If Your Business Plan Doesn’t Include This, You Might Fail!

Here’s the good news; It can be.

You don’t have a GPS for your business but you can create the next best thing, a map for your business or a business plan. I’m going to call it a success map, because if it’s good and you follow it, it will lead you to success.

I’m going to ask you a serious question. If this is even slightly you, read this article to the period of the last sentence and take action right now.

Are you just winging it when it comes to your online business?

(Let’s be real) No real strategy, no goals, no direction and you can’t figure out why your business isn’t exploding with growth right now. It’s so frustrating seeing everyone win but you, and not understand why. I see this happen all the time. Literally, every day and here’s why:

People have these incredible goals but when I ask how they plan to achieve those goals, I get that deer in the headlights stare.

They see successful online businesses and feel like all that success came overnight (so they should get it overnight too).
It takes time and effort.

My point? Don’t stress out. As long as you are following your success map, you will always be doing something to grow your business and it will eventually breed success. When I get anxious about my success, I read this quote from the co-founder of twitter. It snaps me back to reality every time so be sure to write it down and tape it to your mirror or your front door, or anywhere you can see it every day.

Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.
– Biz Stone

Even Biz, who is currently worth $200 million, had to start somewhere and work long and hard to reach this point. He started the same place you are right now, so follow his example and find success. 

Developing Your Success Map

Developing a success map is not only a sure-fire way to reach success, it will motivate you, inspire you and ultimately keep you and your business heading in the right direction.

Your success map consists of:

Goals
Milestones
Social Media Calendar
Advertising Budget

 Setting Goals

Setting goals for yourself is the most important thing you will ever do in your business. Pull out a calendar. It can be on your phone, Google calendars, or a simple flip calendar (I use all three). Think about goals. These goals can be anything, whether it’s making $1 million dollars or adding 100,000 email subscribers to your list (this one’s mine). A lot of people that I know say it’s best to pick realistic goals and these don’t fall into that category.

I say it’s best to set achievable goals, even if you have to hit multiple milestones along the way. These are not goals that you meet in a week, they are where you see yourself in a year, in 5 years or even 10 years from now.

Some advice someone once gave me is to create visual reminders of your goals and put them in places you will see them every day. Recently I have been very involved in a successful MLM company called Plexus. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. For a long time, I resisted all sales advances and wanted nothing to do with it. Slowly but surely, I started seeing people I personally know succeeding and making big life changes with their health and diets. Then I saw it…someone I knew personally did so well, she got a FREE Lexus from Plexus (http://www.plexushq.com)

What?! Plexus Lexus, free vacations, along with the hefty paychecks? I’m in! Well, it’s my (and every Plexus Ambassador’s) goal to drive that Plexus Lexus. So I found a brand new Black Onyx, Lexus LX 570 and took it for a test drive! Now I have a true feel for my goals and this picture sits at my desk.

Whatever your goal is…a brand new Lexus, big new house, extravagant vacation…take these pictures and put them on your mirror, at your desk and anywhere you have to see them every day.

This works great because you are always reminded of your goal and when your goal is always on your mind, it makes it real and achievable.

Record these goals on your calendar(s):

30 day goal
6 month goal
1 year goal
5 year goal

I always feel better when I have set goals and know exactly what I’m working for and you will too. Now, let’s see how we make those big goals actually happen. 

Establish Milestones

A milestone is a marker that represents how far you have come, and how close you are you reaching your goal. They can also keep you on track to completing your goals according to the schedule you create. Keep in mind, milestones are the building blocks of your success. Here’s an example of how milestones can help you achieve your goals:

Let’s say my 30 day goal is to gain 100 more followers on Facebook.

Most would divide that evenly and each week would have a weekly milestone of 25. I have found that when giving myself even milestones, I fall short on some. To combat this, I stack the majority of that goal to be my first milestone and schedule it like this:

week 1 – 50 followers
week 2 – 25 followers
week 3 – 15 followers
week 4 – 10 followers

I find this so much easier because I can put in a huge effort for the first week, then coast the remainder of the month. By the time week 4 comes around, if I haven’t exceeded my 30 day goal, I have recovered enough from the first week to give it another hard push.

Create A Social Media Calendar

I like to have calendars everywhere and sync them up so I always know exactly what I have planned. It helps me stay organized and keeps me on track to success.

A social media calendar or (content calendar) is just like any other calendar except that this is used explicitly for your business. If you use any type of social media, then you know posting regularly is the best policy. Sure, you can use some of the free tools like HootSuite or BuzzBundle, but many of us like to do it the old fashioned way and just post!

Either way, having a plan for your posting will make life so much easier and unlock so much potential in your social media outreach, you will be amazed. Here are a few other ways a social media calendar can help you:

Plan postings around key events and holidays (Christmas and New Years)
Schedule training for your downline or customers (with time to prepare)
Know exactly what you will post and when.
Create a “posting sales funnel”*

*Posting Sales Funnel: You write posts on social media that over a short span of time give people sets of information. This creates interest rather than just showing a graphic and saying, IT WORKS, YOU SHOULD JOIN ME!!! (I think we have all seen enough of this)

Budget For Advertising

This is one of the things that can be difficult to plan for until you know more about advertising. Some people wait until they have started doing really well in their warm market and have money from their business to start advertising.

Those who are more savvy in the field of marketing, understand that advertising can grow your business at an amazing speed and take advantage of this.

There are many different advertising methods on many different platforms. It’s your job to figure out where your audience can be found, and if you should be using CPC or CPM.

CPC: Cost per Click – Every time someone clicks on your advertisement, you pay a small amount. This is a great option because if you’re not getting results, you’re not paying for anything.

CPM: Cost per Mille – Also know as cost per impression. This means that every time your advertisement is served, or someone sees your ad (whether they click it or not) it’s added up. You pay a set amount of money for every 1000 impressions.

Small things like this can make a huge difference in your return on investment (ROI), so when you think you have gained enough knowledge to start spending money on advertising, set a budget that’s reasonable for you and go from there.

Start small, and test, test, test. Some ads work and some don’t. 

Follow Your Map To Success

Now you have created your success map by establishing goals, setting milestones, making a social media calendar and budgeting for advertising. Follow it and you will have that Lexus parked in your driveway in no time!