The Art of Setting & Achieving Business Goals

Most business owners go through the entire year without a real clear picture of the goals they have for their business. Just going through the paces, week after week, without a clue whether they are ahead or behind. I think the reason most business owners do this is because if they never commit to a specific goal, then they can't be disappointed when they miss it. It keeps them from feeling worse about their lack of a real plan to succeed.

But we're going to run this race differently. We're going to set very specific goals. We're going to make sure everyone on the team knows our goals and we're going to measure our progress towards our goals on a regular basis. Are you with me?

Start here. Write down your goals for this year's race in specific categories. For example, Sales, Marketing, Customer Satisfaction, etc. If you have other specific areas that are critical to your success, then write down a goal in those areas as well. Be specific. What do you want to accomplish in each particular area of your business? When do you want to be at that goal? Who is going to take the lead in this specific area?

Now, if your goals are for where you want to be by the end of the year then I want you to go back and break them up into quarterly goals. Rather than staring at a huge, seemingly unachievable goal, it will be more motivating, more achievable if you state it in quarterly terms. Where do you want to be by the end of March? How about the end of June? How about the end of September? Making the goals more timely and achievable will motivate you and your team to accomplish them.

Now that you have your goals written, determine how you are going to share them with your partners, your team and the person who is going to hold you accountable to them - your business coach. You must go public with your goals if you intend to achieve them. Shine a light on them. Don't hide them just in case you do not achieve them or you can be certain that is exactly what will happen!

Lastly, begin measuring your progress against your goals. This is critical. Having a goal is one thing, but having a measurement system so you can see your progress on a regular basis is the key to victory! Keep it simple. Find a place to record your progress on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Share the results. Celebrate the small wins. Make corrections and adjustments on a regular basis. These tactics will keep you and your team focused and will give you the highest probability of success!

[xr.com/BlgGols]


For more information contact us now
Email: Info@MindfullyChange.com
Our website: MindfullyChange.com
Follow Us On Twitter: @MindfullyChange
Phone: +1 (321) 214-5824

There Is No Such Thing as a Time Problem

By Sandi Smith, special guest blogger
I know it’s a bold statement and a lot of you will disagree. But please have an open mind and hear me out.

Time is the great equalizer. We all have the same number of hours in a day, yet some entrepreneurs, many of them self-made, become wildly successful, while others languish. Only one in twenty business owners in the U.S. (2002 numbers) make it past $1 million in annual revenues. I believe the way they use their time is a big factor in their success or failure. Here are three better explanations of your time problem:

1. You are not delegating enough. This could be on a couple of levels: you might not be delegating enough tasks, but you also might not be delegating enough authority. This problem is based in fear of letting go of control and trusting. (If you don’t think you can afford a team, then you have some kind of marketing problem that needs to be addressed.)
2. You are doing everything from memory without having documented, automated, or systematized your business to the extent that makes you competitive with others. Read Michael Gerber’s The E-Myth. This one is more of a skills issue than a fear issue.
3. You remain in a reactive mode, fighting fires all day. There could be many reasons for this, and fear is at the root of most of them: we tend to do what we already know how to do, we may have some boundary issues with clients we need to work on, and we might be doing #1 and #2 above which contributes to this one.

(There are several more, but I have to leave some content exclusively for the benefit of my coaching clients!)

When you can go deeper to root out your so-called time problem, then you have something you can work on to improve your business. What can you do to better leverage your 24 hours each day?

About the author:
©2010 Sandra L. Smith, Inc. Business growth and high performance expert Sandi Smith is a coach, public speaker, author, and scientist. She’s one of a handful of women who have co-piloted a single-engine airplane around the world. Sign up at www.sandismith.com to get her FREE newsletter full of business-building tips.
For more information contact us now
Email: Info@MindfullyChange.com
Our website: MindfullyChange.com
Follow Us On Twitter: @MindfullyChange
Phone: +1 (321) 214-5824

Discover How to Successfully Market Your Business with Twitter

By Jonathan Jordan, Business Coach

Just about 12 months ago, I knew nothing about Twitter. Now I have over 61,000 followers – and I attract about 200 new followers every day.

Originally, in order to figure out what worked, and what didn’t work, on Twitter, I created a test account for my dog; KatieBichon is her Twitter user name. Through testing and measuring, trail and error, I grew KatieBichon’s account to over 7,000 followers in less than 6 weeks. Now KatieBichon has become a minor celebrity in Twitter and a spokesperson - spokesdog - for a number of dog-related charities. (Currently, KatieBichon has over 47,000 followers.)

After achieving success with KatieBichon, I focused on my business’s “real” Twitter account, MindfullyChange. Unexpectedly, this resulted in a 1,700% increase of traffic to our business website, MindfullyChange.com. Of course, as traffic increases to our website, so does our business. Our Twitter strategy is more than paying for itself.

The 3 key areas of focus in growing and managing a Twitter account:

1. Acquisition of Followers
2. Quality of Updates (Tweets)
3. Responsiveness & Influence

1. Acquisition of Followers

This is the main key to successful use of Twitter. Few or no followers will result in few or no responses regardless of the quality of your updates. Therefore, acquiring followers is essential to market and/or be influential in Twitter.

The main way to acquire followers in Twitter is to first follow others. Of those you follow, many will follow you back. So who you follow determines who will follow you back. Therefore, it is very important to select Twitter accounts you really want to follow you. For example, when growing my dog’s account I searched for veterinarians in Twitter then followed their followers. I figured that people following veterinarians probably had an interest in animals and would be likely to follow a dog – apparently, this strategy worked. The level of response to your updates is greatly dependant on having the right people following you. Do not blindly follow just anyone on Twitter.

1. Quality of Updates

Surprisingly, by testing and measuring, I have discovered that actual Twitter updates (Tweets) attract few new followers. I estimate that well designed updates attract maybe 17% more new followers. However, good quality updates retain followers and make them more likely to “click” on links provided in the updates, which is a key element in responsiveness. The higher the quality of your updates, the more influential you will be in Twitter. Quality updates can include useful tips in your area of expertise, links to online articles and blogs that would be of interest to your followers, humor, motivational quotes, and public-service type announcements. What you had for breakfast is really not appropriate for an update. With the right mix of content your followers will begin to look forward to your Tweets.

3. Responsiveness & Influence

If you’re using Twitter to grow your business and/or attract visitors to your website or blog, responsiveness and influence are key to your success. Without responsiveness or influence you are probably just wasting your time – and the time of your followers. Responsiveness is measured by how many people do what you want them to do. For example, if you want people to click a link to an announcement on your website, the more people that do so the greater the responsiveness. One way influence can be measured is by the number of “retweets” your updates receive. A retweet is when someone else on Twitter repeats your update so it is seen by that person’s followers, too. Wouldn’t it wonderful to have others retweet your updates that promote your business, website or blog? Essentially, they are marketing for you and it costs you nothing!

In order to prevent Twitter and other social media activities becoming a huge distraction to you and your business, it is a good idea to keep your business purpose in mind. Always focus on what it is you’re attempting to achieve and measure your results to make sure you are achieving those goals. And don’t forget to have some fun along the way!

For more information about how you can be successful in Twitter, contact me now…Jonathan@MindfullyChange.com or phone +1 (321) 214-5824