My previous articles have talked about marketing with regards to knowing your customer and refining your niche. This week I want to talk a little bit more about the mental game of business and what is required to build a successful business.
Specifically, I want to provide some useful tips for goal setting. If you are currently not setting goals for your business, then this article will help you get started. If you are setting goals for your business, then this article will help give you some handy tips to improve your goal setting and hopefully your results.
Goals Give You Direction
If you are serious about making a living from your online endeavors, then you need to have goals for your business. At the very least so you have some idea of how you may possibly pay your bills. You also want to have some idea of what you wish to accomplish. If you use a goal in the simplest sense just to give you a general direction to head for, then at least that is a start.
Not having any goal would be like getting in a car for a drive and not having any destination in mind. Sure you may end up somewhere nice, but the probability of ending up somewhere nice if you actually planned to end up there would be a lot higher.
Traditional Result Orientated Goals
Usually goals are stated as what I call result orientated goals and there is nothing wrong with that. For example, business goals may include “I want to make $XXXX amount of money this year” or “I want to sell X amount of products”. Setting goals like this is a good starting point, but I want to help you tweak your goal setting for better results.
An Economics Law To Improve Your Goal Setting
From The Economist in 1955 is a quote that has come to be known as Parkinson’s Law:
“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”
A more generalized version is:
“The demand upon a resource tends to expand to match the supply of the resource.”
If you are not a savvy saver you will often find this true of your finances. As your earnings increase, so do your expenses.
Basically, Parkinson’s Law can be applied to goal setting in the form of setting a deadline. This is useful for long term goals, but I find it incredibly applicable for short term goals. We probably all experienced this with assignment deadlines in high school or university. If you have two weeks to complete a project, it will take you two weeks. But if you set yourself the goal to get it done in one week, you probably could.
Obviously you need to be realistic, but I am just saying you may surprise yourself if you tighten the reigns a little on your goals and set some tougher deadlines. Give it a go on your next small project. For example, I allocated a certain amount of time to writing this article. This pushed me a little and motivated me to be more productive.
Break Down Your Goals Into More Manageable Pieces
Although I am a fan of dreaming big, I also find it can be a bit overwhelming at times. So I find that breaking down a goal into more manageable pieces can help give you a sense of the smaller stepping stones you need to take to reach your end goal. Plus, it allows you to monitor your progression and make any necessary adjustments along the way. Revising goals is also an important point we will discuss later.
There are two ways that I find helpful to breakdown a large goal:
1. Break down the goal into some progressive steps.
For example, if you have a goal for your business to earn $100,000 dollars in the third year of operation you may have some smaller milestones along the way. You may breakdown the $100,000 per year goal into a goal of earning $30,000 the first year of operations and then $75,000 the second year. That way the end goal looks more manageable, and you have some checkpoints along the way to monitor progress. This enables you to make any necessary changes during the allocated time period and not just at the very end when it may be too late.
2. Break down the goal into smaller pieces.
If you have a goal of getting 73,000 visitors to your website in a year, you could break that down to a monthly or daily figure. You would need 200 daily visitors and 6000 monthly visitors to reach that goal. That way you can focus on these more manageable numbers and know that if you reach them, you will reach your larger goal.
A Practical Example Of Breaking Down Goals
A great example of breaking down goals is seen by Internet Writer Everett Bogue in his 333 project. Everett has set himself the goal of making $100,000 per year from writing. He has decided to charge a $25 monthly fee to readers for access to “letters” he writes.
The math is simple:
$25 x 12 months x 333 subscribers = $100,000.
So (in his mind) all Everett needs is 333 subscribers. Instead of constantly thinking about making $100,000, Everett is probably thinking how he can enrich, add value and connect with enough people that 333 of them are willing to pay him $25 a month. Not bad considering most aspiring writers are struggling to make ends meet.
Introducing Action Goals
The problem with result orientated goals is they tell nothing about the “how to” process of achieving the goal. It leaves you totally unaccountable for your actions towards that goal.
So your results orientated goal may be getting 100,000 visitors to your website in a year. What about the process or procedure for that? You can set goals for those also, I call them action goals. They define what you need to do to achieve that result goal.
Some action goals for the above example may include:
- I need to post to my website five times a week.
- I will submit at least one article a week to an article directory
- I will update my business Facebook page weekly
- I will try to guest post on other people’s websites two times a month
- I will release a YouTube video every week
So now you have a procedure for achieving the end goal. Notice the procedures are objectified and very definite so there is no question about if you did them or not. You either did or you didn’t.
I find not setting action goals, or not having a procedure behind a goal, is probably the main reason people fail in their goal setting.
Don’t Be Afraid To Revise Your Goals
Things don’t always go to plan. And I think that constant revision of your goals has many benefits.
Firstly, it can help to regularly reinforce what you are striving for and this can be important for inspiration and motivation. Secondly, it can help you make necessary adjustments. If you have some goal stepping stones like I mentioned earlier, you can gauge if you need to make any adjustments to your end goal or your procedures. Lastly, things change. Life is dynamic. Our wants, needs and desires can change, and our goals should be flexible to realign with any changes that happen.
Goal Setting Summary
- Set your result goals and break them down into more manageable stepping stones.
- Set a time period for your goals so you have a deadline to work towards.
- Take your results orientated goals and write some objective action goals that will serve as the “how to” steps of achieving your result goal.
- And finally, constantly revise and update your goals depending on your outcomes and current circumstances.
Yaro
That 333 project sure makes bringing in $100,000 seem easy! This will be a great tool to use when analysis paralysis sets in.
Hi Graham
That is exactly why I included the 333 project example. When it is broken down like that it looks scarily simple and sometimes that is the motivation we need to really get moving on a project.
Leevi
and you can break it down further to be one subscriber per day for the next year and you’ve got your $100K
My goals are to big to name but I will say people should be realist and stick to the hard core marketing.
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
Nice article Leevi
I often wondered why people (including myself) can’t commit to setting goals and stick to them.
I just wrote an article on “Conflicting thoughts.” We have these thoughts: “I want to be rich, but I don’t know if it’s possible.” Two opposing thoughts cancel each other out and hence our goals are difficult to obtain.
I think you have some great insight on the discipline of setting goals. You gave me an idea. I should add to what you said to my article. After they get their thoughts organized and disciplined, they would follow your plan. It would be like a two part process. Or maybe I should just throw in a link to your article, would that be okay?
Thanks Leevi for the insight.
Tony
Hi Tony
Glad you enjoyed the article.
Thanks for asking and it’s no problem to link back to the article if it compliments your one nicely.
Leevi
I enjoyed the article because it is really true but unfortunately there are some goals I can’t stick with. Honestly I have lots of projects and errands to do. I haven’t updated my personal blog. I’ve got to manage my time, that’s what I need.
one should always set goal according to their ability because if they will not get completetd, you will loose your confidence !
Very good and informative post Leevi! By giving your business a direction and setting a goal that you plan to achieve, you will most likely use your time more efficiently, work harder, and perform at a higher level. In addition, as you continue to grow and expand upon your goals, your business seems to have an increase in self-confidence and it motivates you to continue striving towards the top. I’ve often been told that you should start with setting your long-term goals and work backwards towards your monthly and daily goals. It is extremely important to constantly measure your performance for the goals because if you don’t know how well you are doing, then you cant adjust or track progress. You may have to change your shorter-termed goals every now and then to achieve your long-term goals, though if it is in the best interest of the business you should do so without hesitation.
Discipline is what is needed though it isn’t easy. It is needed in all we do whether it is the goal of fixing a broken pipe or creating a great middle school science fair project
Great Tips Leevi! Breaking down a huge task into smaller (measurable) steps is definitely the way – this is how I manage to write books and scientific articles – one step at a time.
I recently set out into business on my own and also set up a website this year, so I’m learning how to create these steps again, but in different fields.
I often find useful to breakdown the big goal into smaller chunks and then somewhat abstract from the main goal and think about what need to be done in order to complete this small goal, this way goal creating procedures and steps create themselves and then all you need to do is follow them, which is the hardest part 🙂 Following through is always the hardest part because it is not as exiting as setting the goals and does require some hard work and dedication. This is where the mindset should kick in.
Wow… Its jus amazing.. I just started my Internet marketing career and it is very helpful for me as i m setting daily goals but failing to achieve them.. After reading this i realized that I am setting big goals for myself in starting and instead i should set small targets which will lead me to my big goal in long term… Thanks a lot leevi for such wonderful article… Its surely very helpful for me…
Thank you very much for your explanations
I read twice. I Like the article very much. Like you told setting the goal as a blogger is very important. Thanks for sharing here