As promised, here's my 90-day goals for my new business - complete with my chicken scratch and highlighter fun.
Setting goals
I've you don't know what I'm talking about, go read about it here first, otherwise, this will make no sense at all.
It's so tempting to make goals you really have no control over, especially when launching a micro business. I had an idea of what I would like to make in my first year to consider it a success, but I can't make it a goal because that wouldn't necessarily be SMART. Goals need to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.
With this in mind, I set out to make SMART goals.
TW is an abbreviation for Tailwind a tool I recognised very quickly I wouldn't be able to do this business successfully without. I'm not saying it can't be done, just that I don't think I can do it. Tailwind allows me to batch my work and still have my pins be posted at the optimal time. As someone who lives in a timezone far from the majority of the Pinterest users, I'm marketing to, I decided that I either had to invest in this tool or forget about the business.
Having made an investment will hopefully make me more motivated to keep on once the newness wears off. Research has shown that people are more likely to act when they've invested money into something - in this case, I hope it holds true.
Setting up a long-term plan
Besides coming up with a bunch of short-term goals, I made an outline of where I would roughly like to be in a year. I'm a big fan of the slow and steady approach, as you can see.
Week by week
After making these two sets of goals, I needed a weekly plan to make sure I would hit some of those larger goals from my 90-day list. I broke it down week by week so I could make sure I would do all the regular pins and affiliate pins I had planned to. As I mentioned, one aspect that appeals to me about this business is that you can put it somewhat on autopilot. That's why one of my 90-day goals is to get one full month ahead on pre-scheduled pins. This plan allows me to get there just before April and keep my sanity.
Measuring progress
Finally, I wanted a way to measure progress. To keep track of those things that shouldn't be goals for me because I have no control over them. Most important for me was of course income and followers as the two are often linked. It makes me so motivated to see that I've already hit a couple of milestones since making the plan last week.
That's it for this post people. Remember keep your hands busy and your hearts quiet.
Goals .....God is good all the time, he know's your path and the obstacles that can come your way, but the power of prayer will see you through. I will pray for your guidance to a prosperous journey to achieve this goal.
Thank you. Yes, so much can 'get in the way' of goals and often it's our Father's way of pointing us in another direction. I still believe in setting and pursuing them though, just as long as it is done prayerfully with an open heart.
@frugallady, I wish you the best as you pursue this new business opportunity. What you are working towards connects well with my Jesus loving, homeschooling wife.
Keep it up!
Aww, you took a look I see! Thank you so much. I hope to not only have found a business opportunity, but a way to inspire women as well. If I could do that and make enough to stay home full time one day, then I would be a very happy camper.
I love sitting down and planning! I'm glad you're getting a good head start on it!
Me too and I love ticking things off even more :)
I admire your organization and your ability to think forward on business plans. It is something so many small businesses forget to do and it is so important to success. Best of luck!
Thank you for those kind words. I've had to pleasure to work for a couple of small businesses with the owner as the only other person - I've learned a lot from that, both what to do and what not to do. The one thing that stuck out to me the most was the general lack of a plan. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
This will be a very interesting business exercise to follow.
Is the essence of the business that you build Pinterest boards with affliate links in the pictures pinned to them?
Yes, but with lots of non-affiliate content as well. I want to inspire and empower as well as hopefully making an income.
I hope it will be interesting as in it will work ;)