What have you heard about setting goals? Bet it was something like: A goal must be measureable, have a target date and be written down. Does that about cover it? Guess what's going to happen? Nothing.
When you are working solo, your primary goal may be to make enough to quit your day gig or stay home with the little ones or like one intrepid entrepreneur I know, travel to as many countries as possible before you die. There's nothing wrong, per se, with setting goals. Where it starts getting complicated is when you have to take action.
Where do you start? You'd better have more than a target date or you'll find yourself in the same spot when that date has come and gone.
You need a plan. Whatever goal you want to achieve starts with where you are, right now and how you are going to get where you want to be. Take some time and really think about these next 3 questions, especially if you are starting a new enterprise.
Can you measure how much time you can reasonably spend to do the work necessary to achieve your goal? For example, if you work a full time job and must commute at minimum two hours a day --- are you willing to put in another 2 to 5 hours working on your business after you get home?
If you have small children or a significant other, how are they going to feel about the time you could be spending with them while you work on your business?
Do you have all the tools, equipment or skills to achieve your goal?
Let's say you want to start an affiliate or auction business online. What other fees besides domain name, getting customers, finding products and so on will be required to achieve your business goal? Even Ebay comes with fees, some of which must be paid before you make a sale. As an affiliate, I average $200 a month getting traffic and marketing my business.
Painters, fishermen, crafters, knitters and dog-walkers all have tools of the trade. If you have not planned for the money, how do plan to achieve your business goals?
This is a big one for some people. "Oh, when I tell my boss to shove-it!" is not the answer. Tell your boss you quit in January then going back in March, hat in hand, to beg for your job back is not the goal you are trying to achieve.
You need to know what your business must be doing at your deadline date to tell you what your next move will be.
I'll use myself as a prime example of what not to do. All of you know it took me 2 years to make $65 in my affiliate business. Why? I did a lot of false starts. Downloaded every free ebook that came along and joined every free affiliate program that came in my email. I thought that I needed to learn more or get more advice or figure all this out before I could really buckle down and make a go of my business. Wrong!
What I got was totally being overwhelmed. Goals? My goal worksheet was still right in front of me, the deadlines had come and gone plenty of times. What I realized I needed was an action plan and to focus on doing just one thing. Then when I saw people actually visiting merchants I recommended, then I moved to the next step in my plan.
What I want you to get from this post is set intelligent goals. Take away the reason you want to work for yourself and go over the questions above, one by one. Your answers will take you a lot further along in working solo than any gigantic, 99 page, put you to sleep book on goal setting.
That's it for today, got a sick kitty to care for but I will leave you with this
It is not enough to have good intelligence, the principle thing is to apply it well - Descartes
