Setting Goals

You can’t help it. The end of December signifies not only the end of a calendar year, but the opportunity for a new beginning. It’s a time for both reflection and projection. You ask yourself: What did I accomplish this year and what do I want to work on or change for next year?

Think of goal setting as an extension of your business plan. You wouldn’t drive from California to New York without a road map, would you? You might eventually get there, but why waste valuable time, money, and energy blindly navigating. Make a plan, it’s your roadmap to success.

Goal setting is important for setting the tone and path to life and business. Think of it as future vision. Stating your goal and/or vision will keep you on track and keep the distractions at bay as you navigate through the jungle of life.

Carve out time and space to set your goals. Today, tonight, tomorrow, or this week. Do it all at once or in several short sessions. Some need a quiet place with ambient music whereas others are perfectly content goal setting in the middle of a wild party with Dance Dance Revolution and Beyonce blasting in the background. Whatever floats your boat, just do it and don’t wait.

Before looking to the future, it’s important to reflect on the past. Goals met should be celebrated in a big way while failures need to be examined. If you don’t assess what you’ve accomplished and what you’ve put on the back burner this past year, you’ll waste your energy in the upcoming year when old patterns repeat.

If you have goals or visions from this time last year, pull them out and examine what you wrote. If you didn’t write anything down, start brainstorming and thinking about what you did or didn’t do over the past year.

Write, write, write. We’re so glad the Egyptians wrote on pyramid walls because we have a record of what their lives were like and how they lived. Same goes for you. Write down your goals/vision so you have something to look back on, celebrate, or change. You don’t know for sure unless you have a record.

Look to the future and dream, but keep it realistic (I know, The Secret followers will have my neck at this one). I say this because I care and don’t want you to be disappointed. Think big, but more importantly think in manageable baby steps.

Put your mind to it and believe in yourself. It’s one thing to write it down and say that’s what you want or should do. It’s a completely different thing altogether to actually believe in your power to accomplish your goals (which is another reason why you should keep them realistic).

Take action. Each day is another moment of living your vision or stepping toward your goals. Without action, nothing happens. That’s the real secret and it works for me.

Today I’ll be live on Smart Woman Radio discussing business plans with hostess Vicki Flaugher of SmartWomanGuides!

Here’s what I’ll be discussing:

• Why business plans are important

• When business plans should happen

• The components of a business plan

• Easy steps to creating a solid business plan

• Excellent resources at your disposal (some of them are FREE!)

Questions? Call in live at: (646) 929-0994

If you can’t make it live, I’ll give you the podcast link after the show.

UPDATE: Listen to the podcast at Smart Woman Radio!

Here’s the resources mentioned in the radio show:

Book: Business Plans That Work by Joan Gillman and Sarah White

Score

SBA

BPlans.com

Guest Post

Kelly Watson

Womenwise Marketing

War language has been dominating business—and making women uncomfortable—for a long time. We’re not sissies. It’s just that most of us don’t relate to language that talks about making a killing and blowing away the competition and all the other war clichés used in marketing.

I admit: I’ve been guilty of this in the past. I’ve injected my marketing with phrases like “secret weapon” and “battle for the wallets” in hopes that it would make the offer more compelling.

I can’t say it’s done me much good. And in an article by Danny G of AdColumnist, it may even be turning off potential clients. He writes:

“Simply put, you can’t use the language of war or criminal behavior and expect people to like you. … Am I overreacting? Is it okay to embrace war language? After all, they’re just figures of speech, right? Wrong. It’s too easy to use war as a metaphor for business. It gives everything a false sense of urgency; it implies that in every business decision there are outright victors and losers.”

No wonder women in business are turned off by sales and marketing. We think in terms of creating relationships. We prefer it if everybody’s happy in the end. So this talk of winners and losers doesn’t click with us.

What’s worse: because the tone of most marketing conflicts with their beliefs, many women start to feel that all marketing is pushy or aggressive. And then some women business owners start avoiding marketing altogether. Not a good idea if you want to be successful.

Just because most marketing techniques are male-oriented doesn’t mean YOUR marketing has to be that way. Women are great at building relationships, and can excel at marketing on social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn. There, entrepreneurs can promote their business simply by connecting with potential customers.

You might also find it helpful to change the way you talk about marketing. In her book Testosterone-Free Marketing, marketing consultant Denise Michaels offers some advice on this topic:

“Women generally do not regard people as targets. Are we shooting to kill or providing customers with a benefit? People who buy from me are my ‘focus market.’ I attract my customers, entice them with what they want and embrace them when they become customers. A more gentle approach, wouldn’t you say?”

Similarly, you can refer to your competition as colleagues, then work with them to get a bigger market share. This kind of talk might not come naturally at first, but over time, it could reshape the way you view marketing.

Kelly Watson is a freelance marketing coach and the founder of OneWomanMarketing, a web site full of free marketing tips and other business resources exclusively for women. Visit the OneWomanMarketing blog and subscribe to Kelly’s free bimonthly podcast at OneWomanMarketing.com.