Short Term and Long Term Goals

Photo Credit: Dana Lookadoo

So I felt like it was time to set some definite goals down. Not weekly goals, but bigger goals. I call them short term and long term, but the truth is those are relative terms. I basically will have two goals, one at 6 months and one at a year. At first I hesitated over if I would post this, but then I realized that a large part of me hesitating was fear. Fear of failure, because if I put these goals out there, then there is the real possibility that I will not make them. By putting them out on internet I've announced to the world (at least any who read this blog) my intentions, and if I fail then that many people know of it. 

This made me realize that I was thinking wrong. One, I shouldn't automatically assume failure on my part. If I do then I am making my own self fulfilling prophecy, essentially setting myself up to fail. Really, that's not how I feel at all. I feel confident with my goals, and ready. I've tried a few different things over the past couple years, and I've read a lot of books, blogs, articles, you name it. I feel good, with where I'm at, the work I'm putting into this, and with my plan.

Secondly, failure in and of itself isn't a terrible thing. I've failed quite a lot over the last two or three years actually. You know what, it's okay that I have. I've learned so much from each of those failures. About myself, my work ethic, and different business models. It's because of those failures that I feel like I'm on better footing now. So it's from a place of failure that I feel the most confident to move forward. From this place I've decided on my financial goals.

• In 6 months I fully intend on making $150 a week with my online and offline ventures. Where do I get this number? Simple, $20 * 365 (days in a year)= $7300. $7300/12 (months)= $608 month. That divided by 4 (weeks) is around $150 a week. So it's my $20 a day goal basically, I'm just giving myself a very definite timeline to achieve this goal. Here's how I plan to meet this short term goal.
• Amazon FBA - Although I've moved slowly on this one I fully plan to move forward and start making money with this. I've even outlines a rough sketch of HOW I plan to move my FBA business forward, but that's a post for another day.
• Kindle Ebooks - I've already got an outline and idea for my first book, and I've thought of a couple others. I would really like to try and crank out 3 books over the next six months. A bit ambitious of me perhaps, but I'm really pushing myself.
• That was the short term, here is my long term goals. In one year I would like to completely replace my income with outside revenue sources. As in, if I wanted to I could quit my job income. I currently make around $22,000 a year so that's my goal. $22,000 in a year. Doesn't mean I will actually quit my job, doesn't mean I won't, it just means that I prove to myself that I can replace my income. Here's my potential income sources:
• Amazon FBA - Although I want to make the bulk of my "$20 a day" through FBA it doesn't mean that I'm going to keep much of that money. In fact I plan on rolling most of my initial profits straight back into buying more inventory. More inventory equals more money, so that's going to be my focus.
• Kindle Ebooks - Once my initial 3 book burst is over I'll have to stop and re evaluate how to proceed from there. Depending on a few different factors I'll decide if I'm going to continue with non-fiction, or branch into fiction like I would like to. Revenue wise non-fiction is likely to make me more money, but personally, being a published fiction author is a cherished dream, so I'll have to decide. Regardless, I would like to publish 2 more books on top of the initial 3 I published. I'll also test some different pricing strategies to try and boost sales of the titles that have been out for awhile.
• Offline Classes - Not sure on this one, but I would like to try and pull in a few extra hundred dollars a year this way. Teaching some informative local classes a few times a year might just be a nice little revenue boost per year.
• This Blog - At the moment of me writing this, this blog has no monetization at all. I have no affiliate links, I'm not selling my own products, and I have one single ad from adsense. I don't plan on changing any time soon, but eventually I will begin to monetize. Probably through referring different products (mostly ebooks I'm sure lol) I've used/read and recommending them (or not) to my readers. They will always be honest, and I'll never fudge just to make a dollar. 
• Offline Sales - I like refurbing old furniture, and painted furniture is HOT right now. I'm going to start keeping my eyes open while I'm scouting FBA inventory for good quality but cheap pieces I can easily fix up a little and paint. The plan is to improve them with minimal effort and money and turn around and resell for a decent profit.

So there are my goals, and my rough idea of how I will accomplish them. It's going to take a lot of hard work and determination on my part, but I'm ready. As of now I'm motivated and moving forward full steam. The beginning is always the easiest though, it's going to be in a month or two that I'll start to slow down. Hopefully when that happens I can just come back to this post and remind myself what my goals were and what I'm working towards. A rough plan of how much, when and how for your own business is not a bad idea. You need those definite goals to work towards, and don't fear failure, embrace it. Learn from it, and grow from it.