Setting Goals for Your Business

By Jill Mowser

If there was ONE thing that you could do that would ensure success with your home-based business more than any other one thing, would you do it? If this one thing could be done in the space of one morning, or perhaps one day, would you be willing to do it? The great news is there IS one single thing that all successful people do. This one thing is so important, that if you DON'T do it, your chances of success are reduced to slim-to-none (sure, some people just get lucky - very, very few people). Are you ready to find out what the single most important thing is that you MUST do to ensure your success in your at-home business?

The one thing that will ensure the success of your home-based business more than any other single thing is good goal-setting! To some, setting goals is boring. To others, it is something they will do half-heartedly because they know they should. To those who take goal-setting seriously, it is the start of something great!

You may have read several articles on setting goals that talk about goals being like a road map. Without a road map, you will get lost. You won't know where you are going. Well, it's true. With great goal-setting, you will know exactly how you must spend every single day in order to succeed. Without great goal-setting, your day will go something like this:

You wake up and think, "I've got to get lots done today!" You'll get the kids off to school, come home and see all the housework you need to do. You'll work on that for a bit, then start to feel house-bound. Maybe you'll have a snack or go for a walk. Soon it will be lunch time, so you'll quickly do 15 minutes of work (just odds and ends because you don't really have a plan of what you were going to do today). You'll have lunch, then remember that one of your favorite programs is on, so you'll watch it (because you can always get some work done tonight once the kids are in bed). It will be almost time to pick up the kids, so you'll quickly finish the housework, and go get the kids. Once the kids are home, there's homework, dinner to prepare, arguing to referee. After dinner, you get the kids ready for bed, and finally settle in to work for a couple of hours. All goes well, until you hear your spouse watching a great TV show in the other room. You bring your laptop in there to "work" while you watch TV. Soon after, you start to get tired… That's OK…tomorrow you'll get more done…

If that sounds even vaguely familiar, then chances are that you are not on the fast track to success in your business. When you have your goals written down, you will know exactly what you need to do each day. You will be able to better prioritize your daily tasks, and you will be more willing to give up some of the things that don't bring you closer to your goals.

If you are ready to get serious about success, here are the steps you need to take. Set aside a few hours and get some paper and a pen. These steps are simple and easy to follow. The most time-consuming part is finding some quiet time to yourself and making some decisions.

1. Think about your dreams. Where would you like to be in 3-5 years? What would consistent work on your business bring you? Here is where you can dream big, and be specific. Once you have some ideas, write them down. Turn your ideas into a couple of paragraphs about where you will be in 3-5 years. For example:
   
   In 3 years, I will have paid off my mortgage. With the mortgage paid off, I will be able to take the monthly amount that was spent on mortgage and put 50% of it towards retirement. I will use the other 50% to travel. Some places I want to have visited in 5 years time are French Polynesia and Greece.
2. Once you are clear about where you want to be in a few years, you need to write down some shorter-term goals. For example, if you are trying to save $45,000 in 3 years for your dream car, then you will probably need to save $15,000 in the first year. But if your business is expected to grow slowly for the first year, then more rapidly in the second and third year, you might change it to saving only $5,000 in your first year. Once you have some numbers, or other definite goals to work towards in the first year, it's time to move onto step #3.
3. Here is where you will really get into some detail. You want some very short-term goals that you can easily use to make up daily plans for your business. For example, "by the end of the current month, I will have made 500 phone calls, and with a conversion rate of 10%, that means I will have made 50 sales, making me $1,000." If you know what you have to do each month, it's easy to figure out what you now need to do each and every work day. Whether your business involved making sales calls, or designing web pages or teaching music lessons, you now know exactly what you need to do every day to meet your goals - both your short-term goals, and your ultimate goal!
4. Once you have been working towards your written goals for a couple of weeks, or maybe a couple of months at the most, it is time to review and revise your goals. You need to decide if your goals are realistic or not, and if they are challenging enough. Your goals (especially your short-term goals) need to be challenging for you to meet, but they also need to be realistic. If you are a busy mom of 6 children who are home-schooled, then it is probably not realistic for you to set a goal to make 50 phone calls per day. However, it would be realistic for your daily goal to be to wake up 30 minutes earlier to work, and to make 5 phone calls over lunch time. Only you know what you can accomplish each day realistically, without compromising your needs or the needs of your family. But don't sell yourself short! Challenge yourself!

By now, I hope that you see how important goal-setting is when you truly want to succeed in your home-based business. Now is the time to start taking your business seriously, and take control of your future! Make an appointment with yourself to sit down and set your goals, and watch your dreams come true!