Let me take a step back and explain.

Every year people all over the world take 15 minutes or less to create an ill-conceived New Years resolution. Oddly, many of those resolutions crash and burn before there’s a chance to break out the Valentine’s Day Peeps.

Why?

Goals are important, not only in business, but in everyday life. They help us to keep going even when times get tough. The problem in the above scenario isn’t that the goals our confetti-throwing friends have chosen are bad. Instead it’s the manner in which they’ve chosen to execute those goals.

Thinking up a goal quickly and hoping it will work, doesn’t work. That’s why we’ve developed a 4-step program to help give your goals a better survival rate.

Selecting A Goal

The first step is to figure out which direction you’d like to move in. Yes that’s correct, the first step to goal success is to pick a goal. This will be a small goal that helps you come closer to achieving your long-term or overall business goal.

When figuring out your goals, make sure that they’re:

• Realistic
• Not easily obtained

Chunking

Once you’ve come up with a goal, you’ll need a plan of action to implement it. This is where phase two comes in.

Take your goal and start “chunking” it. By chunking, I mean breaking your goal up into smaller more manageable pieces. Then you’ll be able to achieve your goal one small victory at a time.

Timeline

The next step is to take your funky chunky pieces and figure out a timeline for completion. Each chunk needs its own specific start and end date to help maximize its success rate.

Once you’ve figured out this schedule, remind yourself of it daily. This can mean writing it on a calendar, on your fridge, macaroni art, whatever works for you.

Review

In the final phase of this process you’ll need to look back on your goals to rate your success or failure.

Ask yourself the following questions depending on if you’ve met your goal or not:

Goal Met

• Was this goal too easy for me to achieve?
• Does achieving this goal bring me closer to achieving my long-term goal?
• Can I reach even farther than the goal I achieved?

Goal Not Met

• Was my goal realistic?
• What factors led me to not reaching my goal?
• What can I do next time to make sure I meet my goal?

After analyzing your method, create a plan to either try to achieve your goal again or try for an even harder goal. Continue to do so until you achieve the long-term success YOU deserve.

This week we received a fantastic question from Sean via Facebook:
“When contracting a programmer, what is the best way to make sure you actually get a product?”

So join us for this week’s installment of Office Hours where Mike gives 3 things you can do to avoid hiring the wrong independent contractor.

Be sure to tune in each Friday to Office Hours on YouTube to see if your question was chosen. Plus, subscribe to our channel and you’ll receive instant email alerts with links to our newest videos.

How to Submit Your Questions:

• Send Us an Email [We LOVE Email!]
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• Tweet Us [#Officehrs]

With tools like social media, websites, and web directories many small business owners can make a first impression with potential customers for little to no cost.

To help small business owners better utilize the power of images, we’ve developed a 4 part series on what you need to know about Facebook photos. In part 4 of the series, Cierra gives some tips on how to get more comments out of your fans with photos.

Increase Fan Chatter With Facebook Photos

Quick Recap

Part 1 – Facebook Profile Branding
Part 2 – 5 Piece Photo Strip Tool
Part 3 – Strategic Facebook Tagging Tricks

Do me a favor though, take a step back and think about why you started your business in the first place.

Most small business owners would say something along the lines of financial independence, or more free time with the important people in their life. No matter which way you think about it, helping to support family is a major factor when starting a business.

So this week take a tip from Mike of Black Dog Education, on how you can balance your work and family life while still being successful in business.