LESSON #14: Setting Goals for Your Business

By | July 18, 2008

In the previous lesson, we talked about getting a vision for your business.

A vision is the big picture of where you want to go. You need to have a vision, otherwise you won’t be motivated, and you won’t have a clear direction for your business.

However, a vision needs goals and plans to go along with it…

(Watch this video…)

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Main points:

  • Vision vs. Goals. A vision is the big picture of where you want to go; a goal is a specific milestone that helps you get closer to your vision.

  • Important requirements for goals:

    1) they should be specific (measurable)
    2) they should be serious, but attainable
    3) they should have a deadline

  • For example: a goal may be to earn $10,000 of net profit before December 31st.

  • VERY IMPORTANT: Write your goals down, and keep them in sight.

  • (Story about the Harvard MBA graduates…) Those with written goals made 10X the income of everyone else combined.

  • I use a whiteboard… but a piece of paper is fine too.

  • You can have short term goals, long term goals, and everything in between.

  • Re-evaluate your goals periodically.

  • When you reach a goal, be sure to celebrate for a few minutes before setting the next goal.

    Action steps:

    1) Write down one goal, and put it somewhere near your computer.

    (Also please post it in the comments below)

    It should be specific, attainable, and it should have a deadline.

    Keep in mind that you will need to keep setting new goals for yourself as you build your business. As you continue with these lessons, it will become more apparent what your goals should be, so write them down frequently as you go through the process.

    Now you will need to develop a plan for reaching your goals, and I’ll be talking about that in the next lesson.

    As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below.

    Have a great day!

  • 878 thoughts on “LESSON #14: Setting Goals for Your Business

    1. Joe

      I have used Toshiba, Dell, IBM(Lenovo), and HP.
      HP has some really good deals and that is what I am using now. I LOVE the eraser mouse and keyboard on the Thinkpads, but they are too expensive for my taste presently. Some of the Dells have the eraserhead, so I will probably try on my next purchase. Many like Dell because of the extra level of support you can buy with it. My experience has been pretty positive with the support, but not so much with their finance.
      God Bless you in your efforts!

      Reply
    2. Karan Kinder

      My goals are as follows:
      Increase my business sales to increase my current income by $500 per week by Dec. 17, 2008 (in other words $2,000 a month raise by Dec. 17).
      Increase my RSP by $10,000 by then end of this fiscal year.
      Set up a learning account for myself and my family so we can all continue taking seminars and courses on improving financial skills, management, investing, networking and marketing to assure our financial freedom within the next 7 years.

      Good series Eric – thank you!!!

      Reply
    3. Cyndi

      This excites me as you are laying out exactly what I need. Thanks for holding my hand.
      My goals:
      Listen to Eric’s Tips daily.
      Complete website #1 by Sept. 1 (been working on this for a while)
      Website #2 get up and running by Sept.30
      Generate $1000/month online by Dec. 31,2008

      Reply
    4. Vance

      I currently make a 6-figure income working for someone else. My immediate goal is to be making $20,000 or above by the end of November at which time I will gladly resign from my 8 to 10 hr day and sometimes 7-days a week job.

      Reply
    5. Julia

      Ok my goal is to find the niche market that has eluded me for the last 6 months by the end of December 2008. In the meantime start two sites that together will generate $2000 a month income again by December 2008.

      Oh and to continue with my healthy eating plan of writing down what I eat and exercising 5 days a week to lose 5 kilos by December 2008.

      Reply
    6. Joe

      Goals:
      Short term:
      Continue listening to Eric!
      Make a consistent $100/day profit by 9/08
      Medium Term:
      Make a consistent $500/day profit by 12/08
      Cheers,
      Joe
      BSRG

      Reply
    7. Brett

      To have all the Internet Marketing lessons sent to me so far by erics tips, completed and up to date by the 1-9-2008

      Reply
    8. Yasmin

      My short term goals are to have a website up where I can market things by October 08 and make $1,000 per week by December 08.

      Reply
    9. John Pelkey

      My goal is to master the mechanics of how to use an autoresponder by tues the 16th. My second goal is to have my squeeze page done by the 18th and my third goal is to have my free report that I am offering completed by the 19th. The final goal for the week is to have the website go live on the 20th.

      Reply
    10. ayodele adegbulugbe

      My goals for this year 2008 is to set up my offline business by end of september;complete the books am working on, and set up a website to promote them by end of october.Other goals include a Bible college course for personal development

      Reply
    11. Fay

      My goal at this point in time is to have my web site designed by October 10th 2008. I am writing this on September 24th 2008.

      Reply
    12. Reach Success Online

      Decide on my final WordPress template by Sept 28th. Complete my opt-in form and offer by Sept 29th. Set up my autoresponder with a set of emails. Complete my list of affiliate programs I want to promote by Sept 30th.
      Wow writing it down actually takes some stress off.
      Thanks

      Reply
    13. David

      Hi Eric,
      Excellent lesson I have had a goal but never wrote it down. Here it is now:
      My goal is to generate an income from my online business equal to twice my income from my job. I plan to achieve this goal by the end of my lease in August 2009 allowing me to then move and take my business with me. This, I believe, is the first step in achieving my vision of retirement in 10 years

      Reply
    14. Claire

      My first goal: Accomplished
      Becoming a full-time staff member for
      Kiosk Webhosting

      Second goal: Teaching others to become successful on the Internet.
      Partially accomplished

      Third Goal: Creating income for my partner’s business which is the Martial Arts:
      American Dragon Martial Arts Academy

      Once goal Three is accomplished, then I will have to create more goals…… right?

      All the Best
      Claire

      Reply
    15. Melissa

      My first goal is to have my online business up and running by November 30th 2008.

      Reply
    16. Alvin

      This one is a little tough for me since I’m going through a lot of personal and professional changes, but my goal is to have a website up and running by 31 December 2008 because I can’t see myself getting a lot of info products out there without one.

      Reply
    17. Richard

      My first goal is to read and execute all avaliable Eric tips. Also to earn at least $1,000 by December 1, 2008.

      Reply
    18. Thomas

      My first goal is to have my online business up and running by Dec 1 2008.

      Reply
    19. Mark

      Hey Eric:
      I guess I’m getting a re-run of your tips? ( no problem -they’re great.) Some of the goals were set for a few months ago – now thats a neat trick! What’s the real deal here?
      all the best
      Mark

      Reply
    20. Joseph

      Eric, thank you for taking the time to create the videos and make
      them available. The lessons are a valuable shortcut to learning the
      arcane nuances of internet marketing.

      My vision is to market a series of informational products based
      upon 40 years of business experience.

      Joseph

      Reply
    21. Ronald Setinsek

      Eric,
      My goal is to finish this course and not go on to the next great thing. I’m aiming for 5,000 per month. I have a picture of a Cessna 172 in my mind.

      Reply
    22. Anita

      I did not start getting these lessons until Nov and did not start reading them until Dec. I have been watching/reading them multiple times a day. It was easier on the week end since I work full time during the week.

      I have heard that goals should be set high. If you reach for the sun, you might reach the moon.

      I am working on a ebook right now. My first goal is the finish it by Jan 31, 2009. My second goal is to be earning $10,000/month by June 31, 2009.

      I know this sounds like reaching for the sun, but this way I just might reach the moon.

      Reply
    23. Ron Berg

      The Long-Term goal is to reach $500k profit in 2009.

      My short-term goal is to obtain 5 viable campaigns by the first quarter of 2009. By viable, I mean that they, at a minimum, break even. This will be the start of optimizing each viable campaign for long term profits.

      To accomplish this, I will be launching at least 10 campaigns in the first 2 months of 2009.

      Reply
    24. Brian Sanders

      To have a positive cash flow from my Internet income that is respectable for a Webmaster to
      be happy about.

      Reply
    25. Robert

      Hi,
      One of my goals for this year is to gain financial freedom (my passive income is higher than my expences) till the end of 2009.

      Reply
    26. Helene

      My first goal is to be selling on eBay and one domain web business site that I own by February 28 2009.

      Reply
    27. Andrew

      Further to my post on #13 my goals are :

      Stream 1 – Local IM business. Year 1 £50k t/o Year 2 : £140k, Year 3 : £330k. Year 4 – sell business for £500k.

      Stream 2 – 2 x hobby niche websites. Year 1 : £10k. Year 2 : £50k. Year 5 : £1.5m.

      Stream 3 – affiliate marketing business : Year 1 : £20k. Year 2 : £150k. Year 5 : £5m.

      This is all turmover but I expect my margin to be around 40-50%.

      Andrew

      Reply
    28. Dan and Deanna

      At least 6 sales a week, within the next two months. Doing it every week. That would be about &20,000. every week. Not bad.
      Dan and Deanna “Marketing Unscrambled”

      Reply
    29. Neil

      Hi Eric

      My goal is to make £4,000 by Dec 31st from sources outside of my work (i.e. my website, services, writing, etc.). So far I have about $100 so this will challenging enough!

      Reply
    30. varoon

      hi Eric
      how are you , iam here just to say a great thanks for your videos . i am watching regularly your videos. these are really good , and completely new to this internet business. and iam learning from your videos ,now iam in great confusion ,from where to start my internet business affiliate or any other.and how many days it will take to get my first earnings in this business. can u pls help to start my business.
      bye,
      have a great day.

      Reply
    31. Anonymous

      My immediate goal is to have a niche (w/at least one product to promote) by the end of next week 20-Feb-2009.

      Reply
    32. Kevin

      My goal is to make a net profit of $40,000.00 by Dec. 31st, 2009 with an online business.

      Reply
    33. Ann

      Hi Eric

      My goal is to have made $10,000 in income by April 15th from starting a LocalAdlink business and from my winery compliance business. Thanks for keeping us all on track and focused!

      Reply
    34. Debra F

      Hi Eric

      Thank you for clearing up the vision verses goal. My goal is to make two thousand dollars a month by August.

      Reply
    35. Stephen

      Hi Eric,

      My short term goal is to have made $5,000.00+ by April 18 2009. Since I do already have a website up and running with content on it. I see this goal very attainable just if I could get over this little bump in the road. I know I’m at the point where most people give up. But that isn’t happening here I know its within my reach and with your lessons Eric I know without a doubt I will accomplish my goals. Its just so frustrating trying to get past this minor obstacle. Anymore advice you or any other people would be very much welcomed.
      Thank you,

      $$ II/www.ssgoldfactor.com

      Reply
    36. Monica

      Hi Eric!
      My goal is to set up some kind of online business and generate enough money to quit my every day jon by the end of this year…I want to earn at least 3000£ pm by the end of this year…

      Reply
    37. Stephen

      My goal is to earn by the end of this year (Dec 31 2009) 10,000 dolars a month in residual income.

      Reply
    38. Johno from Auckland

      My goal is to be actively sending Traffic to my Affiliate Website & be making my first online dollars by the end of March (31-3-2009)
      Thanx again Eric.

      Reply
    39. David @ computer solutions

      This is an excellent expression of a viable plan to succeed.

      This sounds like the prelude to a project plan. Wouldn’t a standard project plan plotted by some program such as Microsoft project apply to this?

      Reply
    40. Eric Post author

      I have not used a project plan software personally, but sure you could certainly use one.

      Reply
    41. Rebecca

      My goal is to have my e-book finished by April 15th(tax day)and to have figured out how to have an affiliate website and how to generate traffic to it.

      Reply
    42. James

      Eric, My short term goal is to start my online Business, have it up and running and earning 5000.00 a month by Aug.2009 so I can fire my boss. Thanks for all your help. James

      Reply

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