, but here are some more posts about making goals that I like.
http://www.webpageplanner.com/how-to-set-goals-for-your-local-business (includes details for a free Goal Guide.
http://cleverapple.com/setting-goals-and-a-discount/
http://cleverapple.com/long-range-plans-and-goals-for-your-tutor-business/
I hope you have a wonderful evening and a New Year filled with goals that you have accomplished.