What is Your Motivation - Goal Setting for Your Home Business
If you are a home based business owner probably the largest
obstacle you must overcome is finding motivation. You work at
home and need to get online to work on your website, marketing,
research, etc. But there are many other things going on that vie
for your time. What do you do to ensure you are devoting
adequate time to your home based business?
My main tool for motivation in my home based business is goal
setting. This takes some planning, but if you spend a little
time you can develop challenging, yet attainable goals. Why set
goals? Goal setting allows you to determine where you want to go
with your business. Setting targets gives you a basis for
creating a defined plan and to identify those activities that
are non-value added.
Goal setting is an activity used by successful business people,
top level athletes, students and high achievers in all walks of
life. Setting a goal and then reaching that goal gives a great
sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.
There are several types of goals. You first establish your long
term goals. These could be set for three to five years out.
Profitability, net annual income, increase in business volume,
ROI, size of customer base could all be used for long term
goals.
Next is the creation of medium term goals related to the long
term goals. These would be in the one to three year range. This
is followed by short term goals that you want to achieve in the
next several months. Finally, you develop an action plan that
will lead to meeting the short, medium and long term goals.
The lifeblood of an online home based business is visitors to
your website. So one of the goals should relate to how many
visitors you are getting. Granted, there are ways to generate
thousands of hits, so the goal must reflect "targeted" visitors.
If you are new to online marketing you can set a smaller target.
Set goals for one month, three months and one year. When you
have met your 1 month target reevaluate the longer term goals
and adjust them if necessary. Just be sure to validate or revise
your action plan to keep moving toward the next target.
If you are not meeting your goals review the steps you are
taking. Look for new and creative ways to market your home based
business web page. Don't limit yourself to online marketing.
Business cards, newspaper ads, flyers, etc. are all great
options.
If your home based business offers a product the goal could be
obtaining a certain number of orders per week or per day. It
could be sales or unit volumes. If you are an affiliate marketer
your goal could be recruiting a certain number of affiliates per
day or increase in your downline.
Once you have generated an adequate quantity of data, i.e.,
unique visitors per day and units of product sold, you can
determine how much you sell per unique visitor. A new goal could
be to increase the sales per visitor.
Make sure your goals have a time aspect, such as 500 visitors
daily by the end of the next three months.
Setting achievable goals and then attaining them is a great
motivator for a home based business owner. Once you get in the
habit of setting and reaching goals your enthusiasm for your
home based business will grow and your success will be assured.