One thing that I tell all of my customers is how important it is to set your goals before you start looking at running a social media campaign. In business, you absolutely need to set yourself clear goals and targets so that you can measure when you achieve them and make changes to the way you work if you are not meeting them.
You will NEVER know if you have been successful if you don’t have a clear goal at the outset of your marketing campaign, and if you can’t tell when you have been successful then you are more likely to get despondent and quit trying. There is nothing more demotivating than trying to do something that you know is going to be amazing for your business and then a few weeks later you get that sinking feeling that you’re doing something wrong, that its not quite working out and if you havent set yourself clear goals to measure up against you’ll never know if it is working or not.
Good goals to set are ones that you can actually measure and monitor. There is a lot of talk in the online business world at the moment about striving for a 6 figure business, or a 5 figure week or even day. Don’t allow yourself to be caught up in this hype. In order to set your business goals I recommend using the following approach which has always worked really really well for me.
I sit at the table with a pen and paper and use the write it all out of your head approach. Start by deciding what time period your goals are for. I like to set monthly goals at the beginning of each month and quarterly and yearly goals when appropriate as well.
So if you are looking at the next month and deciding where your business needs to be in 4 weeks time you might want to consider things like
How many people do you want on your mailing list?
How much additional income do you need?
How many hours do you want to work?
How many free skype sessions do you want to give?
Your goal doesn’t have to be money orientated. My goals for May were to get another 500 people on my mailing list, run 10 free sessions, volunteer for an hour each week at the school, and walk 10 miles a week. Not all business related but all to do with ME and how I live my life and what I want to give back.
My goal for the year of 2015 is a financial one, I’m not comfortable sharing details of my finances too blatantly but I will tell you that the whole “6 figure business” are not words that sit comfortably with me. I think in terms of profit rather than in terms of income and my goals are around how much do I need each month in order to live the lifestyle that I want.
Knowing what you want is key. Setting goals is key. Don’t get caught up in everyone else’s goals, if a 6 figure business is not for you then why aim for it? If you want to work 2 or 3 hours a day and have enough money to pay your bills and have a little left over for holidays then that’s your goal and you need to make it come true. If you want to hire a large team and work from an actual office and go on 5 international holidays a year and buy designer clothes then you need to convert that into a £ per month figure and make it happen.
Don’t go into anything in business without first having a plan and being prepared to make it happen. If you need help in putting together a marketing plan then you can book one of my 121 sessions and we can do that together for you in 90 minutes on Skype, in person or on the phone.