Goal setting

[Phoenix]

For those of us that have a business it's important to set goals. I have a goal of how much I want to earn, a goal for how many new customers I want each month. Longer goals include places I want to visit, people I want to see. Has anyone else written up goals? Do you stretch yourselves each month to do more?

 

[Jon]

Good post.

Goals are very important, especially in home working otherwise it just becomes a splatter gun approach month after month with no real direction (or at least it does with me)

I always aim for
£200 63336
£100 roamler
£50 field agent

Anything above that is a bonus

I feel it is hard to set goals when you are first starting out though and signing up to every survey site going while you find your feet and work out which ones work best for you

Goals for The Money Shed. Either 150 users or 1000 posts, whichever comes first lol

 

[Phoenix]

Good goals Jon. ;D

 

[DeeBee]

I have a goal of how much I'd like to earn on 63336 - I've had to reduce that as I'm now working longer hours in my 'proper' job and it's just not feasible.

I also have a savings goal each month which I hate not meeting. My goal is to buy myself a brand new Audi TT in 3 yrs....sadly I don't think it will happen!

 

[Phoenix]

That's good DeeBee, I suggest getting a photo of the Audi TT put it somewhere where you will easily see it. Perhaps by your bed, so last thing you see at night, first thing you see in the morning. Keep picturing in your mind, see yourself driving that car. The how you going to achieve will come to you, just keep focussing on the car. This is basically telling the Unervise that you want that car and you are going to have it.

 

[RedAlix]

How can you have goals you have no control over?

Say if I want to earn £200 from my business how do I get the sales?

I can work on my website for 12 hours a day and get no more sales than if I only do a few hours. This if what I find difficult.

 

[Jon]

Good question

You say you want to earn £200 but why does that HAVE to come from the business? Do you have other avenues that you can earn that money from?

Unless you mean you want to earn £200's worth of business as that is something else

I do know what you mean by saying that you spend 12 hours a day on your site and that won't necessarily result in sales as it can be a bit of a bummer after putting in all that hard work.

Is it worth putting the effort into SEO type stuff to get your site noticed more?

 

[Phoenix]

Also don't set your goals too high, you want to be able to achieve them, be realistic. What can you manage? Don't beat yourself up if you don't achieve, just look back to see where you can improve on, what else could you have done. Learning and gaining knowledge will help improve your abilities. And by all means seek support and advice from others. This is a great site for that. Good luck. ;D

 

[Phoenix]

When you achieve your goal reward yourselves with something nice, I suggest a lovely cake or two.

[attachment deleted by admin]

 

[RedAlix]

Good question

You say you want to earn £200 but why does that HAVE to come from the business? Do you have other avenues that you can earn that money from?

Unless you mean you want to earn £200's worth of business as that is something else

I do know what you mean by saying that you spend 12 hours a day on your site and that won't necessarily result in sales as it can be a bit of a bummer after putting in all that hard work.

Is it worth putting the effort into SEO type stuff to get your site noticed more?

Well I have my swagbucks goal of £25 per month - I feel I have control over that as I'm the one who puts the effort in to watch the videos, do surveys etc.

Maybe if I changed my business target to 2 sales a week. I used to get that before our son arrived. But after 6 months of not doing anything to my website it has kind of dropped of the face of google and I'm lucky if I get 2 sales a month. It is SEO I need to work on, also several of my suppliers have changed their products so I'm having to work through everything to make sure its all up to date.. whick takes a long time when you are a 'one man band'!

 

[Jon]

The 2 sites you list in your signature I think look great. Easy to read and follow, if I wanted an item I would feel confident using the sites.

Like you said, without Google listing it is going to be hard to get people to take a look and notice you site.

Bit of SEO and you should be fine. Some people say that SEO these days is a myth and that content is king to get ranked. Only content I think you could add would be maybe reviews or articles about the items you stock.

 

[RedAlix]

Thanks Jon. I was thinking about doing a competition on my websites - add a review to be put in a draw to win a voucher.

 

[EmmaH]

Think I need to start doing this and setting goals.

I just do work as and when I can with no real direction.

I imagine having goals would help spur me on to keep earning more

 

[Keith Worboys]

Hi RedAlix

I've just had a quick look at your website and both do look very good.... but..... there is little there for Google to distinguish them from any other unless you were trying to use ppc advertising and then I think you'd still have a battle on your hands.

Some things that Google looks at as favourable are customer comments/reviews. It may be a good idea to contact all your previous customers and ask them if they would consider writing one for you. Another thing that you could do is add a couple of Home pages, both with different descriptive text on them so that you can monitor which one works best. You would be able to create some SEO favourable response grabbing content for these that could then rank higher in the Google rankings.

I hope that helps

 

[RedAlix]

Hi RedAlix

I've just had a quick look at your website and both do look very good.... but..... there is little there for Google to distinguish them from any other unless you were trying to use ppc advertising and then I think you'd still have a battle on your hands.

Some things that Google looks at as favourable are customer comments/reviews. It may be a good idea to contact all your previous customers and ask them if they would consider writing one for you. Another thing that you could do is add a couple of Home pages, both with different descriptive text on them so that you can monitor which one works best. You would be able to create some SEO favourable response grabbing content for these that could then rank higher in the Google rankings.

I hope that helps

Thanks Keith. I have tried google adwords before and it did bring plenty of visitors but only about 2 sales so the cost of the adwords totally wiped out my profit! I'm going to try get customer reviews, that sounds like a good idea. I do need to work on SEO, my problem is I'm totally useless with wording things. I rely on manufacturers descriptions for products far too much and I know it would be better if I could make up my own descriptions.

 

[Jon]

Hi RedAlix

I've just had a quick look at your website and both do look very good.... but..... there is little there for Google to distinguish them from any other unless you were trying to use ppc advertising and then I think you'd still have a battle on your hands.

Some things that Google looks at as favourable are customer comments/reviews. It may be a good idea to contact all your previous customers and ask them if they would consider writing one for you. Another thing that you could do is add a couple of Home pages, both with different descriptive text on them so that you can monitor which one works best. You would be able to create some SEO favourable response grabbing content for these that could then rank higher in the Google rankings.

I hope that helps

Thanks Keith. I have tried google adwords before and it did bring plenty of visitors but only about 2 sales so the cost of the adwords totally wiped out my profit! I'm going to try get customer reviews, that sounds like a good idea. I do need to work on SEO, my problem is I'm totally useless with wording things. I rely on manufacturers descriptions for products far too much and I know it would be better if I could make up my own descriptions.

Google Adwords - I have tried that for other ventures I have run and like you, results have been mixed. I am currently in the camp of not spending any money on advertising at the moment. Try and build up follows on Twitter and Facebook. Try and connect with similuar minded people over the Internet. I suppose it is a lot harder work than paying for google adwords or facebook to advertise but like you said you can end up shelling out and not getting a great return which is always the risk you take