Just as a blueprint is important when building a house, goal setting is important when starting or growing your business. If you don't have any idea where you are going, what your doing, or where you see yourself in the future; then it is extremely hard to get there. You may be asking what kind of direction I can give and I'm glad you asked.

In The 2-Hour Business Plan I mentioned that your plan should have major goals and objectives. However, in addition to those major ones you'll need to have non-major goals as well as a blueprint for success. Without delay let's proceed with that direction I promised.

Where are you going?

So where do you want to go? One thing that makes a vacation is to have a destination. You have to decide where you want to go, in order to generate the plan to get there. This is the first step in proper goal setting.

What are you going to accomplish?

Now that you know that you want to be the CEO of a super-stud business or at least a profitable one, what are you going to accomplish exactly. Is one of your goals to hire 2-3 more employees? Do you want your business to be a sponsor at a local event? Are you interested in developing web applications? What exactly do you want to do? This is the point where you brainstorm, list everything -- there are no bad goals.

Where do you see yourself in a month, next quarter, next year?

You should now have a rather large list of desired accomplishments/goals. Next is to organize these goals into the appropriate time frame. Put them into various categories. There is no right or wrong way to do this step, however I recommend a few close time frames and a few a bit farther into the future. I tend to use: this month, 3 months from now, 1 year from now, and 5 years from now.

Achievable Goals vs. Wishful thinking

Lastly, you'll want to know the difference between achievable goals and just wishful thinking. There is nothing wrong with dreams as long as they are put in their proper light. If you set for yourself the goal of doubling your monthly income and only give yourself one month to do it; you might be setting the bar a bit too high. You see that is a perfectly fine goal to have, yet likely not a realistic time frame. So pepper your goals with dream-like goals, just make sure to put them in their proper place.

Do you have any goal setting tips that are working well for you?

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