Every successful business owner has a set of goals for their business. For those running a home-based business while also caring for children, a house, pets, and fending off the neighborhood gossip all at the same time, goal setting is vital to just getting through the day.
Whether you realize it or not, chances are you have at least a few goals. After all, supper is usually ready at some point before bedtime, and the kids actually DO get to bed eventually, right? See…you have and accomplish goals!
The goals we set as home-based business owners often are intermixed with the goals of our daily routines. My daily list of goals often looks something like:
· Speak to client
· Get started on marketing piece
· Do 3 loads of laundry
· Write a blog post
· Go grocery shopping
· Finish the proof of the marketing piece
· Sort through outgrown clothes and bag them up to donate
Not your normal list of business goals but it is what I need to do in order to have an income stream and still meet the daily needs of my family.
If you aren’t writing goals, you should begin today. I find that when I have too much on my plate and I’m starting to feel extra stressed, that writing down my list of daily goals often brings a sense of control over it all.
Here is how to get started:
First, start with a goal to accomplish by the end of the year. Whether it is to earn $X in profit, or to take on 3 new clients, or to finish getting all or your marketingmaterials in order, that is your goal for the next 2 months!
Now, look at your list and decide on some small goals within each larger one. What do you need to have finished by December 15? What about December 1? And so on. Meeting each one of these smaller goals will help you meet the big goal on time.
Now, look at the next small goal you wrote down. Let’s say it’s to get your website in place by the end of November. This is going to require even more mini goals to accomplish that task. You will need to start with the basics. If you don’t have a website name and hosting in place yet, then that should be today’s goal.
Plan out all the steps you will take to meet your goal and then put them on a timeline. Your timeline needs to be flexible, because you may have days where you just can’t get to more than one item and other days when you find time to accomplish several.
If you aren’t sure what steps are needed to meet your goal, I suggest you search for it and see if you can find a list that someone else has developed. And then incorporate that list into your daily goals.
Each morning, or each night before you stop work, plan what you are going to accomplish on that day. Remember, stay flexible and just move items to tomorrow if something comes up and you can’t get to it today. Just don’t turn that into too much of a habit or you’ll find that the deadline comes and you haven’t even gotten started!
When the New Year swings around you should set your goal for all of 2012, and then break it down into quarterly and monthly goals. It’s not a bad idea to start thinking about those now while you work on your goals for the end of 2011.
Kim Scott is a work-at-home mom to 5 boys, including 4 teenagers and 1 preschooler. She is the owner of VaVaVoomph, a small business providing graphic and web design, marketing and social media services, and virtual assistance to other small business owners. Kim holds a bachelor’s degree from Pittsburg (KS) State University in Graphic Design and Printing Management. Since she almost always has her hair thrown up in a sloppy ponytail, she has labeled herself “The PonyTailed Professional” and blogs under that banner as well.
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