Write it down!
November 24, 2011 No CommentsFor would-be entrepreneurs who have little or no background whatsoever in business, here’s a simple tip that has been practiced by countless successful people for ages. At the beginning of the year – it’s right around the corner, isn’t it? – write down your goals for the next 12 months.
Don’t be broad by putting “making tons of money” as your goal. Be precise by stating that you want to increase your gross sales by 30 or 40 percent. Knowing this goal by heart will cause your subconscious to break it down into bite-sized plans, which you can then implement.
This little trick is nothing like the baloney that some so-called success gurus teach. There are similarities, yes, but this technique has stood the test of time and it works most of the time.
Some call it visioning. Having your goals written down on paper helps you make it a reality by giving it something tactile to link it to. A story I came across before tells of a man who, to make his goal a reality, issued himself a million-dollar check. It became his physical anchor to a dream he had of making his first million. He kept the check in a frame and after three years, finally had enough money in his checking account to cash his check. Of course, by then the bank would no longer accept the stale check. But the point is, he made it to his goal of saving up or “earning” his first million.
So back to your business goals. At the very least, having a year’s worth of goals written down saves you the trouble of having to wrack your brains every so often, thinking of what to do next. Since they are broad goals, they can be tweaked from time to time to adjust to positive or negative business developments, particularly in your industry.
Since a lot of online stores are the result of a person’s hobbies or interests, list down all your personal as well as business goals. Being so intertwined, this makes perfect sense. A wedding photographer, for example, may want to purchase some new lenses or filters for the year, as well as expand his area of coverage by one third.
Writing down your goals for the year is not a magic formula that will automatically increase your sales volume dramatically. What it does is keep you on track while facing the thousand and one petty obstacles of running your own business.
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