Happy Motivational Monday! I am typing away at the Albany, New York airport. I had the best time with some really good friends in Saratoga Springs, New York and so enjoyed speaking on Saturday at the Heart Centered Business Summit.
We had quite the adventures, I think we created new material for  our friend Maria Munane’s next book. More on that later! I will write about these friends soon.

I want to continue my goal setting series today. Today is about setting business goals. Let’s break it down into figuring out what you want to do, writing a business plan, studying your financial statements and setting projections.

First, as my good friend, Linda Waters, owner of Confidence Beads and Back to Business,  says- you need to “quiet down and trust your process”. Sit down and start figuring this all out.

What is your business?

If you are not in business yet, you need to decide what you want to do. Do you have a product or a service?  Refer to my prior blog posts about figuring out your passion.
You don’t necessarily have to come up with something entirely new, just put your own twist on it. Jo Khalifa, owner of MoJo Roast (the very best coffee!) found her niche in a very saturated market-coffee. She just made the decision to personally touch each and every customer with her made to order fresh roasted coffee beans. Her business is booming! I love that she is the one that answers the phone when you call and tailors coffee just for you.

Business Plan

To get going,  you should have a  business plan- it doesn’t need to be formal. I didn’t do this on day one, just charged ahead. And that is ok, but you will save a lot of time if you take the time to write out a plan. Tory Johnson spoke at her Spark and Hustle conference  and had some great tips. She said the ideal business plan should be just one page. Just have this page be a total focus of what you what to do. Be concise about what you want to do or make, who you do it for-your target market, and how much money you can make from this. She also said to think of what your medium will be-a newsletter, website, etc.

Study your Financial statements

If you have been in business a while, take the time and study your profit and loss statements from prior years. It is key to see how your business is doing. In January, I studied my costs figured out where I was spending too much money and what I needed to change. This is key to help your business evolve. You may decide to market in a totally different direction after doing this. It is so obvious when you look at your year’s activity on paper this way. You may think you are doing great, because you have a big sales number, but if your bottom line (income-expenses) is not cutting it, then you must change. What really matters for making money is the bottom line! So don’t fake yourself out.

Also, it is a good idea to look at your balance sheet-Your assets minus your liabilities equals your equity. Study your assets-are you carrying too much in inventory? Do you have too many uncollected receivables? Too much debt?

I really enjoyed listening to Marley Majcher speak-she wrote the book “But are you making any Money”. She was working long hours at her catering business, had celebrities using her, had big sales, yet nothing in her bank account. Things turned around for her when she analyzed her financial statements.

Set financial projections

Next project your next year. Write out a financial statement with your projections. Project what you want your sales to be-be realistic but also set a good goal out there. Then list every possible expense category you can think of. For me some of my costs are tee shirt costs, trade show fees, legal and accountant fees, design fees, website fees and  website help costs, travel costs, photographer fees, charge card costs.Those are just a few of my costs! And then if you give to a charity, (I give to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society) project that too. Project how much you think these costs will be and then work on staying in budget. Have a miscellaneous expense category for unknown costs (kind of like a buffer). Then look at what your bottom line will be.
Once you project your sales, break down how you will get to that number by how much in sales you need to have per month, per week, per day! Think of what you can do each day to reach those goals. Refer to your projected profit and loss statement often!

Also set goals in other ways, for example if you have a business Facebook page, how many fans would you like to have at the end of the year? How big do you want your email list to be? What can you do to get there?

In conclusion, setting a business plan, studying financials, and setting projections will really help your business grow with focus!

I hope these tips help you, I would love to hear what others are doing! It is so great when we can share with one another and help each other out!

p.s.-am doing this fast-about to board the plane, so if there are typos or anything, will fix later! Just wanted to get this out to you all! Happy Monday!