Business Goals, Objectives & Ambitions

I decided to use this post to address my business goals and objectives in my new online business, as well as my on-going and personal ambitions.

SMART GoalsI haven’t written for a while as I have been recovering from the fall I had while I was walking my dog a few weeks ago. The ribs are still a little painful, but my sprained right hand made it awkward as well as painful to type as I was thinking about the pain more than about what it was that I was writing about.

Things are not too bad now, so I thought it was time to get back into things.

The time away has allowed me to properly think about what my actual goals really are the direction I want to take with my fledgling Internet business.

I missed Dean Holland’s regular iPro webinar last night (Monday 21st) and will catch up on the replay, but I did get to the one held on the 14th. What a marathon that was, turned out that it lasted over 4 hours! Many people went live with Dean and spoke about their goals and ambitions with their on-line businesses. I was also meant to speak, but had to leave as it was approaching the 2 hour mark due to other commitments.

Goals & Objectives

So, I thought that I would use this post to document my goals.

Most people start with their first objective as being to build up a stable and regular monthly income, at an amount sufficient enough to cover their monthly outgoings so they can quit their full-time job.

That’s not a bad objective and is probably what I would have written at one stage, except that I am now sort-of semi-retired. I write that in a hyphenated way, because I have in fact been away from work due to a long term illness since August 2010. I finally agreed a pay-off from my employer and have been officially unemployed since January 24 of this year. I now have no mortgage to worry about, so I can’t be thrown out onto the streets, but there are still utility bills to be paid; food to be bought; cable TV & running of car etc…

I’m still not fully recovered from my illness and still have to take medication and regularly see medical professionals.

And that is precisely why an on-line business is beneficial to me.

Internet Marketing is something that I have been studying since I have been off work. I took a couple of on-line courses and played around with html and WordPress websites. The technical side is no real challenge, as by profession I am an architect of complex computer network systems.

Anyway, back to my goals.

I have all this scribbled in pencil on a piece of paper that resides on my desk. I have “First of June 2014” as a starting date, written on top of the paper, as the month of June is the middle of the year and has a nice, round feel to it. But, I didn’t reckon on my dog causing me to trip up while chasing her down the street and breaking a couple of ribs!

I also didn’t allow for any contingencies in my planning, which is something I would have done as a matter of course when running projects at work. Oh well, stuff happens, as they say.

My Goals

Keep Calm Make SMART GoalsThe periods mentioned in the list below are with reference to that June date:

  • To consistently earn a four figure income every month, within a three month period. To begin with, the amounts need only be modest and I am only looking at figures between $1,000 and $2,000. My sites will slowly rise as I finally make a break-through and start to see stable and regular payments into my bank account.
  • Within a six month period, the monthly income will be approaching $5,000 and I will be pushing that figure higher so that my new focus will be on five figures per month after the six month mark.
  • Income streams will multiply as I become more confident. I am already working on a software product that will be launched using the tried and tested methods of JV’s and affiliates. So this goal is the production of a viable product that will be launched with the six month window.

My Ambitions

Around the time I joined iPro, I also joined a small team of people that are being mentored by a creator of several successful software products in the field of content curation. I can’t give out too many details at present as I have signed a NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement).

My ambitions are to build both a personal and corporate brand that are both known, liked and trusted. This blog is the vehicle for my personal branding, which I have also begun to enhance, starting with the new website banner you see above. I have added a privacy policy to the main drop-down menu and will be adding more new sections. I am also not happy with the amount of time the site takes to load and I know there are too many plugins. A better WordPress theme is needed which will replace my current free ‘Magazine Basic’ theme.

 

Entrepreneurial Mindset & Big Business

All software products I produce will be under a corporate brand name rather than mine. I receive many emails on a daily basis from internet marketers selling their latest and greatest software product and of course, they make sure everyone knows they are personally responsible for it.

Well, what’s so what’s wrong with that, you may ask.

Allow me to shift my mind back to the senior role I held in one of the top three, multi-national IT corporations. I wouldn’t look twice at a product that was attributed to an individual. Through customer meetings, I was responsible for ascertaining and understanding the objectives with relation to a customer’s business requirements.

When all was understood and accepted by both parties,  I would start by looking at software/components etc that were already available with which to architect a solution. An important criteria, is that any suitable products already on the market must have a robust on-going development and support structure behind it. A well documented product life-cycle must also exist so that upgrades can be planned well in advance to minimize disruption to daily operations.

I have had many good products presented to me, that would certainly cover some specific requirement in a program of work. But because the vendor’s ego was so huge, they couldn’t stop themselves from bragging about it being their own personal creation and they alone were responsible for on-going development and support.

Among their peers and in the industry sector they inhabit, such people are regarded as guru’s. Followers pack out webinars and live events in particular, so they can personally meet and be photographed next to their idol. Credit card at the ready, they will impulsively buy anything and everything produced by their hero.

Unfortunately, this is exactly the wrong vision and approach to present when attempting to sell a product into a large commercial organization.

After such boardroom meetings, which rarely ended well, I have personally witnessed a kind-of look descend on their faces, a look I can only describe as a combination of devastation, disbelief and confusion. Wounded pride mixed in with a sense of insult when they realize that the corporate suits and hard-nosed business types are not swooning at their feet. Some have even been left in a state of physical shock when they are rejected.It is a real shame, as some of the products I have seen are very good indeed, but the attitude and risk presented by these so-called ‘guru’s’ are incompatible with the very high value business environments they would love to break in to.

Richard Branson

Photo used in accordance with License.Photo by J Simmons.Image of Richard Branson cropped from original

Succeeding in the boardroom requires a very different approach. Lessons needs to be taken from people like Sir Richard Branson, who perhaps is the most famous and high profile of entrepreneurs. He has perfected an image of a tie-less, long haired and bearded, swash-buckling go-getter. But he knows that the boardroom isn’t the place for that persona.I guess that, in a way, acknowledgement of this very different environment and attitude expectation, could be regarded as the ‘secret sauce‘ for success in a big business environment.

This is the very reason why I want to introduce products into the market as a company brand instead of my personal brand. I know in the early days, these things are most likely one and the same. Take Microsoft, for example. In the early days it was Bill Gates – when phoning Microsoft in the early to mid 70’s, you spoke to Bill. I know this from personal experience, because I did.

When IBM were in the early stages of creating and developing what was to become a new and now dominant genre of personal computing, the first IBM PC. Would they have ever awarded the contract to provide an Operating System for their PC to a company known as ‘Bill’s Software Products’ rather than Microsoft?

Mike Flanagan
http://www.youtube.com/channel/ucprrwvwe11yn3ekyvtz045w