Are you like me when it comes to starting the new year off?
I love new beginnings, love fresh starts, love setting goals and starting over new. Every year we have the opportunity to make it our best year yet.
Hopefully by this time you’ve made some SMARTER goals for your business and for yourself personally. We hope you take this opportunity to dream big, have fun, and set some tremendous goals. If you haven’t seen our post about setting goals for the year, we encourage you to check it out and see how you can set SMARTER goals for yourself and your business.
- S – Specific – The better you know your objective, the easier it will be to attain it.
- M – Measurable – Can the results be measured and compared to the goal?
- A – Actionable – Can you take action steps to meet this goal?
- R – Realistic – Are you both willing AND able to meet your goal?
- T – Time bound – When do you want to accomplish this goal?
- E – Exciting – Do the goals get you excited about your future?
- R – Relevant – Do these goals match up with the season of life you are in?
Now that you’ve set your goals (seriously, stop right now and set some goals if you haven’t already), we’re going to take those goals to the next level. Here are 5 simple strategies for taking your goals to the next level for your Amazon FBA business this year:
1. Write down your goals.
Often we find ourselves thinking about or talking to other people about our goals, without actually putting pen to paper and writing down a record of our goals. For some reason, however, the physical action of moving a goal from our brain and our mouth down to a piece of paper has an effect on whether we achieve the goal. There’s just something in the process of writing it down that causes people to achieve their goals more often.
2. Break down your goals into smaller goals.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Break down your huge goals into bite-sized pieces so you can keep your forward momentum.
For example, if your goal is to double your sales by the end of the year, then figure out the halfway point and make that a smaller goal for your business. If you made $50k in sales last year and want to double it this year to $100k, go into your account in Seller Central and figure out which day in the previous year you hit $25k in sales. Set a smaller goal for yourself to hit $50k by that date this year.
Another example: You can set smaller goals for your Amazon FBA education. If you set the goal to finish the Proven Wholesale Course by February, you could set smaller goals that will help you complete the course on time. Look at the modules, see how many there are, then figure out when you should finish each of the modules in order to reach your February goal.
3. Put your goals on your calendar.
Once you know what your bite-sized goals are, write your deadlines on your calendar or put them in your calendar app. Having the deadlines on your calendar means you will see them regularly and will keep your goals fresh in your mind.
Even more important than putting those deadlines on the calendar, though, is scheduling time to work on your goals. Make an appointment with yourself to work on achieving your goals. You make time for the things in life that are a priority. If your goals are a priority, you will set aside time where no one can interrupt you as you make progress on your goals. You’re much more likely to actually do something if it’s scheduled in your calendar.
4. Find accountability for working on your goals.
We all need someone to walk with us in life as we make progress towards our goals. I’m not talking about just posting your goals on Facebook for all your “friends” to see. That’s not true accountability. No one is going to come back in a month and check on that post and see how you’re doing.
Find a specific person who has experience in the area of your goal who you can talk to regularly and who will call you out when needed — someone who will ask you honestly about your progress. You don’t have to tell one person all your goals — that could get overwhelming for your accountability partner. But maybe you could tell your spouse one goal, tell a friend in the Amazon business another one, tell your sister another one. And with all of these people, make sure you’re giving, not just taking in the relationship. Accountability works best when it’s mutual, not a one-way street.
5. Review your goals regularly.
Stephen and I set ten really big goals for the year, three personal goals and seven business goals. We will review these goals throughout the year, the same way we did last year. Towards the end of each month we have a budget meeting to go over our family finances, and we also review our goals at the same time. We remind ourselves of our motivations for reaching those goals, look at our progress, decide if they’re still relevant (one year, we completely deleted one goal by August because it no longer applied to our life situation; for another goal, we reached it in July instead of December!), and figure out the next step to take to keep moving forward.
For some people, a weekly review is good, for others quarterly, but for us a monthly review works best. Again, it’s crucial to put this review time on the calendar, or it’s too easy to forget to do it. We challenge you today to put a reminder on your phone or in your calendar for a monthly review of your goals for the next 12 months.
If you follow the steps above, you’re much more likely to accomplish your goals in the time you set for yourself than if you just hope and wish that you’ll achieve them. Dreams are good, but we don’t want you to just live your life on dreams. We want you to develop plans that will help your dreams become reality. Some of you have some amazing long-term goals for your FBA business (like paying off your mortgage or other debt, being able to stay home with your kids, finding freedom from your corporate job). Working towards your goals will also help you achieve your long-term goals and achieve them faster.
Please leave a comment below and let us know how you’ll use these 5 strategies for making progress on your goals. What is your next action step? Did you put a reminder on your phone for your regular goal review? Did you schedule a time to work on your goals this week? Let us know!
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