Many small business owners sit down and write out goals around the beginning of the year. Everyone is talking about goals for the new year in December and January, then you don’t hear much more about it the rest of the year.
If you haven’t set any goals, why not start now? You don’t have to wait until January for goal setting. Starting mid year with some short term goals is better than having no goals at all for your small business.
If you did set some goals back in January, now is a great time to revisit those goals and see …read more

Springtime teases, and I am chomping at the bit to get out there and start planting. It’s a little too early though—even here in the South we could get another frost. So to bide my time I am turning my focus indoors and planting another type of garden.

Maybe I’m in a spring-fever-induced haze, but the more I think about it the more I think starting or maintaining a business is a bit like planning a garden. I’m planning both of mine right now, so I thought I’d share with you how the steps involved in planning a garden are helping …read more

Call me strange, but I love crossing items off my to-do lists. In fact, I’ve been a list person for as long as I can remember.
I suppose I might have picked this up from my mother, who has always carried one of those small notebooks in her purse wherever she goes. For jotting down lists, thoughts, and things she doesn’t want to forget. Later, my training as a newspaper reporter reinforced what I’d already observed my mother doing when I was growing up. As a reporter, I always carried a stash of pens and at least two notebooks in my …read more

Earlier this year, “The Secret” made the rounds. If you happened to be off planet and missed it, it’s a web movie and book that tout the law of attraction. I blogged about it here. It’s tricky because although I don’t believe we create our own reality, at least not in the way the movie spells it out, I am convinced that my beliefs about myself and my world do have a real influence – or at least my perception about myself and my world does. Which brings us to goal setting.
Although the end of the year is a traditional …read more

The week of June 1st is an excellent time to review your writing business.
I start by looking over the Vision that I created for my business at the beginning of the year. Next, I review my goals.
I want to know if I’m on track, ahead, or behind. I also want to update both the Vision and the goals because in six months time things change. In my case, all my plans for WritingWithVision got upended because of the business development class I’ve been taking from Mark Silver over at HeartofBusiness.com.
When I first put up that site I had …read more