Goal Update-My Book Is Finished
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Hi folks. I thought I’d change things up a little bit this week and give you someone else’s opinion on goal setting in the form of an article. I hope you guys enjoy this article…

Business Goal Setting And Then Following Through By Joy Gendusa

Your business can’t go according to plan if you have no plan.

What do you want to achieve this year? More new customers per week? Higher average order amounts? Better customer service ratings? No matter what it is you are shooting for, goal setting is one of the most important things that you will do in the New Year. I’ve got a few tips to help you get there.

1. Keep it Challenging but Realistic.

Any goal that you set for your company should be challenging but don’t over do it. For example, if you had an average order amount of $700 last year, you wouldn’t want to set your goal for this year at $3000 per order. Unless you make drastic changes in how your company runs or what you are selling, that goal is just not realistic. You know best what you may be able to achieve in your particular industry, so be honest with yourself and set your goals accordingly.

2. Write All Your Goals Down.

You may say to yourself on January 1, “I want to get 20 more new customers per week this year.” A few months later you will be saying “Did I say I wanted 20 or 30?” Or more realistically, you have forgotten that you even made that goal. If you have all of your goals written down you will be able to not only go back and check them, you will also be able to go down the list every few months and check to see how many of them you have completed.

3. Assess Your Current Situation.

To set goals you have to know where you are at right now. In 2003 I wanted to assess our customer service rating so we sent out a survey to all of our customers on which they could rate us in each department of our operation. That helped us establish our base. Now we send the survey to every customer after every order. This way we can keep track of how we are doing and if there is ever a hiccup we can fix it quickly. Don’t assume anything. Always assess the current situation before setting a new goal.

It’s Only Going to Hurt A Little…

Now, in financial goal setting for your business, one invariably comes to the question: “How do I decide on a budget when starting a marketing plan?”

This is obviously the first question that you have to answer in order to get started on your new campaign – and in order to reach the income goals you have set for yourself.

So how do you figure out what your budget should be? Here is an easy method to help you find a number that is going to work for you and your business. Some might say that it is a good rule of thumb, but I personally judge things on whether or not they work and get results. That’s all.

Moving on… Start with the amount of income that your company generated last month and multiply it by .14 (or 14%). That means that if you had $50,000 in Gross Income last month you should budget to spend $7000 on marketing in the next month. Wait… I know, it sounds painful but it is just like a shot at the doctor. It might hurt for a minute (or in this case a month) but down the road you are going to be glad that you went through it. Putting that much toward the right marketing will bump up your income the next month and start you on a cycle of steady growth.

I know that some businesses run tighter than others and it is possible that you won’t be comfortable with that amount in the beginning. Don’t misunderstand me, any marketing is better than no marketing. Don’t get discouraged if your budget is lower than 14%. But use 14% as the ideal to strive for because, for me as well as many other growing businesses, it has proven to give the best rate of growth possible. How do I know, you ask? My company has expanded 400% in the past 2 years. Now picture your business at 4 times its current size… There’s that smile I was looking for!

The growth of your business is based on three factors; quality products, great customer service and the proper amount of marketing. If you know you have the first two taken care and you still aren’t experiencing healthy growth then you need to take a serious look at your marketing budget.

So sharpen your pencils, start calculating and decide how rapidly you want your business to grow.

Please take a moment this week to sit down and decide on your goals for the New Year. Even if it is past the New Year and even well into the year, set your goals for the rest of the year.

Everything is easier when you are working towards a goal. My goal is your success and I assume that is your goal as well.

About the Author: Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998, her only assets a computer and a phone. By 2004 the company did $9 million in sales and employed over 60 people. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. Visit www.postcardmania.com

Source: www.isnare.com

Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=3917&ca=Business+Management

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Mind maps are an excellent way for you to keep track of your goals. One free tool to help you create a mind map is mindomo. I have included a link to an example link to a mind map for you to check out. Mindmaps are excellent for people that are visual. This mind map that I’ve created is one for a product I’m creating on video marketing. You don’t have to share your mind maps unless you want to.

Here’s the example mind map that I created:

Video Marketing For Sophisticated Marketers

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So I’ve posted that I want to get to 2000 twitter followers by May. Well I’m happy to report that as of this writing, I have 1657 tweople in my twitter network! Whoo hoo! The reason I’ve set this goal is because once I get to 2000 tweople in my network, I can follow however many people I want to. Currently there’s a limit to how many people I can follow because I don’t have 2000 people in my twitter network. Now, I’m letting this happen naturally. In other words, I’m not begging for new followers everyday. I’m letting people find me.

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I got a little behind on my blogging this week so I decided to combine blog posts. I’m combining the networking and goal setting post into one post this week, so here goes.

Do you have any networking goals set for this year? If you don’t why not? You won’t know if your social networking is succeeding if you don’t have any way to measure what you’re doing. If you don’t have any specific goals related to networking for 2009 set some now. Also, don’t wait until the end of the year to evaluate where you are with your networking. Ideally you should evaluate your progress at least every 3 months. This will give you time to adjust things that aren’t working for you.

Be sure the goals you set are something more specific than, “I want to network more this year.” Say something like I want to interact with 1 new person a week or something like that.

So what are you waiting for?
Stop reading this blog post (unless you want to comment, of course) and set some networking goals for this year.

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I must admit that I didn’t come up with this concept on my own. I saw it on one of the forums that I used to belong to, but for the life of me I can’t remember which one or I’d give that person credit.
Here’s something to remember when setting your goals for this year. Remember to be a smarty when setting your goals. Read further for an explanation.

S-Specific; Your goals should be something specific. Instead of saying I want to make more money this year, a specific goal would be I want to make 1000 more dollars this year than I did last year.

M-Measurable; A good goal is something that you can measure. So something like I want to have a more positive attitude is really not measurable enough. Saying something like, I want to say at least 2 more positive things per day is measurable.

A-Accountable; – In order to reach your goals you need to be held accountable. Whether you hire a coach or join a support group, you need to find someone to help you stay on track

R-Realistic; Be sure to set a realistic goal. It will help you to stick with your plan. So saying something like “I want to make a million dollars in a day.” isn’t very realistic. Saying “I want to make $100 dollars in one day” is more realistic for most people.

T-Targeted; I know this sounds like the Specific one, but it’s worth repeating. If you don’t know what you’re aiming for, you won’t know how close you are to achieving your goal.

Y-Yours; Finally be sure that the goal you are trying to achieve is something that YOU want to do. If the motivation is something outside of yourself, it will be tough to continue if that other thing goes away. So for example, if you’re trying to lose weight to please a significant other, if that significant other should leave the picture, your motivation for losing weight has just walked out the door.

Remember this acronym when you’re setting goals for this year and the year to come and you’ll be well on your way to living a successful life on your own terms.

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Since Thursday is my day to write about goal setting, I decided to use Thursdays to share some of my goals with my blogging community. So here goes. One of my goals for 2009 is to have 2000 twitter associates by May. Now I know what you’re going to say, “But twitter isn’t about numbers, it’s about connecting.” I’m keenly aware of that. I also know that the more people I can connect with, the more people I’m able to help. So that’s one of my goals for 2009. I’ll let you guys know how I’m doing. Also, if you’d like to follow me, you can do so by clicking on the word twitter in this post.

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When you make your goals, be sure to write them in your blog. If you ever get sidetracked or feel like goofing off, your blog post will be there to remind you of what it is that you have set out to do. Don’t just write down your big goals. Write down the little goals that will help you get to your big goals.

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When we think of goal setting, we usually only think of doing that at the beginning of the year, or at the beginning of a quarter.  I suggest that you set goals everyday. If you have a large goal, say making $10,000 by the end of 2009, then you should set a daily goal to help you get there. For example, a daily goal could be to get 10 signups to your email list per day.  When you set small daily goals, it helps you feel like you’ve accomplished something even if you haven’t reached your big goal yet.

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