Goal setting is something we all know we ‘should’ do, but rarely get around to doing. Goals need to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, have a Timeframe and should always be designed to Stretch You (SMARTS). I never felt the S.M.A.R.T. concept of goal setting was enough - if a goal doesn't 'stretch' you then it isn't really a goal.
What are your 5 year goals with relation to building an online business? Why are you doing it? What are you prepared to do, and NOT to do to achieve that goal? There are a lot of people who will tell you that building an online business is ‘easy'. It isn't. These are usually the same people that will tell you that in a couple of months you can be an online millionaire. You can't and you won't.
This business takes time and money like any other. So what are you going to do next?
‘It isn't that people fail to achieve goals it's that they fail to SET goals!' - Anthony Robbins
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In 5 years I would like to be/do/have:
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Which is important to me because (this is a critical step. WHY you want something is just as important as WHAT you want. It's the WHY that keeps you going when the going gets tough):
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How I will get there is:
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The resources I currently have (physical, financial, people, networks) are:
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To be on track, in 2 years I would then need to have in place:
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And in 1 year I would need to have:
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So in 6 months I would have to be:
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Action Plan. My 90 DAY GOALS are:
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My 60 DAY GOALS are:
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My 30 DAY GOALS (which translates into your action plan):
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So that's it really. Simple but not necessarily easy. If I've learned one thing about setting goals and building my own business on the web, it's that you do it once, and that may take time, dollar and research, but once you have ‘done' it, it is usually done forever.
WARNING: Beware the people who want to sell you expensive systems and processes. There are a myriad of ways you can now build an online business for free. One of the very best ways I discovered (after spending a fortune on people who said they were 'experts' on the web) was to joint venture with people who had already built some aspect of what I was trying to build - we could swap services or swap knowledge or just swap ideas. I found the people who were willing to do that were 100% more valuable to me than the ones who just wanted to part me from a cheque.
Welcome to the fascinating world of building an e-commerce business.
Ann Andrews - MD The Corporate Toolbox
http://www.thecorporatetoolbox.com/
About Ann Andrews CSP
Ann Andrews CSP specialises in working with high performing teams and showing managers how to deal with poor performance.