3 Steps To Small Business Goal Setting & Cash Flow
Essential to your profitability and establishing your action plan is taking the three easy steps to small business goal setting and cash flow. If you don’t have specific goals for each day, month and the year, you might as well hang up your business card and your hat!
I believe that lack of goal setting and setting an action plan are the reasons people fail to make money in their business and the ultimate cause of half of all small businesses closing within the five-year mark. Hopefully, we can eliminate you from these sad statistics.
Answer these small business questions (be brutally honest with yourself!)
- Have you set a goal on how much money you must or want to bring into your business on a daily basis? Monthly? Yearly?
- Are you completely focused each day on a series of business tasks that are prioritized and focused on your ‘system’ of products or services?
- Are you making the income you desire and deserve even though you may only have a small list?
If you answered no to these three questions, then please read on. I’m going to give you three easy steps to profitable small business goal setting to get you into cash flow as quickly as possible.
Work is involved here. Are you ready to roll up your sleeves, stop making excuses why you can’t, and start telling the world why you can do it?
3 easy steps to profitable small business goal setting and cash flow
1. Determine your yearly income goal. Seriously, pick the number you need or want to make each year. Don’t let lack of confidence, a spouse telling you it’s not possible, or limitations with education stop you from reaching your dream goal.
Most people do not set their goals high enough. Achieving your business goal means you have to take action and write a goal out. If you think you want to make $50,000 a year, I urge you to double it.
Next, you must know what that number equates to per day, so you can have a plan in place to achieve the daily goal, then the monthly goal, and ultimately the yearly goal. Don’t keep the same goal for the next year – increase it.
Small business goal setting requires constant attention and adjusting the numbers as you reach them. Always be striving to reach the next highest number.
Are you ready for the challenge? Do it!
2. Know your business ‘system’. You must have a system in place that allows your prospects to find you, interact with you, and buy from you. Take your prospect from Point A (an easy opt-in product) to Point B (a low cost ticket item) to Point C (an upsell higher ticket item) to Point D (a free Webinar/teleseminar/consultation) to Point E (making the purchase).
This may take you several weeks or months to put your system into place, but you must do it. Forget about the blog writing, Facebook ads, or anything else until you have the system in place. Otherwise, none of the other items will do you any good. You may already be experiencing this with limited cash flow or even no cash flow in your business (which tells me you need to take these three steps).
3. Use the telephone. You absolutely do not need a big list to close multiple sales. When I started online marketing four years ago, I was making $3,000 a month within a few months (with less than 100 leads). Why? I was totally focused on my goals and how much I wanted to make each day.
Business goal setting is essential – and reaching those goals will take using the telephone. Selling over the telephone is the second highest closer on sales (in person being the first) and the best way to use your time wisely. Consider placing 80% of all your time on the phone with your prospects and clients because that is where the cash flow is!
Don’t believe me that the telephone works? Consider then that some of the biggest Internet gurus in the business have a sales force that work solely to close over the phone, after the prospect enters the system and gets to a certain point they are extremely qualified (buying products).
Why would a big Internet guru even consider the phone when they have a gigantic list? Because they know the statistical numbers and the results mean they can close on big ticket sales faster using the phone.
Are you ready to get into action and set your small business goal setting up? You’ve got to be accountable to yourself, but if you are looking for the rest of the world to help you – then post your goals below and force yourself to be accountable to them, too. Do whatever it takes, but you’ve got to set your goals and get your action plan working on a system that delivers!
I’ll be sharing some more insight on how to increase your sales and help you in your business with some great copywriting techniques that you can use in your system. Keep your eye on the next article I’ll be writing.
Empowering You To Close A Sale,
Alicia Bausley
P.S. Be sure to post your daily goal below. Small business goal setting means you’ll have to spend a few minutes thinking about your yearly goal, really considering your system of products (affiliate, MLM or custom), and knowing what to say when you actually contact your prospect. It works! Post your small business goal below.
Calling your financial shot is essential. It’s crucial that you don’t get constrained by past results or performance when making up your number. The speed in reaching it depends on your system. The quicker the gaps get filled, the closer we are to our number. And while the gaps are filling, everyone has a phone and everyone has a list. My colleague Elaine Starling says your relevance to your clients, customers or subscribers depends on being organized to connect, contribute and collaborate. Using the phone is a quick way to stir conversations that lead to unpredictable sometimes extraordinary results. The kind of results that make us quickly reevaluate our numbers . . . and play bigger.
P.S. My wife’s been telling me this for years. Finally took the coaching! Thanks for another sign I’m on track.
Alicia,
This article is great. Actually, I recently joined a young professional group in my area and currently participating in their mentoring program. I speak to someone every week to make sure I stay accountable to doing what I said I was going to do.
My action plan is to make an additional $2000.00 a month; that is &64-66 a day and 24,000 a year. First, I want to really nail down my niche and research which problem I’m going to solve. From that point, I want to set up a sales funnel (from beginning to end).
Laticia recently posted..A New Science In Network Marketing
Outstanding Laticia! Being accountable to someone can make all the difference in the world! If you don’t mind me recommending this, consider some time-bound goals too, for your final reserach on your niche along with your sales funnel. What is your estimated time of completion for each? How much would you need to do weekly to reach your deadline/goal? I’m cheering you on from the sidelines!
Warmly,
Alicia
Hi Gurumantra,
Elaine’s a sharp cookie (that’s why we were so excited to have her at our live event last year, as a guest speaker!).
Using the telephone not only stirs a conversation, it prompts an action from your prospect when done properly. The most important aspect of picking up the telephone is knowing how you can serve your prospect. It must be value based and of course provide a solution for their challenge, need or desire. Congratulations for taking the coaching – and for being on track. Thank you for commenting!
Warmly,
Alicia
Hi Alicia,
Great reminder! I am a student of your Secrets To Selling course (12 months ago) ; I did that course to refresh me in the natural selling techniques that I had learned from Michael Oliver years before and that I now train my team around.. So thanks for that.. And this is another concise reminder that I have paraphrased on my blog for my readers also. Thanks for your quality content as usual.
Hi Juli,
Yes, I remember you! So glad that you took our Secrets To Selling course! I appreciate you taking the time to comment and to provide us such a kind compliment.
Warmly,
Alicia
Great article. I have been thinking about it all night and I realized that I don’t have a financial plan. I’m just getting by– not getting ahead– which is frustrating. So good advice on figuring out your desired annual income and working backwards to figure out how to get there. That’s a great start for me.
And I have all of EBE’s great material to get my systems in place. The phone? Big block for me. But you are right, it’s all about personal connection. I need to get over my phone phobia!
Hi Jean,
Lisa and I are taking a high-end 8-week course right now that further confirms that phone sales work. A very recognizable industry giant has now gone from focusing his attention on online marketing to OFFLINE marketing, with an emphasis…get this – in direct mail and telephone. In fact, all of my attention has been placed completely on doing phone work – super qualifying my leads, and presenting a big ticket item. Trust me…this works! Thanks for commenting Jean!
Warmly,
Alicia