As with any New Year, comes a new set of resolutions! Creating goals and milestones are essential to to the success of any business. However as New Year’s resolutions go, while you want to set your sights high, it’s often easy to fall into the trap of creating too many unrealistic goals for oneself.
As part of the “Just Three Things” series, I’ve decided to limit my own New Year’s resolutions to just 3 major areas. Yes, they each have their own set of baby steps to take in order to achieve each task, but my theme for this year is to keep it in “threes”
2008 was a fantastic year for me, and I hope that 2009 will be that much better! So without further ado, below are the “three things” that I hope to achieve this year…
1. Achieve a Healthy Work / Life Balance
My primary goal for 2008 was to achieve “full time freelance status with a healthy work / life balance.” I surprised myself by reaching the full time freelance portion of this goal within 6 months – half the time I had planned for it to take!
My goals were a bit lofty, though, because although I was able to quit my day job, I still have a long way to go to strike a balance between my business and personal lives.
In 2009, my primary focus will be to finally achieve the ever elusive healthy work / life balance.
Yes, things are much less hectic now that I’m not juggling a full time job with running my own web design business. However the balance between the two is far from ideal.
To say that I’m a workaholic is a bit of an understatement! If I’m not in the office working, I’m with my family thinking about it. Not exactly what you would call healthy…
A major part in achieving this goal will be to focus on organization, productivity and time management in ALL areas of my life.
2. Increase Income by 25% Percent
Another one of my 2008 goals was to match the annual income of my day job. Making half that amount to have in savings was a major requirement before I allowed myself to officially take the plunge.
I was again very pleasantly surprised as I tallied up my 2008 freelance income to find that I had made 25% more with freelancing alone than what my annual income would have been if I kept the day job for all of 2008. Not a bad start to a solo career!
In 2009, I’d like to increase that income by an additional 25%.
In order to achieve this goal, I will need to place a heavy emphasis on marketing. I’ll need to come up with a better marketing plan – one that is consistent in order to avoid the inevitable feast vs famine cycle that is all too common with running your own business. I’ll also need to focus more on SEO – Search Engine Optimization. After all – what good is a web site if no one knows it exists?
Another aspect of this goal – and something I’ve been wanting to do for quite a while – is to begin creating and distributing my own free and premium WordPress themes. While distributing free themes will act as a form of self promotion, premium themes will serve as additional (passive) income to aid in reaching this goal.
3. Increase Blog Subscribers to 3,000
My third major goal of 2008 was to start building this blog, and reach a subscriber base of 500. Due to networking on the social media sites (especially Twitter), as well as getting my feet wet in guest posting on other blogs (specifically Freelance Folder), I surprised myself by doubling my goal to over 1,000 subscribers!
In 2009, I’d like to triple this number to 3,000.
In order to achieve this goal, I will need to focus on writing more frequent, quality articles – at least on a consistent basis of once a week (it has been fairly sporadic to this point, with posts coming out anywhere from 2 to 5 times a month). I’ll be working more on guest posting on other blogs, as well.
First steps here will be to create a regular blogging schedule, and outlining future posts. I’ve got a few new ideas in store that you’ll be seeing in the coming months, so I hope you’ll stick around for those. And if you aren’t already subscribed, I hope you’ll subscribe to blog updates via RSS or via Email.
What Do You Want To Accomplish in 2009?
What are your business goals and resolutions for the New Year? Please share in the comments below. It’ll serve as a good reference point to come back and check on your progress throughout the year!
Here’s to 2009!
It goes without saying that I wish you ALL a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year! May 2009 be all that you hope for, and more!
The post Just Three Things – 2009 Resolutions originally published on iDesign Studios - Web Site Design + Development Company at iDesign Studios.