small biz gurl*

i have been vegging and reading blogs lately and pretty much other than the usual "happy holidays" and "happy new year," lots of people are doing round up as well as planning for next year. hello, dollar! has an excellent post on setting financial goals.

mr. hello dollar have broken this down in steps which i find very helpful for me. (i am a step kind of gurl!):

Step 1: Identify major financial goals, with a time frame.
Step 2: Figure out how much money they'll cost.
Step 3: Develop a long-term plan to reach those goals.
Step 4: Develop a short-term plan with more specific steps to get started.
Step 5: Make the necessary changes to implement the plan.

i also like an english major's money's post on setting monetary goals:

With money goals, there are two easy ways to make your goals achievable:
1) Work with percentages, instead of absolute numbers. Instead of "I'm going to put $10,000 in my 401(k) this year," try, "I'm going to increase my contribution from 6% to 10%." This builds in the requirement that you pay attention to how much you can really afford to give, and it lets your contribution grow with your income.
2) Work in smaller time increments. Instead of "I'm going to save $5,000 for a house this year," try, "I'm going to put away $100 every week towards a down payment." Every week you get to meet your goal (especially if you automate the transfer!), and if you miss a week, you can be back on the horse the next week, succeeding again. This can help to circumvent the "all or nothing" mentality, where you slip up on a goal and then decide to chuck the whole thing entirely (I do this a fair amount myself).

 

so here are my major finanical goals for the future (one of my new year's resolutions now is to write my goals down):

• long term goals: (9 years from now; before i am 35) (i know i know 9 years is more of a short term goal, but hey, life is short and my imagination is limited. really cannot imagine me being in my 30s, let along 60!)
• • buy a home in 5-9 years
  • buy an investment property (or warehouse for company) in 5-9 years
  • be able to afford to donate 5%+ of my salary to charities that are important to me
  • expand the business's revenue to $100,000 annually
• intermediate goals: (4 years from now; before i am 30)
  
• • increase profits 15%-25% annually
• short term goals: (2007!)
• • turn red to black by increasing 8x job volume (a bit ambitious but i will darn try!)
  • allocate my income properly with percentage to control my spending and savings
    
  • • we booked a total of 6 paying jobs (6 non-paid as "shadowing/" classroom trainings) this year (march through december), which was not bad for first year in business considering i had to take almost 2 month off due to family emergencies, as well as being gone for first half of the march for working vacation in europe
      
    • => so basically 1 job per week with a 4-week buffer

here are some steps to do to achieve the short term goals:

• to generate 8x job volume:
• • start marketing more aggressively for the business
  • hanging onto current clients and generate word of mouth
  • figure out my niche
  • get out of my fear box
  • expand and add team members
    
    
• allocate my income properly:
  
• understand how my $ flows: seperate all business (both businesses) & personal accounts
  
• break down income into little bits for different purposes:
• • personal expenses like groceries, etc. @ 15%
    
  • indulgence (reward for each job successfully booked & complete) (little bonuses if you will) @ 5%
  • putting it back to grow the company @ 80%
    
• be more organized in paperwork and tracking finances
• generate other income: look into multiple income producing streams: putting ads on blogs, selling things i no longer use, etc

intermeidate goals:

• retain customers for the long run. there are enough business for everyone even if the competition can be fierce. i need to develope that niche as well as happy customers to ensure a strong foundation. so to have a solid foundation in 2007 will be crucial (!)

• set aside "me" time: 1 date with myself every week; i am going to combine it with this one: get out more: visit 1 new place per week
• consistently learn new crafts and personal enrichment: at least 1 workshop per month for both of my fields
  
• give back to the community: bottom line is 1% of my income this year
• learn a new language: i wanna learn german ;)
• read a new book every month
• go back to yoga