It may seem basic to you, but having a set of clear, written business goals is essential! I talk with a lot of businesses who may think they have goals, but are often vague or change from one day to the next.

Why?

• Without written goals, your thinking will tend to be more muddled. Worse, you’ll probably believe your thinking is clear and not realize how much your unclear thinking is hurting your business.
• Your goals act as a filter to help prioritize your time and effort. If it doesn’t forward a goal, why do it?
• Clear business goals will help you create clear objectives for your website. Do you want a website that generates leads for you, a site that sells products, or something else?
• When you know what you’re looking for, you’re more likely to find it! There are various explanations for why life works this way. All I know is that it works.

So, how do you create good business goals?

Your goals should:

• Be Specific
• Be Measurable
• Have a time frame
• Be stated in the past tense.

This last one needs a little explanation.  Imagine you are in the future, and your goal was already fully realized. Writing your goals this way will make them seem more achievable!

Here’s an example goal:

XYZ company had $546,000 of total revenues in 2010.

This goal is specific, it’s measurable, it states a time frame, and it’s written in the past tense.

So, please, whether you’ve been in business for a long time or are just starting your company, create a set of clear business goals. If you get stuck, leave a comment, and I’ll help you get going! And, when this works for you, please leave a comment to tell everyone how you succeeded.

Clarke Bishop Marketing, Strategy Marketing Tips

I just got back from InfusionCon, the Infusionsoft users conference. If you don’t already know, Infusionsoft combines CRM, eMail marketing, and a shopping cart all into one integrated system!

InfusionCon was interesting — Part multi-level marketing rally, and part how to really make marketing work for your small business.

There were plenty of great ideas, and I’m going to share the highlights with you over the next few weeks.

Here’s one great idea: Regularly schedule a marketing day to work ON your business. If your business is like mine, there’s just no end of things to do — Client projects, administration, sales follow-up, web administration, etc.

Infusionsoft let’s you automate your marketing and other aspects of your operations! Even though Infusionsoft makes a lot of things easier, you still have to write your copy and set things up. That where Marketing Days come in. You just have to schedule time to do this stuff.

I actually started my version of this idea before InfusionCon. I let all my clients know that I would no longer be available on Fridays unless there was a real emergency. I got very little resistance, and so far, there’s only been one “emergency” that took about an hour to handle.

Clarke Bishop General, Infusionsoft Marketing Tips