Here are a few tips for setting and achieving those goals:

1. Brainstorm – Start writing a list of things you’d like to accomplish. At first, you might think you don’t have any ideas, but soon they will come pouring out. You may even end up with too many goals that you could realistically accomplish. Prioritize and decide which are most important.

2. Write your goals down in one central place and record any changes you make to your goals – This way you can track your progress and will be become even better at setting goals for yourself in the future.

3. Make sure your goals are challenging, yet attainable – In other words, don’t make them all too easy, but then again, don’t list a bunch that you will never achieve. If you make them too easy, you will feel like you haven’t accomplished much and if you make them too difficult, you’ll feel defeated.

4. Set a realistic timeframe for your goals – Remember, you can’t do everything at once. If you have short and simple goals, set short timeframes. For your more involved goals, analyze the steps needed to complete them and be realistic about how much time you will need to accomplish your goals.

5. As you write down your goals, ask why is this my goal? – If your goal is to set up an affiliate program for your site, you will motivate yourself better if you understand and remind yourself why you are doing this. It may be to increase your website traffic, to earn more income or to create brand recognition for your product. It could be any number of things, but make sure you know what they are.

6. Make your goals measurable – Don’t just say, you want to learn about graphics. Make a specific plan. Perhaps, you want to learn about Flash graphics and you want to be able to make your own Flash movie. Or perhaps, you’re happy just being able to design your own animated gif. You need to be able to see when you’ve achieved your goals.

7. Identify what “tools” you will use and how will obtain the “tools” to achieve your goals – Perhaps, your goal is to build your own web page for the first time. You need to think about what you need to do that. Two of the many things you might need are software and a tutorial or the help of knowledgeable friend. You’ll need to purchase the software or find the freeware. You’ll also need to look around for the tutorial or see when your friend might have time to help you.

8. Don’t overload yourself - We all want to get everything done and to be as perfect as possible, but don’t give yourself too much. Remember, time with family is why you have a home business. It’s okay to have a larger number of small, easily attainable goals, but do limit the number of major goals that require a number of resources and significant time to achieve. Remember, as in a previous step, you can always revisit and revise your goals if need be.

9. Divide your goals into short term and long term goals – If you keep this list separate, you can better organize yourself to complete them. Short term goals usually can be completed at anytime with not much time commitment. Your long term goals will require more involvement and you don’t likely want to take on too many long term goals at one time.

10. Revisit and revise your goals when necessary – This doesn’t mean that if you’re a procrastinator, you can just come back and push all your dates back. This exercise is to see if you are on track with your goals. Perhaps, you’re a little ahead of schedule and you can add a goal or two. Maybe, you’re falling behind, and that’s okay. You need to look at why you’re falling behind. Is it because you didn’t dedicate the time necessary, you didn’t have the tools to accomplish your goals or was it just unrealistic planning? You can learn from all these things and set better goals in the future. If you do extend a deadline, make a new plan on how you will meet that new timeframe.

Always, congratulate yourself on a job well done. Share your successes with your family and peers. Then start working on the next goal…

____________________
Alice Seba thrives on helping others build profitable online businesses. Claim your Internet Marketing prescriptions to success at http://www.aliceseba.com

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A lot of people confuse the vision and the mission statements. Some even think they are the same – but there is of course an important difference.

The business vision tells you WHAT goal your business wants to achieve!

The business mission tells you WHY you want to reach that goal!

It is the reason for the business’ existence.

Many companies, both new and existing, sometimes struggle to write a mission statement. A mission statement can be a very strong motivational statement for staff and employees and can also be a strong marketing and branding tool to customers.

Some excellent examples of mission statements that hit the mark immediately are:

• Walt Disney: “To make people happy.”
• Merck: “To preserve and improve human life.”
• Wal-Mart: “To give ordinary folk the chance to buy the same thing as rich people.”

To write a one-sentence or one-paragraph mission statement, could betoo complicated. A bulleted mission statement is easier, but may not accomplish what you want. Key statements that can be used to build a mission statement are:

• Statement of Purpose. What inspirational purpose appeals to higher values in both your employees and customers?
• Statement of Strategy. What is your business strategy, and how does it appeal to your employees and customers?
• Statement of Value. Identify values that form a link to the organization’s strategy that employees can be proud of.
• Statement of Behavioral Standards. How does employee behavior relate to customer perception and value?
• Statement of Character. What is the organizational culture?

Certainly it is impossible to include all of these in a short mission statement, such as Disney’s, but the perception of their mission statement certainly encompasses the ideas. If you do a bulleted mission statement, the above statements are easier to address individually. It’s up to you!

So, when you are preparing your Mission Statement remember to make it clear and succinct, incorporating socially meaningful and measurable criteria and consider approaching it from a grand scale.

3 Keys to a Meaningful Mission Statement

• Pass the Mother Test: A mission statement must be a concise paragraph describing what your company does and for whom. Show your mission to your mother, if she does not understand it, start again.
• Self-Igniting: Your mission is for you and your business. It does not have to be an earth moving statement. It can be whatever inspires you.
• Value Alignment: Forget the money. A meaningful mission goes beyond the dollars and cents. If your small business is creative, focus your mission on creativity. Try to be what your core competency is.

So the Mission Statement for my business is:

To share my experiences in order to help people succeed!

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What exactly is a vision?

Well a vision statement should describe in graphic terms where you want to be with your business in the future. It is a description of a desired outcome that helps and inspires you to create a mental picture of your target.

I understand the vision of a business as its goal. And that’s where I apply goal setting strategies. If you’ve ever read a book on goal setting you might be familiar with the acronym SMART, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Timed .

Let me explain briefly each letter of the SMART Goal formula:

S = Specific
Goals must be as specific as they can be. For example, a goal to “Be more successful in 2008” is too vague as it doesn’t define what success is. For one person success might be to retire from their job. For another person it might be to earn over $100,000.

M = Measurable
Goals need to be measurable. This means to either include a date when you want to have the goal reached or to use numbers like “Increase my monthly income by 25%”.

A = Actionable
That means that you need to have direct control over the outcome by taking action yourself. For example to set a goal for your favorite basketball team to win the league would be false because you cannot directly influence that outcome.

R = Realistic
Your goals need to be realistic. Setting a goal such as “To be the world’s best piano player” is not a realistic goal if you’ve never played that instrument before. Even if that was your ultimate goal break it down and take several smaller steps.

T = Timed
A SMART goal must not be open ended. For example “To buy a car” is too vague. It is far better to have a goal that said “To buy a car by 1st August 2009”.

Having the SMART Goal formula in mind the vision statement for my business is:

“I own a multi-million dollar internet business before I turn 45!”

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SIBB Step 1 - Establish Your Business

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again time to report about my efforts building a business with the internet. In my last post I told you about a process map called Resource Cashmap that contains a workflow called “Business Building Strategy”.

This Systematic Internet Business Building Process (I’ll call it the SIBB-Process from now on) is made of 10 steps that systematically build your Internet Business:

SIBB - Business Building Strategy

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the vision I have in my mind having an own Internet Business is that I want to replace the current income of my regular job and… of course make a fortune

Well – maybe this sounds a bit weird but I am totally convinced that if I systematically plan and execute the necessary steps to build an Internet Business, I will have success.

The key term in the above sentence is “systematically”!

How does a systematic Internet Business building plan look like?

You need to know that in my daytime job I am an IT consultant. Every consultant loves processes. So do I. And I love processes even more if they are documented in the form of a workflow diagram.

The only problem now is to find either someone who is willing to coach me or a find a process documentation. And guess what…? I found both!

First I found out that a guy named Rich Schefren was the one even the super-gurus in internet marketing refer to as their coach showing them how to systemize their businesses. Rich published many successful (of course FREE) reports like the Internet Business Manifesto, The Attention Age Doctrine Part 2 or his most recent stroke of genius – The Entrepreneurial EMERGENCY.

All of these free reports provide high value information and I truly recommend all of them as an absolute MUST READ.

Unfortunately the coaching programs Rich Schefren offers through his company Strategic Profits are (still) priced beyond my budget but… Rich helped my indirectly.

I discovered that he formed a strategic alliance with a company called Cashmap Systems. And what is the core competence of Cashmap Systems? Process Maps! Phantastic…

To make a long story short, I checked directly at the site of Cashmap Systems if they offer a process map for Internet Business building and of course they do.

It is called Resource Cashmap and it is absolutely free!

In my eyes the Resource Cashmap delivers three things:

1. A high level workflow called “Business Building Strategy” consisting of 10 key steps (or better projects) that systematically build your Internet Business
2. Each key step is broken down into its necessary (I’d call it recommended) actions
3. And last not least each action provides sample resources that help to act

The Resource Cashmap could be sold easily for 97 USD and the fact that it is free does not mean it is of poor quality. Not at all.

In order to systematically build my own Internet Business I will follow the Business Building process of the Resource Cashmap and I will document every step and its outcome here at my blog.

All right then – LET’s START!

Cheers,
Holly

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This is the first post of my blog called SmartMarketing20.com.

This blog was created for the purpose of providing information about building a business with the Internet. I will share with you experiences, discoveries and all things I consider worth sharing related to starting a business with the Internet.

The themes I currently have a focus on are:

• Internet Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing
• Niche Marketing
• Information Product Creation
• Social Marketing

The blog will act as a diary documenting the steps I take and helps me structuring what I learn about building my Internet Business. And (hopefully) it will provide valuable information for peers.

So stay tuned.

Cheers,
Holly

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