How Will You Define SUCCESS for Your New Business? Setting Goals

The first thing you need to do before you start any new business, is to decide what you want from the business in the first place. Do you want something that is part-time, to supplement your income? Do need a way to pay your bills if you quit your job, because you have a job or a boss that you just can’t take any more? Do you want a Home Based Business to eliminate your commute? In order to know if something is a success, you need to first figure out what you mean by success. By setting goals from the very beginning, you give yourself a way to measure success. You either meet your goals or you don’t. When you first sit down to define your goals, I suggest you make them as specific as possible, and include a “Reward-Goal”:

• Instead of, “Make more money” something like “Make enough money to go to Hawaii on vacation this year.”
• Instead of, “Spend more time with the family,” something like, “Be home by 5:00 every day, so I can eat dinner with my family,” or “Take Fridays off every week.”

I know a guy that, when he quit his job to start consulting, did just that. He decided he would not work on Fridays. He has had three day weekends, every week, for the last five years! Because he know he wanted this from the beginning, he built it into his process.

One of the biggest problems businesses run into, not just small businesses, or home based businesses, but all businesses, is that they fail to set goals. When you are getting started, think about what you want from your business, and set some goals that will make that happen. You need to write them down too. There is something about writing your goals down on paper, that makes this work. Maybe seeing what you expect of yourself, on paper, in your own handwriting, is what makes it real. Whatever the reason, trust me. Write them down.

You need to set specific goals, and re-visit and revise these goals throughout the year. If you do, you will stay motivated, know when ideas are working and when they are not, and know definitively that you are on the path to success.