As you’re taking down the tree and visiting relatives are checking the status of their flights back home, it is clear that another holiday season is winding down. Like it or not, another year has passed and it is time to think about how to make your next year the best one you’ve had, so far.

You work hard every day to build your business but, if you don’t feel your business is where it ought to be, it may be due to the fact that you’ve been so swept up with tactical matters that you haven’t really stopped to consider what it is that you really want. With that list in front of you, you are ready to set some goals.

Goal setting for your small business owners requires both imagination and foresight. Here are some great questions you can use to organize your thinking for a goal setting exercise:

1. What do you want to change?
2. Where will this change take your business?
3. Why do you want to change now?
4. What do you need to do to make the change?
5. When do you want the change to take effect?
6. How will this change improve your business?
7. What happens after you’re there?

This sort of brainstorming can help you whether your goals are business or personal and envisioning goals in this way guides you to think strategically. Putting things in a list can actually help you find related goals, or goals that need to be done in sequence, so you can economize on the resources needed to accomplish them too.

Setting goals may seem like a daunting task but it is a necessary step in setting the course for advancing progress. As John F. Kennedy said:

“Effort and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.”

So think SMART when you think of goal setting.

S is for Specific

If your goals are specific, you have a much better chance of achieving them. So, for each of your items on the list, answer these questions:

Who: Who is involved?

What: What will be accomplished?

Where: Identify the location where work will take place.

When: Establish a time frame.

Which: Identify essential and constraining factors.

Why: Specific reasons and benefits of the accomplished goals.

M is for Measurable

Establish tangible criteria for measuring progress toward the goal’s attainment. Each milestone is a point of potential exhilaration that motivates you to continue. When verifying that you have set measurable criteria, ask yourself questions like:

How much?

How many?

How will I know when it is done?

A is for Attainable

This is where the priorities or the “why do it at all” questions help. If you have items on your list that really matter, you can find ways to accomplish them. Your dedication to accomplishing these goals will drive you to develop attitudes, abilities, skills, and the financial resources necessary to reach them.

If your goals seem far from reach, remember that you have the ability to make them attainable by growing and expanding to match them. Each time you do what you previously believed could not be accomplished, you are improving your self-image, which allows you to feel worthy of the rewards that reaching your goals can give.

R is for Realistic

Choose goals that are representative of substantial progress and include objectives toward which you are both willing and able to work. It isn’t necessarily true that your goals must be set low in order for them to be realistic. You are at the helm of your own ship, after all.

T is for Tangible

Your goals ought to be something you can experience with one of the five senses. If you must have an intangible goal, like one that is tied to self-improvement, relate it to a tangible one through offering yourself a reward that you can experience.

Remember that none of your goals are cast in stone. If you are persistently evaluating outcomes while working toward them, you may find adjacent goals that actually will bring greater improvements for your lifestyle or business. When this happens, go back to your list and adjust it accordingly.

While it is important to work toward things that you need, if these things are not what you want, you’re far less likely to accomplish your goals. Ultimately, you must WANT something in order to take ACTION to acquire it. This is where my favorite mindset philosophy comes in: DREAM – DO – HAVE.

Dare to DREAM so you will DO what is necessary to HAVE your dreams come true!

Thank you for your readership, always, and here’s wishing each of you a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Wordpress was awarded the 2009 Open Source CMS Award last month. Not only is this a great honor for the software, it validates a decision I made to specialize with this CMS years ago and all of the recommendations that I’ve made to website clients for the past several years. Wordpress is a powerful CMS and, with the improvements introduced during the past year and this award, it is crystal clear that the software has stepped up to the plate for consideration as the basis for any website project.

Wordpress Wins 2009 Open Source CMS Award

Many of you who know me understand my deep appreciation for Wordpress. I began using the software as a blogger in late 2004 when I set up my first self-hosted blog. Since that time, my interest in blogging has become a way of life for me.  My Wordpress development skills have been a good source of income for me and I love being a self-employed entrepreneur.

In fact, entrepreneurship is a frequent topic on my blog. An important attribute of being an entrepreneur is having a willingness to take measured risks but crucial to entrepreneurial survival, regardless of one’s niche, is resilience. Ideas bloom, excitement builds, partnerships are formed, and there are many ups and downs along the way.

This amazing interview with Matt Mullenweg, the father of Wordpress, really gives a lot of great insights into a smart way to start and grow a company. Other participants in this show are Jason Calacanis and Joel Spolsky. All are visionaries and well respected in the internet arena. The interview is nearly 2 hours long but it is well worth your time to listen, at the very least. I must caution you that Jason uses some colorful language while telling some of his stories.

Personally, I find it enjoyable when something occurs that seems synchronous to events in present time. The other night, such an event occurred. While rifling through papers in my desk drawer, an old fortune from a fortune cookie surfaced. It read:

One’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.

Not only is this synchronous, it also is quite profound in its simple truth. Once we are introduced to a something new, and the idea takes root in our minds and inspires us, it is virtually impossible to operate as we did before we made our important discovery. Our eager minds pursue the idea and follow it through permutations and twists in the road. Through every turn, the core substance of the idea remains solid and the starting point to which you always will return, should you find a need to adjust your strategy.

Take Internet Marketing, for example. A few years ago, I decided that I would get income through online means. In pursuit of that vision, I began subscribing to newsletters and purchasing products that would teach me more about what people were doing online. Some of the methods that I evaluated are not ones that I use or would recommend but knowing what not to do is almost as important as knowing what to do, isn’t it? Due to my interest and attention, I am able to spot trends and, when it comes to opportunity offers, I have a pretty good system for separating the wheat from the chaff.

As I put my own business plan into motion, it became obvious that my time spent learning about internet marketing was extremely helpful to people who retained my services for Online Branding and wanted to get income online. Although my primary source of income is still from my consulting services, the fact that I am personally involved with my customers doesn’t imply that I am not an internet marketer. I source all of my business through Web 2.0 methods and enjoy working with people.  And, the best part is that my business is totally portable!

My mind was stretched by this self-induced learning. When I approach a potential business liaison or client, it is nearly impossible for me to talk merely about traditional means of sourcing new business. When I set up ecommerce websites, for instance, I make recommendations beyond layout, technology, and graphics. My degree is in business and that knowledge, coupled with the education I’ve received through personal learning, are assets to any project that I undertake and I’ve heard this repeatedly from my customers.

All things being equal, anyone who has a business website is an internet marketer. Here is the caveat; The prettiest site in the world cannot manufacture new business and cash flow. If you haven’t done so already, it would serve you well to either learn about, or retain the services of someone who knows about techniques that will improve your website’s visibility through Web 2.0 techniques that drive targeted traffic, as well as performing the time-consuming SEO methods that will get it listed and ranked by search engines. If you are in business and have no website, you are missing an incredible opportunity. Personally, I feel that it is sheer folly to be in business without a website. It is statistically proven that people look online prior to making any purchase decision.

Even though this is not business related, our minds can also be stretched by ideas that present themselves in everyday life. The ingenuity of a child who is working out a difficult “engineering” problem related to the sand castle they are building at the beach is a good example. It is not an unimportant side note to remind you to take time to relax your mind so as to re-charge your creative juices.  If we are fortunate, we retain our sense of awe about things that are remarkable and have nothing to do with making money, like watching swallows soaring high above us or witnessing the oceans that undulate through forces unseen. At times when you need to restore yourself, it is good to have easy access to those things that opened your mind as a child.

In my work as a freelancer and service provider, I frequently find myself in competition with overseas talent whose rates don’t even meet minimum wage requirements in the United States.  While I am all for supporting the global economy, it is impossible for me to meet their prices.  Sometimes my clients decide to go for the lowest cost bid, even though they would prefer to work with me … or so they say.  And sometimes my clients return to me with a partially completed project and a story to tell.

What is funny about this is that there are also overseas buyers who know they could acquire talent for a lower rate who grasp the importance of working with someone who is readily available and also has skills that meet the needs of their projects.  I’ve delivered projects to business owners in third world countries who admitted this was true.

In the early 1990s, when corporations began to shut down divisions of their companies and eliminate jobs, to subsequently open them up again on foreign soil where labor was cheaper, there was a public outcry.  Corporations were accountable only to their shareholders, however, so the devaluation of human capital became a common method of meeting those demands.  And what has been the effect on the global economy?  It is my opinion that liberal credit policies are not the only contributors to the current crisis.

Wikipedia defines Human Capital as being the stock of skills and knowledge embodied in the ability to perform labor so as to produce economic value.  The wiki goes on to say that it is the skills and knowledge of a worker acquired through education and experience.  I acknowledge that some overseas service providers have equivalent skills, education and experience to a US based service provider.  I also acknowledge that some overseas talent fall far short of the line drawn in the sand.

Until the effect of offshore outsourcing begins to affect your income, it is easy to explain away choices that keep a local service provider from working with you or declare that US labor prices need to be lowered so offshore competition is healthy.  I value your insightfulness and honor your decisions.  After all, you are in business and the economics of your projects balanced with your sales will define the return on your investment. 

I would like to present another side of the coin for your consideration.  If your project is intended to target the market whose labor rates you feel are inflated, your sales may be affected because your target market has to make difficult choices about how to allocate the income they are able to attract. 

In the end, there always is a balance to things.

Frequently we forget the importance of Brand Equity. As internet marketers, that brand is not a business opportunity or a company we may have chosen to represent. While those things may assist us to get income, they are tools we use. By carefully managing the online image that is our name, we build potential for a future we cannot envision today. Nothing is more important than protecting our online brand image.

It may seem a little obsessive, but I set up Google Alerts for my name years ago after learning that my Real Estate clients were Googling me. That also heightened my awareness of what they might learn about me. In that instance, they were interested to learn of my artistic pursuits but, frankly, it didn’t impress me that this was the most prominent data they could locate. Energy was diverted to changing that.

The same tactics that I used to erase my Real Estate career from page one of Google will work for you if you are just starting out online. Immediate results were achieved by interacting on forums and commenting on blogs. Ensure that your posts are relevant to the topic and add value and always include your name in a signature block.

As an Online Branding Consultant and Wordpress Website Designer, I’m fully aware of branding strategies for companies. Using education, experience and business acumen, I’ve helped many people identify and implement their online branding strategies.

To assist those of you who have not studied business, it might be important to explain the four different types of branding strategies that are used.

Single brand identity is as it says a separate brand for each product. By way of example, if you have a company with several products, you would develop each product identity as a stand alone brand name. Hershey does this by having product groups, but each product name is name is much better known. Most of us know that M&Ms are a Hershey product but do we automatically relate the Hershey name to Twizzlers or Heath Bars? The resources required to manage multiple unique product brands must be considered if this is the strategy you are choosing for your business.

When a company uses its name for all their products, they have implemented an umbrella branding strategy. This is the approach that is employed in my business model for it allows flexibility and ease of brand management. More famous examples exist, however. Sony, HP, Linksys, and GE, are household names for their product lines while the model numbers are obscure things we only look at when filling out a warranty card or contacting technical support.

Multi-brand categories are different brands for different product categories. In this scenario, the same company has different company names for their product groups. As a former Minnesotan, Pillsbury comes to mind. Through acquisition, they grew from milling flour to a large conglomerate owning several restaurants and store food brands. Mergers have returned the company to their core competency of baking products and they have since divested all their restaurant holdings.

Lastly, a company might choose to have a common name stem. This is useful for leveraging brand loyalty. Nestle has done this with Nescafe, Nesquick and Nestea.

What is a brand and why should you protect yours?  The marketing mix should focus on consistency and quality. Even if your business is primarily affiliate marketing, Top Gun affiliate marketers like Ewen Chia and Michael Cheney have instant access to their loyal lists to get income whenever they want it due to the careful management of their names and the products they have chosen to endorse.

Your brand is your reputation and, if you manage it well, it will serve you for years to come.

Many times throughout the past year, this blog has recommended some form of due diligence prior to entering any business. The last post was much more focused on business basics and recommended tools that have assisted successful Fortune 500 companies to perform structured research prior to initiating new strategies.

As a seasoned entrepreneur, it is clear that having knowledge of business basics provides a competitive edge.  Regardless of the scope of your vision, if your intention is to use it to obtain financial freedom, having a solid plan is an important tool.  As a former colleague of mine once opined, a plan is something that you can use to measure your progress. Also, if you need to seek funding via investors, you must have a formal plan to present for their consideration and this plan has to include detailed market research.

Assuming that you believe that the money or time you are investing or plan to invest in your business is valuable, you will find it easy to appreciate the need to analyze your competition but you might be asking yourself how to go about it.  Essentially, competitor analysis involves two basic activities:

1. Obtaining information about important competitors
2. Using that information to predict potential competitor responses

Casual knowledge about your competition is normally not enough. Using a systematic approach to gather a wide array of information permits you to make informed decisions about how to best position your new product or service or how well the business you are planning to join is positioned.  The objectives and assumptions of competition are indicators about what they are doing and what they are capable of doing, which defines their strengths and weaknesses.  As you uncover market risks from studying competitiors, remember that one person’s risk can become another person’s advantage.

There are many sources of public information for you to use while gathering your intelligence.  If competition is organized and traded publicly, you can review documentation required for them to sell stocks.  This includes shareholder reports, 10K reports, analyst interviews, management statements and press releases.  Most of this information is available on sites like E*Trade.  Another good resource for Press Releases is PRweb, a site you might even use in the future.

If you understand the business objectives of your competition, you can more accurately predict their response to various competitive moves.  As an example, a business focused on short-term financial goals will not be willing to invest financial resources in response to an apparent competitive attack. 

You can determine what is important to your competition by learning more about their structure.  An organizational overview will reveal a lot.  The functions that report directly to the chief executives are those that will, most likely, be given priority.  If your idea targets functions with lower priorities to your perceived competition, it is your advantage.

If you clearly understand the assumptions of your competition, you can predict their reaction to your interference.  Imagine that the company has previously suffered a product failure which has caused their executives to determine there is no market for that product or service.  This knowledge presents an opportunity to be explored.  Little known companies like Honda have leveraged advantages just like this!

Evaluating your competition’s resources and capabilities provides insights into what competitors are capable of doing in response to a threat.  You can delve further to determine how quickly they will be able to react too.

After gathering information about your competition’s objectives, assumptions, strategies, and capabilities, compile it into a response profile of possible moves they might make against your idea.  Like pieces on a chess board, you can use these profiles to anticipate the possible moves on the board well in advance of the plays and have a plan of action that keeps you in the game.

We all are aware that that there is competition in any market.  Whether your business idea is online or offline, it is critical to evaluate competition, as well as buyer behavior.  In fact, some schools of thought suggest that one ought to evaluate consumer behavior prior to analyzing anything else, which makes sense. 

Michael Porter, the man who imagined strategic analysis, was a business thought leader in the early 1980s but … well … his stuff was written in the early 1980s.  As we all are aware, business has changed significantly since then, partially due to major advances in technology.  A couple of theorists named Brandenburger and Nalebuff extended Porter’s work to include evaluation of consumer activity using something called the Six Forces Model in the mid 1990s, and their work involves game theory.

If your product is internet based, there are many tools that measure what people are searching for and some even offer statistics about consumer behavior but, without knowing what data was used to calculate it, the onus falls on you verify assumptions you have made about the market niche you want to reach.  The next post will provide more details about this topic, so stay tuned!

If you are enjoying my articles or find them valuable, please leave a comment and let me know.  You also might want to share them with your friends on your favorite bookmarking site or social network.  If you have specific questions you would feel I can answer or a topic you’d like me to address, I encourage you to use the Contact form to communicate with me directly.  You also can connect with me on Twitter or Skype.

When you are disappointed by anything, what are your tactics for overcoming that feeling? Not so long ago, my grandson answered that random question in this way:

“Oh … I just look out the window and take some action.”

My curiosity was satisfied through further inquiry. The action that this astute 6-year old boy takes is to imagine that he has gotten what he wanted to have. Without thinking too hard, he knows how to do something that many people have paid money and invested many hours to learn. My grandson mentally rewrites the story so it ends in a way that he can feel happy. He shifts his mindset!

Whether this is intuition or instinct remains a curiosity but there is no doubt that my grandson’s method works. Envisioning a desired outcome enables you to see, hear, and feel it in such a way that it can become real. It is the basis of the popular Law of Attraction philosophy.

Envisioning what you want to go after is only the beginning, however. After you’ve imagined it, you need to perform some soul-searching that measures your personal readiness to operate in that niche, as well as performing due diligence about the future you have envisioned.

Two models are used for strategic analysis in business; PEST and SWOT.

A PEST analysis should always occur first. It measures a market, including competitors, against four external factors; Political, Economic, Social, and Technological. When conducting this phase of due diligence, it is critical to be crystal clear about the market aspect you are addressing so you can observe the external factors from any of the following standpoints:

• a company looking at its market
• a product looking at its market
• a brand in relation to its market
• a local business unit
• a strategic option, such as entering a new market
• a potential acquisition
• a potential partnership
• an investment opportunity

Within each of the aspects of a PEST analysis, there are several details that need to be evaluated. This analysis may seem more useful and relevant for larger propositions, but very small businesses can use it to locate significant issues that might otherwise be overlooked.

A SWOT Analysis evaluates the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This tool measures a proposition or idea, including competitors, and assists with understanding and decision-making for many business situations. Here are some examples of what a SWOT analysis can help you assess:

• a company (its market position, commercial viability, etc.)
• a sales distribution method
• a product or brand
• a business idea
• a strategic option, such as entering a new market or launching a new product
• an acquisition
• a potential partnership
• supplier changes
• outsourcing services, activities or resources
• an investment opportunity

Strategic Planning may not seem essential but, even if you are the only one at the party, careful evaluation of any business action prior to making an investment is prudent. In a small way and somewhat unconsciously, we perform these analyses every time we go to the grocery store so it makes perfect sense to do so when considering a business, doesn’t it?

At internet speed, the pressure to act quickly is always a factor when deciding whether or not to pursue something. Whether the decision involves $5 or $5,000, the result is the same if that business doesn’t pan out and there is no one to blame but yourself if you have taken no time to investigate it.

Using PEST and SWOT templates to evaluate your plans will force you to think through all the aspects of whatever you are investigating. The internet is a remarkable asset in this research but it should not be your only resource. And, if your research reveals that your idea is not all that you had originally envisioned, young children also teach us something else. When they are interested in what they’re doing, a fall rarely causes them to stop playing the game.