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goal setting

Getting Your Business Ready for the New Year

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business-graphic with sticky notesCan you believe that it’s December? We’re all rushing around, trying to meet our goals for the past year and  preparing for the holidays. And whether you’re a working Mom or an overextended business owner, it seems as if there are not enough hours in the day.

So how do you make sure that you have taken the appropriate steps to prepare your business and your life for 2020. The classic wisdom about achieving a dream is to set a goal and develop a plan with steps to achieve it, but some of my most successful friends cringe at the mere mention of the word “goal.” That doesn’t mean they don’t plan, it’s just that they have their own systems that work for them.

I’ve been exploring this topic lately because some of the strategies I have applied in the past have proven less than effective in achieving some of my biggest goals lately. For example, I have been working on a book for several years that is still unfinished. And my efforts to redefine my business haven’t gone as well as I planned.

In fairness, I moved across country to be near family, and I live in an area that has faced two wild fire scares and a mass shooting recently. Clearly, I have suffered with overwhelm, so it was vital for me to take time to reflect.

To jump over my hurdles, I have explored every topic from procrastination and mindset  to planning methods that work for busy people and for individuals who hate the  thought of setting goals. I have tried a bunch of things like bullet journals, planning books with stickers, online planners and mind maps. They all worked to a point and I fared best any time I was able to write down my plans and check on them periodically to monitor my progress.

One of the most useful approaches for me  was to get clear on what I want to accomplish and why. It has also been helpful to take a hard look at the year we are about to wrap up to determine what worked in 2019 and what needs to be improved.

In my goal to achieve clarity, I found a great little guide that raised all of the issues I needed to plan for 2019. I’d love to share it with you here, along with the information and services I plan to share with my followers in 2019. Grab your copy of Make 2019 Your Best Year Ever while it is still available.

Before You Start an Online Business, Set Clear Goals

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set goalsBefore you actually start your business, it’s important to know where you want it to go.

Once you start, you will join the ranks of hundreds of thousands of starry-eyed individuals with similar hopes of making it big. There are many tasks to achieve when it comes to your online business. You will be bombarded with information about how to proceed. So it is vital to set clear goals before you start to help you keep your business on track.

Many  individuals start with goals that are so broad that success never happens. Take the time upfront to set your goals properly to increase your chances of success.

How to Set Clear Goals for Your Online Business

1. Be specific – When you set a goal, it is imperative that you be specific about that goal. Simply stating that you want to reach a certain target audience or to make money is not a specific goal. A specific goal would be something like “I want to gain 100 more likes on Facebook in the next three months.” Or, “I want to make an additional $5,000.00 in the next three months.” Goals need to be specific in order to be successful.

2. Write everything down – No matter how trivial you may think it may sound, it is imperative to write everything down on your action plan. Without writing it down, it is as though you are not declaring it to the world.

3. Break it down – Break down your goals into sub-goals. It is as though you are choosing a niche and then choosing a sub-niche. For example, if your niche is women over forty, perhaps you could break that down even further to make it divorced women over forty. Break it down and be specific.

Breaking down your goals makes them easier to reach. If you have a goal to gain three more clients in the next six months, break it down on how you plan to reach that goal. For example, “I will guest blog on other sites” or “I will join LinkedIn and promote my business.” However, you want to do it, make sure to break it down specifically.

4. Put a timeline to your goal – Giving yourself a deadline to achieve a goal is probably the best thing you can ever do for yourself. You are accountable to yourself and your business partners by attaching a timeline to your goals. By doing this, you put a little pressure on yourself to achieve that goal by or before the set time.

5. Be accountable – Being accountable to yourself and to someone in your new business is an excellent way to make, keep, and achieve goals. Giving your word is a powerful tool in not only reaching, but also in exceeding clear and specific goals.

Taking the time to develop clear goals for your business will definitely improve your chances for success.